3 Ways To Stay Motivated in 2021 - E25
I figure the new year is as good a time as any to discuss motivation. Think about new year's resolutions and you will see what a lack of motivation will get you. Speaking of resolutions, how many of you set a new year's resolution at the end of 2019 and maintained it through 2020? I am guessing less than 10% of resolutions are kept.
As a private practice owner you HAVE to be self motivated and make sure you are in that small percentage. The beauty (and possibly the curse in some instances) of being a practice owner is that you do not have a boss, professor, or anyone except yourself to tell you what you NEED to do. Urgency is self created and failure is about as scrutinized as all the failed new year's resolutions we just were discussing.
That being said, here are 3 ways to keep your motivation high throughout the year.
Set Goals
I know this seems easy and straightforward, but setting a goal is more than thinking you want to do something. You need to write down your goal and tell people about it. Until you do this, it is merely a dream. Make yourself accountable and by telling people (friends, colleagues, patients) about it, you will be surprised the doors that open up from this.
Once you have set the goal, make sure to set benchmarks. For example, you want to be seeing 3 glaucoma patients a week by July or have 10 people in your myopia management program by the end of the 1st quarter. I really do not care what or how, but be specific. Additionally, reward yourself or your team for meeting said goals. If we get 20 myopia management consultations by July the whole office is going out to dinner.
When you are specific, break it up with benchmarks and make it public, you will have the juice to see it through.
Spend Money (and time)
Next, once you have done the above, it is time to get some skin in the game and there is no bigger motivation factor than spending some money! This can be in the form of equipment (OCT, Optical Biometer, Topographer), accessories (Maui Jims, Macuhealth vitamins), or seminars/classes (in person labs at meetings, in office training, or online CE).
It really does not matter what it is, but I will tell you this, you start spending money on something, you will want a return on that investment! You never see many glaucoma suspects until you buy that OCT or preach the benefits of UV protection so passionately until after you buy those Maui Jims.
There is nothing wrong with this. To deny this increased motivation is to deny basic human behavior. We sell the things we believe in and we invest in these things.
Commit
Lastly, you have to commit. The easy part is above. Anybody can set a goal and invest in something new. The select 10% see it through and finish the race. The pattern I see is we are super excited and interested and things move forward at an exponential pace. Then it is time for rubber to meet the road and this new “goal” turns out to be hard! Imagine that. We may fail or get some pushback from patients or staff and we will be tempted to regress back to our mean, to cut bait and resume the status quo. I am telling you the good stuff, the glory comes after you cut your teeth, experience a little pain of growth, and push through.
Find a way to keep fighting the fight and stay motivated and hungry my friends.
