This week I want to talk about something that will help us be more effective in our roles within and beyond our practice. In some way we all strive towards self-improvement every day. But it can be a struggle. It takes continuous discipline and focus.
It’s certainly not easy but it is definitely, doable. Here are a few little tricks to help us along our way.
Elite athlete, Dental coach, and past practice owner Dr. Jeffrey Tho brings his unique insights on how he has succeeded in literally every challenge he had taken on.
Dr Tho’s insights deliver seven easy ways to facilitate that feeling of outdoing yourself on a personal and business level.
1. Invest in training
Investing in training is one of the best ways to help you succeed as an individual. To succeed in training, make learning your goal. Goals are an excellent way to encourage behaviors in other people and in ourselves.
The training process may be tedious, you will be doing a lot of things over and over, but it is this consistency that will lift your skills and make you a better performer.
‘When you’re doing training, you need to make sure that you’re not just learning it as a theory, you need to know how you’re going to implement it in your business, or your sport, and on that crucial match day.’
Dr. Tho insists on what he calls perfect practice. ‘The way that we train has to be the way that we will perform, and it has to be as realistic as possible.’
2. Focus on the next step
Once you are trained, or training hard, then what’s next? You must know your next step.
Identify and focus on the next step. Implement what you’ve learned in the ‘classroom.’ Come up with a strategy to help you move forward. Your ultimate goal shouldn’t be winning. No! Focus on the actual process first, because you’re not yet at the winning point.
The little steps you make along the way are what will lead you to the winning point. Dr. Tho explains that ‘Focusing on the process, is like the steps that are going to lead you to your end goal.’
Without focus on what comes next you may miss those smaller steps along the journey where you can do a personal best and outshinine yourself at a personal and practice level. Small wins along the way can be significant to maintaining discipline, motivation and focus. Don’t discount the power of these!
3. Practice the art of visualization
Visualization is all about imagining yourself reaching your ideal result. Visualize yourself quitting things that are not part of your vision and building in to your routines the actions that matter to your goal.
Take the time out of your routines to sit quietly and think about your win. What does it look like and when does it happen?. Get a clear vision of what it will feel like for you. This will spark your motivation to work towards succeeding in whatever you do.
The act of visualization will help you gain confidence, ignite creativity, overcome your fears and increase your focus. Dr. Jeffrey Tho explains that ‘Visualisation is huge, and it can help you prepare as well. If you’re nervous about something, the more you visualize it, the more familiar you are with it, the better you’re going to be prepared, and you’ll be sure to execute it a lot better.’
4. Become an effective planner
Planning is an efficient way to help you attain the maximum results. Plan your time, it shall help you strike a balance between all activities you need to do and focus energy where it is needed most.
The best way to plan your time is by having a purpose and a goal. Effective planning will help you optimize your time.
“When it comes to balancing all the things you need to do, you have to have a definitely clear priority about what’s important at that time and devote 100% to that task in that moment, because you can’t do anything else, other than worry about other things.”
5. Be decisive
Decisive individuals make decisions and move these decisions forward by taking action.
Those who succeed in life will often report being able to make decisions fairly quickly and then back their own decisions by investing focus and energy behind them to get results.
If you struggle with decision making then you should try to make decisions based on the your beliefs and your priorities. Once a decision is made, out a focus on it.
Dr. Tho explains that focusing on the decision you make helps it work.
It comes down to that old saying…. You just have to back yourself!
6. Overcome your fears
Of course we all know that no human being is born with fear in them?
Fear is an emotion that undermines your ability to take action. It puts the brakes on. It can hold you back from attaining your goals.
But how exactly do you overcome your fears?
You can start by visualizing yourself as a fearless person. Do not deny that you have a problem resulted by fear. Face the problem head on.
Picture yourself performing in confidence in the area you want to pursue. Visualise yourself blitzing that fear.
You know, feel the fear and do it anyway!
Dr. Jeffrey Tho suggests having a personal trigger to help you overcome fear. This trigger will get you thinking positive thoughts when fear appears and help you step into what you need to do.
This may involve bringing up a picture of a favourite place that gives you instant mental strength. It may be a beach scene or a mental picture of you doing something you love or achieving a goal.
Bringing this front of mind when you feel fear lurking within will help push the fear out and help you refocus on what you need to do.
7. Have a support system
Create a network of support from the people around you. Choose people in your line of work or study. This helps you have individuals you can look up to in your time of need. They present you with a different perspective on how to handle things and even influence your decision making process.
The support they give you helps you feel less anxious which in turn helps you to overcome your fears. They can help spike your motivation as you all are going through the same experiences.
Don’t miss this week’s podcast with Dr. Jeffrey Tho. He also explains the importance of developing a social support system by sharing his personal experiences at the Australian Institute of Sport. His insights are invaluable! He reminds us that “We all have that unexpected reserve of strength inside that emerges when life puts us to a test”.
P.S. Whenever you’re ready …. here are 4 ways I can help you grow your dental practice:
1. Grab a free chapter from my book “Retention – How to Plug the #1 Profit Leak in Your Dental Practice”
The book is the definitive guide to patient retention and how to use internal marketing to grow your practice – Click Here
2. Join the Savvy Dentist community and connect with dentists who are scaling their practice too
It’s our Facebook group where clever dentists learn to become commercially smart so that they have more patients, more profit and less stress. – Click Here
3. Attend a Practice Max Intensive live event
Our 2 day immersive events provide access to the latest entrepreneurial thinking and actionable strategies to drive your practice forward. You’ll leave with a game plan to take your results to the next level. If you’d like to join us, just send me a message with the word “Event and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here
4. Work with me and my team privately
If you’d like to work directly with me and my team to take your profit from 6 figures to 7 figures …. just send me a message with the word “Private”… tell me a little about your practice and what you would like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here
