Practicing Orthodontics: How's it workin' for ya?

Part II -- Those Five People You Hang With

Dr Chris Baker, at the Abu Dhabi International Airport. 

"You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with." -- Jim Rohn

Seriously?     You must be thinking,

“Seriously?    How can I be an average of the five people I spend the most time with?”

Yes, seriously.  To the extent, even, that if you saw their financials, yours would be in the same neighborhood.  To the extent even, that if your friends are fretters, so are you.  And if your friends are fumers, about other folks, politics and life, so are you.

​This "five person rule" affects everyone, whether they practice orthodontics or work at anything else.

You see, we are all a part of the quantum soup of energy, slow, fast, or in-between.  If we are surrounded by slow, negative, fretting, fuming, confused energy, it doesn’t just rub off - it overtakes us.  It is impossible to rise above that energy.  The calibration level of the folks around you not only affects you, but becomes you.  Or maybe it is better to say, you become it.

If the people to whom you are closest say they’re going to “think about it,” chances are good you will “think about it,” also.  No action.  If one of your close friends says he/she is going to start walking or running every day, jump on that!  Or, you suggest the same.  If no one follows - or wants to do it with you - maybe you need a new friend.

Years ago, when Claude and I had  gotten serious  in our relationship, Claude’s oldest son Trey then was in the throes of the autism spectrum.  After a wonderful week away together with the children on a sparsely inhabited island off the Florida coast, we arrived back in Kentucky, all tired yet wonderfully refreshed.  However, during that week,  Trey had discovered that I was a fairly organized, strict purveyor of schedules, food, activities and so forth, actually excellent for autistic-traited folks, yet not to his great liking. He looked at his Dad and commented, “Dad, I think you need a new friend.”

(The happy outcome is that I am now Trey’s mother, following his adoption, his autism is greatly left behind, and he is crazy about me.)

If your friends aren’t growing, becoming, working on real legacies, you probably need new friends.

Seriously, how can you stop worrying, wondering, and doubting when those around you are worrying, wondering and doubting?  How can you laugh at the confusion when those around you are not laughing at all?  How can you grow when folks around you are stagnant.  It’s been said you’re either growing or you’re dying.

The things you think about, focus on, and people you surround yourself with, ultimately shape who you become.

So, if your friends are on the Slight Edge - looking for tiny actions and decisions to make their life better, so are you. If your friends live by CANI (Constant and Never-ending Improvement), so do you.

It’s a deeply humbling reality to realize not only are your friends a reflection of you, and vice versa, but think about it - your practice is a reflection of you.

Let’s look at that again.  Your practice - not just the orthodontics, the dentistry, not just the staff, not just the level of patient satisfaction, but also the effectiveness of the business, the financials, the building, the office, the treatment bay - it’s all a reflection of you.  That is a huge and deeply humbling reality for all of us!!

Get your friends - get new friends if you need to - and get to work ON YOU.

Next in Part 3 of How’s It Workin’ For Ya? -  Why Not Let It Be You?