- Published on
“The past does not equal the future - unless you live there.” ~ T. Robbins
Why on earth do we choose to allow the insurance companies to come between us and our patients? (Because of fear.)
Why does it feel as if you are just “another run-of-the-mill” dentist? And what is that anyway? It’s a feeling stemming from fear, from the desire to be worthy, and not realizing you ARE.
It is all too easy to let our thinking be limited by what we think we are, by what we think we see, and mistake our simply ordinary-seeming lives for ordinary.
But - you are a precious, unique individual, here in this earth, with an extraordinary mission.
OMGoodness, your life is actually quite extraordinary!
Life’s ebb and flow of day-to-day routines hold the key to happiness. (It’s truly not what the storybooks - or the movies - or the media - tell you. That wished-for sudden pile of cash, a new relationship, a dream vacation, surely seem as if they hold happiness.) Yet, it’s finding enjoyment in the family meals, the soccer games, the day in the office loving people, exercising, discussions, your morning coffee, even the traffic, that make life good. (Traffic? I know, that seems crazy!)
"For most of life, nothing wonderful happens. If you don't enjoy getting up and working and finishing your work and sitting down to a meal with family or friends, then the chances are you're not going to be very happy. If someone bases his/her happiness on major events like a great job, huge amounts of money, a flawlessly happy marriage or a trip to Paris, that person isn't going to be happy much of the time. If, on the other hand, happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap, then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness." ~ Andy Rooney
These are truly the extraordinary gifts of your life. Enjoy it all now. Those, and your actions toward your dreams are where happiness lies.
Remember, you are looking into the reality of who you REALLY ARE. You, an image of the Creator. Who, as creator, can innovate, and as innovator, you lead, and as a leader, you can love. Grab this moment.
So, what to do?
Take your awareness and understanding of the love YOU need (everyone does!) and your awareness and understanding of your extraordinary gifts - each person’s are somewhat different - and start now. Create your life anew.
New life.
Why on earth do we choose to allow the insurance companies to come between us and our patients? (Because of fear.)
Why does it feel as if you are just “another run-of-the-mill” dentist? And what is that anyway? It’s a feeling stemming from fear, from the desire to be worthy, and not realizing you ARE.
It is all too easy to let our thinking be limited by what we think we are, by what we think we see, and mistake our simply ordinary-seeming lives for ordinary.
But - you are a precious, unique individual, here in this earth, with an extraordinary mission.
OMGoodness, your life is actually quite extraordinary!
Life’s ebb and flow of day-to-day routines hold the key to happiness. (It’s truly not what the storybooks - or the movies - or the media - tell you. That wished-for sudden pile of cash, a new relationship, a dream vacation, surely seem as if they hold happiness.) Yet, it’s finding enjoyment in the family meals, the soccer games, the day in the office loving people, exercising, discussions, your morning coffee, even the traffic, that make life good. (Traffic? I know, that seems crazy!)
"For most of life, nothing wonderful happens. If you don't enjoy getting up and working and finishing your work and sitting down to a meal with family or friends, then the chances are you're not going to be very happy. If someone bases his/her happiness on major events like a great job, huge amounts of money, a flawlessly happy marriage or a trip to Paris, that person isn't going to be happy much of the time. If, on the other hand, happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap, then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness." ~ Andy Rooney
These are truly the extraordinary gifts of your life. Enjoy it all now. Those, and your actions toward your dreams are where happiness lies.
Remember, you are looking into the reality of who you REALLY ARE. You, an image of the Creator. Who, as creator, can innovate, and as innovator, you lead, and as a leader, you can love. Grab this moment.
So, what to do?
Take your awareness and understanding of the love YOU need (everyone does!) and your awareness and understanding of your extraordinary gifts - each person’s are somewhat different - and start now. Create your life anew.
New life.
- Published on
ELEMENTS™ Seminars remind us that orthodontics -- and dentistry in general -- is all about love. Your success as a dentist relies on your abilities to put love into action in your practice, made effective with certain systems. Dr Chris talks about this and more, with our upcoming ELEMENTS Seminars, beginning July 13, 2018.
- Published on
Pain: a distressing feeling caused by intense or damaging stimuli.
What stimuli, you ask?
Perhaps these:
* Trying to Survive
* Being in the crosshairs of
- the insurance companies -Insurance has become overwhelming to impossible
- Medicaid administration and paperwork
- other dentists and other specialists
- dental suppliers and costs of supplies
- patients, some of whom are happy and some who are not
- costs in the practice, including taxes
* Competition
* Leading the team is challenging - frustrating - confusing
* Patients don’t seem to believe I care and want and do the best for them.
* Being out of energy
* Working too many hours a day, a week, a month
* Trying to keep up
* Anxiety
* Exhaustion
* Trying to find a balance between personal and professional life
* Fear
* Sleep difficulties
Even making more money doesn’t deal with the pain.
Your clinical and technical skills get better and better. Still distressed.
Have you ever felt that you might have chosen the wrong profession? Have you beat yourself up because you can’t fix it all?
Have you even felt like you were in a nightmare? Stressed? Nervous? Looked at others who don’t seem to be experiencing what you are? Blamed yourself for the difficulties? For not being good enough?
What keeps you stressed?
It isn’t supposed to be this way.
It’s time to transform your life.
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”
How do you start doing it differently? What do you change?
Short answer: Your beliefs. Your deepest beliefs.
For Heaven’s sake, how do you change your beliefs?
Understand how your thinking locks you into doing the same thing over and over.
In some circuses, baby elephants are trained with a strong rope around their ankle, linked to a strong pole. When they try to walk away, they are stopped by the rope. All their pushing and pulling doesn’t work. They stop resisting and stay put.
Eventually, when the rope is put around their leg, it doesn’t have to be attached to anything. You can see elephants in the circus with a chain or rope around their ankle, not attached to anything, and they are now convinced the rope/chain holds them. They are very powerful. But they do not know it.
Our beliefs enslave us, hold us back, keep us where we are, doing the same things over and over - that is INSANITY.
"The possession of anything begins in the mind." ~ Bruce Lee
Both the negative beliefs and the new positive ones began and begin in the mind.
It’s hard? Sure! Life begins OUTSIDE your comfort zone.
Think differently. Reboot and replace those negative beliefs.
You are Valuable. Precious. Capable. Worthy.
Yes, your mind, your beliefs hold the power to take you to joy, or to sabotage your life.
Start there!
What stimuli, you ask?
Perhaps these:
* Trying to Survive
* Being in the crosshairs of
- the insurance companies -Insurance has become overwhelming to impossible
- Medicaid administration and paperwork
- other dentists and other specialists
- dental suppliers and costs of supplies
- patients, some of whom are happy and some who are not
- costs in the practice, including taxes
* Competition
* Leading the team is challenging - frustrating - confusing
* Patients don’t seem to believe I care and want and do the best for them.
* Being out of energy
* Working too many hours a day, a week, a month
* Trying to keep up
* Anxiety
* Exhaustion
* Trying to find a balance between personal and professional life
* Fear
* Sleep difficulties
Even making more money doesn’t deal with the pain.
Your clinical and technical skills get better and better. Still distressed.
Have you ever felt that you might have chosen the wrong profession? Have you beat yourself up because you can’t fix it all?
Have you even felt like you were in a nightmare? Stressed? Nervous? Looked at others who don’t seem to be experiencing what you are? Blamed yourself for the difficulties? For not being good enough?
What keeps you stressed?
It isn’t supposed to be this way.
It’s time to transform your life.
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”
How do you start doing it differently? What do you change?
Short answer: Your beliefs. Your deepest beliefs.
For Heaven’s sake, how do you change your beliefs?
Understand how your thinking locks you into doing the same thing over and over.
In some circuses, baby elephants are trained with a strong rope around their ankle, linked to a strong pole. When they try to walk away, they are stopped by the rope. All their pushing and pulling doesn’t work. They stop resisting and stay put.
Eventually, when the rope is put around their leg, it doesn’t have to be attached to anything. You can see elephants in the circus with a chain or rope around their ankle, not attached to anything, and they are now convinced the rope/chain holds them. They are very powerful. But they do not know it.
Our beliefs enslave us, hold us back, keep us where we are, doing the same things over and over - that is INSANITY.
- Thus, believe in the power of your beliefs - negative AND positive.
- What are you telling yourself that isn’t true? How do you feel helpless, stuck? Change it! You are powerful. You went to dental school! You began practice! You are powerful and capable!
"The possession of anything begins in the mind." ~ Bruce Lee
Both the negative beliefs and the new positive ones began and begin in the mind.
It’s hard? Sure! Life begins OUTSIDE your comfort zone.
Think differently. Reboot and replace those negative beliefs.
You are Valuable. Precious. Capable. Worthy.
Yes, your mind, your beliefs hold the power to take you to joy, or to sabotage your life.
Start there!
- Published on
It’s so easy as a dentist today, to feel as if you are nobody.
The insurance companies, including government’s Medicaid and Medicare companies, are good at teaching people that they CARE about the people who pay them premiums. And that if the care you recommend isn’t covered, it isn’t medically needed, or it isn’t appropriate, or, it’s too expensive if it’s above those carefully crafted words, “usual and customary.”
Whatever is “usual and customary” anyway? (A: Whatever the insurance company numbers are that it is willing to pay.)
Some years ago, I remember hearing a lecture from some Medicaid representatives at a pediatric meeting, who explained they knew the lower fees were different from our other fees, but if we dentists just “change the delivery system, and change our thinking a little bit,” we could help these poor patients in need.
Change the delivery system? Like double-booking to cover for all the failed appointments? Like doing more restorative in one appointment because they may not come back? Even, was it implied, to do a lesser-quality of work?
Change our thinking a bit? Like we orthodontists, pediatric dentists and general dentists are somehow responsible for the missionary work of treating Medicaid patients because they are “poor” and “needy” and so on.
You want to “help people.” Of course. But for lower and lower fees, and more and more time spent in practice, away from family and from the rest of your life?
You can spend hours on the line with “representatives” overseas, who speak poor English as you try to work out the reasons for claim rejection. Or you can pay staff members to do that for hours. Hours. And still, you may not be paid for the care you provided. Not be paid.
Recent news of one industry giant, Aetna, has the internet busy over an executive’s admission that he never actually looked at a single claim before it was rejected.
So, you feel the disparagement of the insurance companies’ treating you poorly, the feeling of not being seen as a professional, but rather as their lackey. Even being seen as someone whose ethics are in question. And the patients often mirror those attitudes. Advertising and media are powerful tools! These giant companies are flush with cash and spending it on what brings in more cash to their shareholders and Big Execs.
You feel that no matter how hard you try, the patients and insurance companies feel you are not trustworthy. Your treatment plan and care is seen as unnecessary and overpriced.
And the dental supply companies? Through salesmen’s pasted-on smiles, seeming like the proverbial “used-car salesmen, they are happy to sell you supplies at outrageous prices, to gain their selling ‘incentives” - cruises and bonuses.
This, all while giant companies buy up small mom-and-pop companies, thus squashing competition, and raise the cost of your supplies and equipment - big-time. (Read more about the lawsuit claiming years of price-fixing. )
You can also read about the FTC’s charging major dental suppliers with conspiracy and anti-trust violations.
And, because of who you are, you’re just working away, doing your best to take care of patients, care for them, and make a dwindling living.
You. Don’t. Feel. Good. About. It.
Or. About. You.
This seems to be directly opposite of what the dental schools tell you as you work really hard to get great grades, pay exhorbitant tuition and fees, and ultimately for many, repay exhorbitant student loans.
YET…
You have reached a fantastic moment. You have come face to face with who you REALLY ARE.
What you are is an image of the Creator. You have the ability to create. As a creator you have the ability to innovate. As an innovator, you have the ability to lead. As a leader, you have the ability to love.
Think about how we are set up to understand how to build a great life:
If you are to find your way, you must first experience being lost.
To fall in love, you must first feel desire for love.
To become capable, you start with no capability.
To want to give, you must know need.
Do you see it? Do you see what you must create - and innovate…?
You’ve been given a life, opportunities, education that prepare you for special things.
You create your life. Good start going to dental school! Good start noticing you have been lost. Good start, wanting love and to love. Good start, feeling your desires.
This is your fantastic moment.
Now - you can begin anew - with awareness and understanding of being lost, needing love, pursuing an amazing education, having been given opportunities.
As the great educator, Dr. Louis Smith said, “Your life is about being and becoming.”
Don’t stop at just being. Realize that life is about becoming - that’s where creating and innovation come in.
“As a dentist, you really are somebody special.”
Again: You. Really. Are. Somebody. Special.
It’s so easy as a dentist today, to feel as if you are nobody.
The insurance companies, including government’s Medicaid and Medicare companies, are good at teaching people that they CARE about the people who pay them premiums. And that if the care you recommend isn’t covered, it isn’t medically needed, or it isn’t appropriate, or, it’s too expensive if it’s above those carefully crafted words, “usual and customary.”
Whatever is “usual and customary” anyway? (A: Whatever the insurance company numbers are that it is willing to pay.)
Some years ago, I remember hearing a lecture from some Medicaid representatives at a pediatric meeting, who explained they knew the lower fees were different from our other fees, but if we dentists just “change the delivery system, and change our thinking a little bit,” we could help these poor patients in need.
Change the delivery system? Like double-booking to cover for all the failed appointments? Like doing more restorative in one appointment because they may not come back? Even, was it implied, to do a lesser-quality of work?
Change our thinking a bit? Like we orthodontists, pediatric dentists and general dentists are somehow responsible for the missionary work of treating Medicaid patients because they are “poor” and “needy” and so on.
You want to “help people.” Of course. But for lower and lower fees, and more and more time spent in practice, away from family and from the rest of your life?
You can spend hours on the line with “representatives” overseas, who speak poor English as you try to work out the reasons for claim rejection. Or you can pay staff members to do that for hours. Hours. And still, you may not be paid for the care you provided. Not be paid.
Recent news of one industry giant, Aetna, has the internet busy over an executive’s admission that he never actually looked at a single claim before it was rejected.
So, you feel the disparagement of the insurance companies’ treating you poorly, the feeling of not being seen as a professional, but rather as their lackey. Even being seen as someone whose ethics are in question. And the patients often mirror those attitudes. Advertising and media are powerful tools! These giant companies are flush with cash and spending it on what brings in more cash to their shareholders and Big Execs.
You feel that no matter how hard you try, the patients and insurance companies feel you are not trustworthy. Your treatment plan and care is seen as unnecessary and overpriced.
And the dental supply companies? Through salesmen’s pasted-on smiles, seeming like the proverbial “used-car salesmen, they are happy to sell you supplies at outrageous prices, to gain their selling ‘incentives” - cruises and bonuses.
This, all while giant companies buy up small mom-and-pop companies, thus squashing competition, and raise the cost of your supplies and equipment - big-time. (Read more about the lawsuit claiming years of price-fixing. )
You can also read about the FTC’s charging major dental suppliers with conspiracy and anti-trust violations.
And, because of who you are, you’re just working away, doing your best to take care of patients, care for them, and make a dwindling living.
You. Don’t. Feel. Good. About. It.
Or. About. You.
This seems to be directly opposite of what the dental schools tell you as you work really hard to get great grades, pay exhorbitant tuition and fees, and ultimately for many, repay exhorbitant student loans.
YET…
You have reached a fantastic moment. You have come face to face with who you REALLY ARE.
What you are is an image of the Creator. You have the ability to create. As a creator you have the ability to innovate. As an innovator, you have the ability to lead. As a leader, you have the ability to love.
Think about how we are set up to understand how to build a great life:
If you are to find your way, you must first experience being lost.
To fall in love, you must first feel desire for love.
To become capable, you start with no capability.
To want to give, you must know need.
Do you see it? Do you see what you must create - and innovate…?
You’ve been given a life, opportunities, education that prepare you for special things.
You create your life. Good start going to dental school! Good start noticing you have been lost. Good start, wanting love and to love. Good start, feeling your desires.
This is your fantastic moment.
Now - you can begin anew - with awareness and understanding of being lost, needing love, pursuing an amazing education, having been given opportunities.
As the great educator, Dr. Louis Smith said, “Your life is about being and becoming.”
Don’t stop at just being. Realize that life is about becoming - that’s where creating and innovation come in.
“As a dentist, you really are somebody special.”
Again: You. Really. Are. Somebody. Special.
- Published on
Recorded near Dr Chris Baker's Abu Dhabi clinic, in the United Arab Emirates.
- Published on
Boy! Dental school didn’t give me any direction on being responsible for employees, staffing, HR, hiring and firing! How about you?
Maybe dental school taught you how to work with a chair-side dental assistant.
Maybe.
Maybe dental school gave you some direction on training a chair-side assistant.
Maybe.
Then there is the part about staffing - the search, the interviewing, the choosing, the hiring... Any direction on that in dental school? Not in mine.
And the part about staff coming to you with their beefs, their worries. Didn’t learn about that in dental school.
You, likely, as most of us dentists, are approval addicted. You want everyone to like you - patients, staff, community… You learn at meetings that you can take your staff out for “bonding” and fun, take them to dental meetings and CE.
Of course you find some nice people to work with you. Because dentists are usually very nice to everyone (but not as nice to themselves), the staff actually like you.
You might wonder sometimes if your team members like each other, but as long as you keep being nice to them, making them happy - hopefully they’ll take care of things for you.
Step back for a moment and think about all of this. Does it sound a bit like being a parent? Your children have their moments with each other too. They bicker, make up, fuss, and come to you too. Can you just hear the, “Mommy/Daddy, she’s ‘looking’ at me.” It starts in toddlerhood. How about,, “Can I get that? Can I have one?” Or, “Can I go to the mall / movie / out to eat…?”
I am not my staff’s parent.
I can give them love through the opportunity to carry out the vision of the practice, of loving each other, patients, parents, and all.
The answers lie in systems. Your job as the business owner is to develop and utilize systems which every single employee utilizes as well. In systems, each position is clear. All responsibilities and expectations are clear. They can be followed.
You have the responsibility to be the keeper of the flame - the vision of your business. Your job is to define that vision in systems. Your job is to hire and keep only staff who share the vision, because it fits their vision for themselves, and they work toward your practice’s vision. That vision, based in love for each and every person is indeed a flame, burning bright.
As you and your team carry out the systems, your mission is successful, your business grows, to love and care more, and for more, and you can enjoy the patients, the staff, the days.
I am not my staff’s friend.
I am their mentor, their light, their guide.
I am to love them through our shared vision.
I am responsible for guiding and growing the vision, which brings love to them and everyone who is part of the practice.
It’s all about loving. But not about doing everything to be loved.
Keep your eye on the vision, on the systems, on your purpose. Your courage in that will bring love to all.
I am not my staff’s friend, nor am I their parent.
I create the system; they carry out the system.
They contribute greatly to the improvement of the system.
We share love together.
The point where you show love to your staff is where you enable them to do a great job through carrying out the systems that fulfill the vision of love in your practice, not “giving” them stuff, attention, experiences, etc. to try to make them happy. (Like everything in life, we always want to be given more and more, and there is no end, no satiation for very long.)
Here’s your answer: It’s the old Chinese saying, “If you want a man to eat for a day, give him a fish. If you want him to eat for a lifetime, teach him how how to fish.”
Give your staff priceless lifetime skills. This is love.
Give yourself a great life too.
Maybe dental school taught you how to work with a chair-side dental assistant.
Maybe.
Maybe dental school gave you some direction on training a chair-side assistant.
Maybe.
Then there is the part about staffing - the search, the interviewing, the choosing, the hiring... Any direction on that in dental school? Not in mine.
And the part about staff coming to you with their beefs, their worries. Didn’t learn about that in dental school.
You, likely, as most of us dentists, are approval addicted. You want everyone to like you - patients, staff, community… You learn at meetings that you can take your staff out for “bonding” and fun, take them to dental meetings and CE.
Of course you find some nice people to work with you. Because dentists are usually very nice to everyone (but not as nice to themselves), the staff actually like you.
You might wonder sometimes if your team members like each other, but as long as you keep being nice to them, making them happy - hopefully they’ll take care of things for you.
Step back for a moment and think about all of this. Does it sound a bit like being a parent? Your children have their moments with each other too. They bicker, make up, fuss, and come to you too. Can you just hear the, “Mommy/Daddy, she’s ‘looking’ at me.” It starts in toddlerhood. How about,, “Can I get that? Can I have one?” Or, “Can I go to the mall / movie / out to eat…?”
I am not my staff’s parent.
I can give them love through the opportunity to carry out the vision of the practice, of loving each other, patients, parents, and all.
The answers lie in systems. Your job as the business owner is to develop and utilize systems which every single employee utilizes as well. In systems, each position is clear. All responsibilities and expectations are clear. They can be followed.
You have the responsibility to be the keeper of the flame - the vision of your business. Your job is to define that vision in systems. Your job is to hire and keep only staff who share the vision, because it fits their vision for themselves, and they work toward your practice’s vision. That vision, based in love for each and every person is indeed a flame, burning bright.
As you and your team carry out the systems, your mission is successful, your business grows, to love and care more, and for more, and you can enjoy the patients, the staff, the days.
I am not my staff’s friend.
I am their mentor, their light, their guide.
I am to love them through our shared vision.
I am responsible for guiding and growing the vision, which brings love to them and everyone who is part of the practice.
It’s all about loving. But not about doing everything to be loved.
Keep your eye on the vision, on the systems, on your purpose. Your courage in that will bring love to all.
I am not my staff’s friend, nor am I their parent.
I create the system; they carry out the system.
They contribute greatly to the improvement of the system.
We share love together.
The point where you show love to your staff is where you enable them to do a great job through carrying out the systems that fulfill the vision of love in your practice, not “giving” them stuff, attention, experiences, etc. to try to make them happy. (Like everything in life, we always want to be given more and more, and there is no end, no satiation for very long.)
Here’s your answer: It’s the old Chinese saying, “If you want a man to eat for a day, give him a fish. If you want him to eat for a lifetime, teach him how how to fish.”
Give your staff priceless lifetime skills. This is love.
Give yourself a great life too.
- Published on
In the day to day push, pull,, challenges, service to many people, it’s easy to feel an overwhelming feeling of “just trying to survive.”
The day to day routines, the business drag, the difficult patient, unhappy staff members, worries over money - all are tough to survive.
What if your practice went from survival mode to WOW?
WOW! that patients come in and go out raving about being in your practice. WOW that you have new patients referred by happy patients. WOW that you and the team are having great fun in serving wonderful people. WOW. Just WOW.
How in the world do you get there??
A few steps to help:
First off, evaluate what you are trying to survive. In dental practice it is often stressful practice days, worries about money, staff issues.
Once you identify the difficulties, understand a mindset of peace and acceptance will help you get past and get to WOW! Honestly, you may be battling yourself. Worries are your own battle. Your disappointments are another battle. All the negative thoughts keep swirling around in your head, and multiply your worry thoughts. It gets harder, not better.
“Life is too short to spend at war with yourself. The biggest disappointments in our lives are often the result of misplaced expectations. Letting go of needless expectations is your first step to happiness. Come from a mindset of peace and acceptance, and you can deal with almost anything and grow beyond it." ~ marc and angel
What works for you? Meditation? Walking in the woods? Anything that brings you peace is good. There is a new product which changes your neural activity. It's called Touchpoints. Go to thetouchpointsolution.com.
Touchpoints are tremendously helpful to a lot of people. Touchpoints are used for autistic people, and it was discovered that they relieve stress by over 70% in people (both autistic and non-autistic) in as few as 30 seconds. The neuroscience department at Harvard has looked at how they create and change your neural pathways to, neutral to positive. How about that when you are feeling stressed out and negative??!!
Feel free to email me for more information - I am not affiliated in any way with the company; Claude and I just find them amazing - for stress, for sleep, for calm. You’ve got to try various settings to get the one that works best for you. Worth it!!
Secondly, understand that life IS difficulties and problems. They are part of this thing we call life, which is a school for our spirits to learn and grow.
Those who recognize problems as a human condition and don't measure happiness by an absence of problems are the most intelligent kind of humans we know; also, the most rare. ~ Dr. Wayne Dyer
Now, you smart you, you can start reminding yourself how smart you really, are. Happiness, as Walt Whitman said, “not in another place but this place ...not for another hour, but this hour.” This can be your purview.
I once heard someone say, when we think we are having no challenges at all, we might want to ask, “God, don’t you trust me? I love this life. Keep it coming!”
That’s life, as Frank Sinatra sang. And it’s a good ‘un!
Oh yes, we’re going for WOW. OK how about,
Thirdly,
Focus on gratitude.
Think about your patients who love you - and there are those - YOU KNOW IT!.
Grateful that you and the team can have fun and find joy in serving wonderful people.
Grateful that you have a team.
One person can wow, but to wow continuously and consistently - get the entire team onboard.
We take turns in the morning saying the word of the day. Each team member gets a turn. It’s usually a saying, or a word.
Some days since we’ve been working on WOW, the word has been - WOW!
1,2,3: Know what the stresses are - and change the thoughts to what the joy is!
Two, accept the crazy reality that life is challenge, will always be and is supposed to be. See it as opportunity, fun, sure, challenge, but there’s good. Find it. Find the peace in your life.
And three, remember to find what you are grateful for. Thank you for all that I HAVE had, all that i NOW have, and all that I SHALL have. Thank you thank you.
WOW. Just WOW.
The day to day routines, the business drag, the difficult patient, unhappy staff members, worries over money - all are tough to survive.
What if your practice went from survival mode to WOW?
WOW! that patients come in and go out raving about being in your practice. WOW that you have new patients referred by happy patients. WOW that you and the team are having great fun in serving wonderful people. WOW. Just WOW.
How in the world do you get there??
A few steps to help:
First off, evaluate what you are trying to survive. In dental practice it is often stressful practice days, worries about money, staff issues.
Once you identify the difficulties, understand a mindset of peace and acceptance will help you get past and get to WOW! Honestly, you may be battling yourself. Worries are your own battle. Your disappointments are another battle. All the negative thoughts keep swirling around in your head, and multiply your worry thoughts. It gets harder, not better.
“Life is too short to spend at war with yourself. The biggest disappointments in our lives are often the result of misplaced expectations. Letting go of needless expectations is your first step to happiness. Come from a mindset of peace and acceptance, and you can deal with almost anything and grow beyond it." ~ marc and angel
What works for you? Meditation? Walking in the woods? Anything that brings you peace is good. There is a new product which changes your neural activity. It's called Touchpoints. Go to thetouchpointsolution.com.
Touchpoints are tremendously helpful to a lot of people. Touchpoints are used for autistic people, and it was discovered that they relieve stress by over 70% in people (both autistic and non-autistic) in as few as 30 seconds. The neuroscience department at Harvard has looked at how they create and change your neural pathways to, neutral to positive. How about that when you are feeling stressed out and negative??!!
Feel free to email me for more information - I am not affiliated in any way with the company; Claude and I just find them amazing - for stress, for sleep, for calm. You’ve got to try various settings to get the one that works best for you. Worth it!!
Secondly, understand that life IS difficulties and problems. They are part of this thing we call life, which is a school for our spirits to learn and grow.
Those who recognize problems as a human condition and don't measure happiness by an absence of problems are the most intelligent kind of humans we know; also, the most rare. ~ Dr. Wayne Dyer
Now, you smart you, you can start reminding yourself how smart you really, are. Happiness, as Walt Whitman said, “not in another place but this place ...not for another hour, but this hour.” This can be your purview.
I once heard someone say, when we think we are having no challenges at all, we might want to ask, “God, don’t you trust me? I love this life. Keep it coming!”
That’s life, as Frank Sinatra sang. And it’s a good ‘un!
Oh yes, we’re going for WOW. OK how about,
Thirdly,
Focus on gratitude.
Think about your patients who love you - and there are those - YOU KNOW IT!.
Grateful that you and the team can have fun and find joy in serving wonderful people.
Grateful that you have a team.
One person can wow, but to wow continuously and consistently - get the entire team onboard.
We take turns in the morning saying the word of the day. Each team member gets a turn. It’s usually a saying, or a word.
Some days since we’ve been working on WOW, the word has been - WOW!
1,2,3: Know what the stresses are - and change the thoughts to what the joy is!
Two, accept the crazy reality that life is challenge, will always be and is supposed to be. See it as opportunity, fun, sure, challenge, but there’s good. Find it. Find the peace in your life.
And three, remember to find what you are grateful for. Thank you for all that I HAVE had, all that i NOW have, and all that I SHALL have. Thank you thank you.
WOW. Just WOW.
- Published on
Creating "Wow" can be a big reason for your dental practice's success. Here's a video of a talk I gave this week during a meeting with staff and doctors at the Advanced American Dental Clinic in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
- Published on
If you are a GP dentist or a Pediatric Dentist you take on the responsibility for your patients, of functioning as the “gate-keeper” or “dental home.”
You provide comprehensive and often extensive evaluations of your patients’ needs, and from there, along with the appropriate records, create a treatment plan addressing the various and varied needs of that patient. Those needs may cross into every area of dental care, and as well, cross into medical areas, where you request information and clearance from medical providers. And/or, you may refer TO medical providers, having found medical issues in your evaluation that should be addressed by a medical specialist.
In summary, you
A little side note - it is critical that you help the patient understand their findings and pathology, whether TMJD or decay. This is because if they do NOT understand it is their problem, it is all too easy for the patient to expect the dentist to "just fix it.”
There is NO “just fix it.”
There is only a team effort between medical provider AND patient where the provider evaluates, informs, guides, counsels, refers and treats the AREAS OF THAT PROVIDER’S EXPERTISE AND COMPETENCE; the PATIENT attends appointments, consents to evaluation, listens to the information, takes the time and energy and spends the money necessary to follow-up on referrals and treatments.
Do you see? It is not the provider who is responsible for ascertaining the completion of treatment in the face of all odds. (Read recent blog, “Way Too.”) It is not the provider who is responsible for providing the treatment if the patient is not compliant in attendance, following the guidance and instructions of the provider, including self-care, referral attendance, and so forth.
Which brings us to the fact that you as a generalist, gatekeeper, dental home, have the opportunity to study and learn any one or more of many topics, many dental specialty areas. Any and all treatment you provide in any area of dentistry, by law, must be at the level of what is expected of a specialist in that area. That goes for and includes, endodontics, surgery, prosthodontics, implants, orthodontics, periodontics, and pediatric dentistry.
And to have a full life, a resoundingly successful life and practice, and provide truly great care to your patients, you must choose and adapt to providing the areas of care in which you are interested, have fun, can be great, and continue learning and growing. In other words, keep growing and working in your areas of expertise. You will spend much less money on equipment, supplies, staff training, and learning curve time. If you instead, invest in equipment, staff training and learning curve time for you area of “specialization”, rather than all areas, it will cost you much less and you will be much more profitable.
Choose - Make it profitable. Your dental practice is your living. It is your source of income for you and your family.
Choose - Make it fun for you. Do what you enjoy the most, and consider delegating the rest. (Whether another doctor, or staff, you can delegate the rest.)
Choose - Find what you really love and get REALLY good at it. Your practice will be distinguished by the area in which you focus. What does your practice do that distinguishes you from the others?
Choose - and get FREE. An area of expertise and excellence in expertise gives you freedom. Get free of the stress of the parts you don’t like, free of spending the money on so many different courses, so many supplies, equipment, staff training, and learning curves where you aren’t making much or an money while you are learning. Free to discover a main mentor in your area of expertise-to-be. Free to become a mentor and possibly a teacher of your area of expertise. Free to enjoy life. Free to work ON your practice, and not just IN your practice.
Choose and change your life!
You provide comprehensive and often extensive evaluations of your patients’ needs, and from there, along with the appropriate records, create a treatment plan addressing the various and varied needs of that patient. Those needs may cross into every area of dental care, and as well, cross into medical areas, where you request information and clearance from medical providers. And/or, you may refer TO medical providers, having found medical issues in your evaluation that should be addressed by a medical specialist.
In summary, you
- identify findings of note
- inform the patient of your findings
- help the patient take ownership of these issues, problems, findings -
A little side note - it is critical that you help the patient understand their findings and pathology, whether TMJD or decay. This is because if they do NOT understand it is their problem, it is all too easy for the patient to expect the dentist to "just fix it.”
There is NO “just fix it.”
There is only a team effort between medical provider AND patient where the provider evaluates, informs, guides, counsels, refers and treats the AREAS OF THAT PROVIDER’S EXPERTISE AND COMPETENCE; the PATIENT attends appointments, consents to evaluation, listens to the information, takes the time and energy and spends the money necessary to follow-up on referrals and treatments.
Do you see? It is not the provider who is responsible for ascertaining the completion of treatment in the face of all odds. (Read recent blog, “Way Too.”) It is not the provider who is responsible for providing the treatment if the patient is not compliant in attendance, following the guidance and instructions of the provider, including self-care, referral attendance, and so forth.
- provide the appropriate referrals and information
- do NOT continue care if the patient does not follow up on referrals, compliance, payment, attendance of appointments.
- proceed with treatment IN THE AREAS of your expertise and comfort.
Which brings us to the fact that you as a generalist, gatekeeper, dental home, have the opportunity to study and learn any one or more of many topics, many dental specialty areas. Any and all treatment you provide in any area of dentistry, by law, must be at the level of what is expected of a specialist in that area. That goes for and includes, endodontics, surgery, prosthodontics, implants, orthodontics, periodontics, and pediatric dentistry.
And to have a full life, a resoundingly successful life and practice, and provide truly great care to your patients, you must choose and adapt to providing the areas of care in which you are interested, have fun, can be great, and continue learning and growing. In other words, keep growing and working in your areas of expertise. You will spend much less money on equipment, supplies, staff training, and learning curve time. If you instead, invest in equipment, staff training and learning curve time for you area of “specialization”, rather than all areas, it will cost you much less and you will be much more profitable.
Choose - Make it profitable. Your dental practice is your living. It is your source of income for you and your family.
Choose - Make it fun for you. Do what you enjoy the most, and consider delegating the rest. (Whether another doctor, or staff, you can delegate the rest.)
Choose - Find what you really love and get REALLY good at it. Your practice will be distinguished by the area in which you focus. What does your practice do that distinguishes you from the others?
Choose - and get FREE. An area of expertise and excellence in expertise gives you freedom. Get free of the stress of the parts you don’t like, free of spending the money on so many different courses, so many supplies, equipment, staff training, and learning curves where you aren’t making much or an money while you are learning. Free to discover a main mentor in your area of expertise-to-be. Free to become a mentor and possibly a teacher of your area of expertise. Free to enjoy life. Free to work ON your practice, and not just IN your practice.
Choose and change your life!
- Published on
Find the Joy in Your Everyday Practice Life : Part III
The Critical Elements
Critical element: Loving your patients and your patients’ parents
As your practice begins changing (because YOU are changing), you will find it easier and easier to love your patients. They will love you more. You will have created a love-fest.
And, by the way, you can learn to choose your patients. You will sense a patient who does not fit your GREAT practice, and help them with referral out. It’s amazing how easy it gets to say to a patient, “I do not believe I can meet your needs. I am not the right dentist for you.” And, less and less, do you need to say anything, because your patient population will begin to mirror and fit your joy, your great practice. It’s part of the magic of greatness and gratitude.
Your love and your great practice’s love will transform everything. You will be amazed how nice patients come “out of the woodwork.” They will flock to your practice because you and your staff are loving - kind, gracious, caring.
While you work on loving everyone, your practice is transforming before your eyes, and you need less (or no) marketing, practice management gurus, techniques, and formulas. You do need mutual support and love between yourself and your staff, patients, and yes, practice enhancers, those energetic, loving, caring people who help you and your staff in the transition, and beyond.
Critical element: Curiosity
It’s a new curiosity. Not the old gossipy-what’s-happening-around-town type of curiosity. This is a new curiosity about each person - staff, patient, visitor, and neighbor. This is a what-in-your-life-is-good sort of curiosity. It’s a magic curiosity.
All of a sudden you care. Why do you care about your assistant’s pregnancy? Because you love her and she is so happy. Your curiosity is more about how she is seeing this exciting change, and less about what are her symptoms, concerns, progress, and so on.
You care about a patient who shares with you that she is working to change her nutrition, and you care that that will reduce her oral illnesses as well.
You care about your neighbor dentist who wants to come talk and talk and talk, fussing about all his travails. You care and so you ask him, “What’s good in your day today?” And when, after his stunned silence, he answers, “Good patients coming today,” you respond, “Me too! Isn’t it wonderful?” And he grumps less and less.
You care. And somehow life turns in your favor. Not everything is perfect, but even the things that are not perfect, you see as opportunities to learn, to get strong. You know all is the way it is supposed to be. You feel it in your bones! It’s a new curiosity!
Critical element: Your "slight edge"
Author Jeff Olson named it “The Slight Edge”. It’s NOT a self-help gimmick or motivational tool. The Slight Edge is actually what you are doing every minute of every day. Your moment-to-moment actions are either the slight edge going to GREAT, or going to NOT-GREAT.
Your simple daily activities in your life are powerful. They may be powerful GREAT or powerful NOT-GREAT.
The ability to change the slight edge to positive and powerful, is already in you. If your actions are taking you down to NOT-GREAT, you can become aware of that and change your trajectory! As you realize how important it is to arrive for your day in gratitude, choose a healthy bite of food, hang out with people who support love and greatness, your beliefs and attitude will give you strength to make these positive powerful choices. Your tiny actions will build to GREAT results.
And this creates YOUR LIFE! which will never be the same again.
Read about Jeff Olson’s "Night of Despair" and "Day of Disgust" that brought him to realize he was on the slight edge going the wrong way, instead of toward a powerful, joyous life! It's in his book, "The Slight Edge."
The Critical Elements
Critical element: Loving your patients and your patients’ parents
As your practice begins changing (because YOU are changing), you will find it easier and easier to love your patients. They will love you more. You will have created a love-fest.
And, by the way, you can learn to choose your patients. You will sense a patient who does not fit your GREAT practice, and help them with referral out. It’s amazing how easy it gets to say to a patient, “I do not believe I can meet your needs. I am not the right dentist for you.” And, less and less, do you need to say anything, because your patient population will begin to mirror and fit your joy, your great practice. It’s part of the magic of greatness and gratitude.
Your love and your great practice’s love will transform everything. You will be amazed how nice patients come “out of the woodwork.” They will flock to your practice because you and your staff are loving - kind, gracious, caring.
While you work on loving everyone, your practice is transforming before your eyes, and you need less (or no) marketing, practice management gurus, techniques, and formulas. You do need mutual support and love between yourself and your staff, patients, and yes, practice enhancers, those energetic, loving, caring people who help you and your staff in the transition, and beyond.
Critical element: Curiosity
It’s a new curiosity. Not the old gossipy-what’s-happening-around-town type of curiosity. This is a new curiosity about each person - staff, patient, visitor, and neighbor. This is a what-in-your-life-is-good sort of curiosity. It’s a magic curiosity.
All of a sudden you care. Why do you care about your assistant’s pregnancy? Because you love her and she is so happy. Your curiosity is more about how she is seeing this exciting change, and less about what are her symptoms, concerns, progress, and so on.
You care about a patient who shares with you that she is working to change her nutrition, and you care that that will reduce her oral illnesses as well.
You care about your neighbor dentist who wants to come talk and talk and talk, fussing about all his travails. You care and so you ask him, “What’s good in your day today?” And when, after his stunned silence, he answers, “Good patients coming today,” you respond, “Me too! Isn’t it wonderful?” And he grumps less and less.
You care. And somehow life turns in your favor. Not everything is perfect, but even the things that are not perfect, you see as opportunities to learn, to get strong. You know all is the way it is supposed to be. You feel it in your bones! It’s a new curiosity!
Critical element: Your "slight edge"
Author Jeff Olson named it “The Slight Edge”. It’s NOT a self-help gimmick or motivational tool. The Slight Edge is actually what you are doing every minute of every day. Your moment-to-moment actions are either the slight edge going to GREAT, or going to NOT-GREAT.
Your simple daily activities in your life are powerful. They may be powerful GREAT or powerful NOT-GREAT.
The ability to change the slight edge to positive and powerful, is already in you. If your actions are taking you down to NOT-GREAT, you can become aware of that and change your trajectory! As you realize how important it is to arrive for your day in gratitude, choose a healthy bite of food, hang out with people who support love and greatness, your beliefs and attitude will give you strength to make these positive powerful choices. Your tiny actions will build to GREAT results.
And this creates YOUR LIFE! which will never be the same again.
Read about Jeff Olson’s "Night of Despair" and "Day of Disgust" that brought him to realize he was on the slight edge going the wrong way, instead of toward a powerful, joyous life! It's in his book, "The Slight Edge."
LEFT: Jeff Olson's excellent book, "The Slight Edge", gives excellent direction for life and business.
