By Jay Geier
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Also by Jay Geier: The Big Five | DE Feature on the Geier's Scheduling Institute: SI Corporate Profile
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Human capital is every single person who works in your practice. Employees are most dentists' largest expense and require an enormous amount of your time and energy to manage them. But if managed effectively, employees can produce a huge return for you. This is why I call it human capital.
You are the most important part of your human capital. You are responsible for several critical roles -- the dentist, the visionary, the leader, and the financier -- and you set the example for everyone who works in your practice. So, I think it's important to start by talking about how you should be managing yourself.
If we anticipate there will be 90 turns of the calendar in our lifetime, shouldn't we learn to master our own selves better with each year? Of course! It starts with honest self-analysis, and continues with disciplined self-management.
So how would you start managing YOUR self? The single greatest lesson I ever learned was that each of us is in control of our own thinking. This is a great gift that must be protected. Yet, few people do this because the concept is rarely understood.
I personally commit roughly 10 days each year to nothing but my thinking. Now ask yourself, "How much time did I spend last year thinking about my thinking?" You should always be thinking in a new and improved way. The transition comes easy for some, but can be surprisingly challenging for others.
People who quit or stall midway on something they start to better themselves are not in control of their thinking; they give up control to "external forces." The most common example is people who worry a great deal about what everyone else thinks of them. They tend to be conformists, never wanting to make waves or stand out. As a result, they have little to no impact on anything or anyone.
On the other hand, successful people impact everyone around them, which is not always viewed as positive by everyone else. Ponder this: "If I become more successful, who will feel threatened?" Your office manager? Your spouse? A good friend? You need to do some soul-searching about that because in order to become truly successful, you have to free yourself from the shackles of other people's opinions about who you should be, even people close to you.
Now think about 2014, which is comprised of 12 months, each filled with amazing opportunities. Your January should have included the setting of goals, and the defining of clear expectations for your business, your family and relationships, your education and experiences, and your contributions to your community. I start each year by writing down my list of goals for the year, and then I prioritize and narrow the list to the top 10 to 15 I'm especially committed to achieving within the next 12 months. I do this religiously at the start of every single year.
You need to do the same thing. Make your list, prioritize the top 12 or so, and then focus your attention and thinking on only those activities and projects and people that will lead to you accomplishing your top goals. You will have a constant onslaught of daily distractions that will keep you from achieving your goals unless you control your thinking about what's important. It sounds simple, but the key to your success is staying focused on priorities.
It's alarmingly true that you get what you deserve. That's an indisputable fact that you simply must accept. At the end of the year there's no point in making excuses for what you have, because it's exactly what you deserve as a result of your decisions and actions and behaviors throughout the year.
If you started 2014 on the right foot and wrote down your goals for the year, go back and make sure you prioritized them by what's most important to you to accomplish. If you didn't write down goals, it's not too late. You're better off to be focused on goals nine months out of the year than not at all. It's the perfect time to get started deserving what you want by year-end!
Jay Geier is a speaker, consultant, and president and founder of the Scheduling Institute. SI offers trainings in your office as well as trainings, workshops, and events at the training centers in Atlanta and Phoenix. For more information, call (855) 589-2919, email [email protected], or go to www.schedulinginstitute.com.
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