Goal setting in a dental practice
Lynn D Carlisle DDS
Should you set goals in your dental practice and life? Yes, but don’t get totally invested in them. Setting goals gives meaning and direction to your life. It is very important that a dentist as a business person does this. But setting goals doesn't guarantee you will achieve all of them. Setting goals gives you a structure and system to think about your life and dental practice and what you want. I don’t recommend getting too tied up in what a goal, objective and action step is. I define a goal as something you want to happen in your life. Action steps are what you are going to do to reach the goals. For instance a goal can be as simple as “I want to buy new electric handpieces for each dental operatory in 2005.” The action step is buying them. Pretty simple. Or setting a goal can be complicated. “I want to simplify my life in 2005”. There could be many action steps in doing this. “I want to work one day less a week.” “ I want to reduce my debt load.” “I want to drop 3 of my volunteer activities”. “I want to reduce the number of employees in my practice”. “I want a smaller physical facility”. All of these generate other goals and action steps. Some goals you don’t need help in implementing and other goals like simplifying your life, strategic planning for your dental practice, major life or practice transitions are best done with facilitation by a dental coach or consultant. Many writers and consultants give the illusion that goal setting will answer all of your life or practice problems; that if you set a goal you will achieve it. “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve”. My life experience has shown that this is not true. I have kept most of the lists of goals I have set in my life. In reviewing them, I have achieved most of them. Some of them I achieved and wished I had not. Some of them I have not and wished I did. The most striking thing about goals and my life is that almost all of the most important things that have happened in my life were not a result of goals I set. They were precessional effects that happened along the way when I was working toward my goals. Their impact and benefits were far beyond anything I could have planned. Again, should you set goals in your dental practice and life? Yes, but don’t get totally invested in them. Remember, setting goals gives meaning and direction to your life. It is very important for a business person to do this. But setting goals doesn't guarantee you will achieve all of them. And - setting goals gives you a structure and system to think about your life and dental practice and what you want. It gives you a direction and focus, so you will be open to precessional effects. May you have a prosperous 2005.
This article was excerpted from a longer article that will appear January 14, 2005 on In a Spirit of Caring.
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