Why You Don’t Reach Your Goals

I’ll spare you the fluff and get right into it. You and I fail to achieve our goals because we accept excuses in place of results. We get so caught up in believing our own line of BS (excuses) that results elude us. Our focus goes from engaging in activities that move us closer to our desired results to instead, accepting the reasons we’re failing.

To achieve an extraordinary income in any field, first and foremost, you’ve gotta believe you deserve that extraordinary income. Then, you’ve gotta break out from where you are. You can’t keep doing the same things you’re doing now. A higher income requires a higher level of thinking and a whole lot of DO-ING.

Success requires doing the uncomfortable, the tough, even the heart-wrenching.

They don’t teach you that in dental school, MBA school, or anywhere else for that matter. Only those who intentionally toss aside their excuses in pursuit of results learn this. Generally, it’s after having a look in the mirror and finally accepting if it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna happen because of you/me. Not because someone else decides it will. Not because someone else will anoint us a higher income earner.

Some get too caught up in what others think and give it far too much weight. I’m reminded of the story I’ve heard no less than fifty times in my 20 years in business. It goes like this: Dentist calls my office because he needs new patients or wants to expand his practice and add an associate or __________ (insert other stated goal). I discuss options, provide him feedback from other clients who’ve been in his same position, and so on. A few days later, he calls or emails and states that his _________ (insert relative, i.e. brother’s wife’s 2^nd cousin has a degree in ________ (insert advertising, marketing, or business) and they think that what we’ve suggested he do to promote his practice won’t _________ (insert whatever the goal is).

In my head, I’m thinking, “How much skin in the game does that person have? What’s their motivation? What’s their experience vs. mine? Would they be willing to do a head-to-head test of what they are suggesting (if anything other than – “…ohh… you don’t want to do that…”) vs. what I am?”

These days, I tell them rather bluntly, go with what the brother’s wife’s 2^nd cousin is telling you to do. Then, when you’re ready for us, call back.

I already know they’ll fail. They’re just not ready for what we do. They’re not ready to suspend their own disbelief, get out of their own way and let someone who makes a living generating new patients do that for them. I don’t practice dentistry. I don’t know what a crown is or when a patient needs one. I own a dental office, but I don’t know squat about clinical dentistry. However, I sure as heck know what makes a dental office successful.

As my old friend Ron LeGrand® told me years ago, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” Same goes with success: When you’re ready to be successful, to have an income 3 or 4-times the average in your field, you’ll be intolerant of anything other than the results you want/need and demand. And, you’ll do everything that is moral, ethical and legal to achieve it. You’ll finally understand that if you want what others in dentistry or any field has, on average, do what they do. If you want something more, you’ll need to do more, be better and become laser-focused on only the activities that’ll get you there.