CAN YOU BELIEVE it is the beginning of a new decade? We are one month in, and it already seems to be moving faster than last year. That’s the way it is with time. It seems to move at an ever-increasing speed.
I’m sure that many of you took on this new year with plans to make changes, improvements and commitments that are already behind schedule. For some, it may be the result of putting off the actions needed to begin the change. Usually, it’s due to waiting for the right motivation or circumstance to take action. Conventional wisdom says that action follows motivation. Once someone has the desire and motivation, then they take action. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. Those that don’t understand this spend days, weeks, months, and even years failing to act. They wait on that perfect set of circumstances to motivate them into taking action to make the change they desire.
It is behavior that creates motivation. The most challenging part of beginning an exercise program is lacing up your shoes. If you have not established a routine in your life where you exercise regularly, you’ll find getting dressed and lacing up your shoes to be most challenging. You’ll wait until you “feel like exercising” before you lace up your shoes. If you just make the decision, take action, lace up your shoes and take a 30-minute walk when you have no motivation, you will discover that after a short period of time, you become motivated. Motivation follows taking action.
Now think about the improvements or changes you want to make in your business. Maybe it’s a staffing change; maybe it’s reassigning responsibilities or using new technology. You will be tempted to wait until conditions are best suited for making these changes. Maybe the difficulty in going through this process is what is keeping you from taking action.
Well, let me help you with two steps to lace up your shoes:
1. Be sure you know what it is you want to do and why you want to do it. To think this through, take the time to write it down with a full description of why it will be an improvement for your business. Many times a friend or colleague tells us what they did and why they are glad they made the change. They can talk about how it made such a difference for them and their patients. However, that is not you or your business. If you are going to take on the difficulty of change, you need to know for sure that this is important to you and why it will benefit your patients.
2. Next, set a date to begin. Not to accomplish the entire task, just to start. Zig Ziglar, the motivational speaker, said, “you don’t have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great.” There is power in starting. Break down the task into steps and set a schedule of achieving the steps. Don’t worry about the potential consequences, you can work the issues out as you implement the change. Using my exercise analogy, you don’t have to begin by working out for two hours, six days a week. Start with 30 minutes, three times a week. In the beginning, it is not about the amount accomplished, but only that you start doing something.
These simple actions will create the motivation and support to achieve even more. Once you begin this cycle of continual improvement through taking action, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.