DEBRA MILLER
DIRECTOR OF COACHING
There is a video on the Endo Mastery homepage called “Is it too good to be true?” in which some of our coaching clients talk about how the success they’ve achieved is so unbelievable, and how they wish they had done it sooner.
I think it is a common experience for many doctors to have a vision or goals that they procrastinate about making progress, for one reason or another. Procrastination is the silent killer of progress because lost opportunity costs are not visible in the present. It isn’t until the present becomes the past that we see what we should have done.
5 top causes of procrastination
If last year you said this year, and this year you’re saying maybe next year, procrastination is likely the cause. Here are the most common reasons why doctors sabotage their vision with procrastination and inaction:
- Decision paralysis: Every vision has different priorities, every priority has different options, and every option has different pros and cons. It’s easy to end up in a rabbit hole with so many choices that you can’t decide the right course of action.
- What could go wrong scenarios: What if making changes causes too much disruption? What if it requires too much effort or sacrifice? What if it doesn’t work? It’s easy to imagine worst-case scenarios that make even a surefire plan seem too risky.
- Road map requirements: Doctors are perfectionists, and many doctors want the entire path to success laid out in advance. As soon as they try to do that with their vision, they bump into the limitations on their knowledge. With too many question marks, they will delay action until they have all the answers.
- Time and team limits: Life can be busy and full already, and carving out time for working on your vision and goals can take a backseat to more immediate priorities and daily distractions. On top of that, doctors may doubt that their team is competent enough and up to the challenge.
- Disbelief and deserve level: Related to the video I discussed above; many doctors have disbelief about what is possible. More importantly many doctors, even when shown proof of the possibilities, don’t believe it applies to them personally. Fundamentally, they don’t feel they are capable of and deserving of remarkable success.
Overcoming procrastination
If you do any research on the internet about procrastination, you’ll find a lot of suggestions on how to reduce it. Most of these suggestions are about daily methods, such as scheduling time, breaking large tasks down into smaller steps, focusing on one step at a time, etc. But for something as big and important as your vision, the solution cannot be the same techniques that help a college kid write a term paper on time.
Your practice is the home of your professional life and the economic engine for the rest of your life. You have important and vital responsibilities to your family, your patients, your referrers and your team. If you’re just repeating the same year over and over without making progress on your vision, you need a professional solution.
Coaching is that solution. The coach’s job is to support your decision-making, eliminate the risks, provide knowledge, save time, improve your team, and help you experience the incredible success that you deserve and can achieve.
Whether you choose to work with Endo Mastery or find a different solution, the most important thing is to get started. Otherwise, nothing changes and five years from now, you’ll be in the same place you are now.
To find out more about your true practice possibilities and how you can achieve your ideal vision, schedule a complimentary practice analysis.