Your Patient’s New Year’s Goals

Your patients’ goals are why we are here.

They are why your staff came to work today and why you went to your last licensing seminar.

Your patients’ goals are why you have a practice and are in business.

So, what are your patient’s goals? What do they want?

On the surface, it is usually to relieve discomfort or pain.

So, like you do, after your initial consult, exam, and imaging, you tell them the cause of their pain and present your treatment program. They nod in agreement, and you begin care.

But when the patient sees the staff member to work out their finances and scheduling, they may have a glazed look and not be too sure what you just told them. Something-something about submarines, or joints, or spondy low dices.

The next week you wonder where they are. Your front desk does recalls. You spend money on more marketing to get more new patients.

You may have experienced a version of this in the past.

And at home, the patient may even feel that they got what they wanted or thought that they wanted. Maybe they feel better. But did they really get what they wanted?

There is a quote questionably attributed to Henry Ford: “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!'”

I get the point. But what people wanted, though they did know about a Model-T, was to travel faster with less horse poop.

You know that four adjustments, in most cases, won’t provide the health solution that the patient needs. But your patients don’t know what you know!

Was that why they didn’t come back for another visit, because you didn’t educate them enough? No.

Was it that you did not motivate them enough? No.

An excellent book on sales that I recommend is by Harry Browne, The Secret of Selling Anything. Brown points out that people are already motivated. 

You don’t have to motivate your prospective patient when you initially see them. You just need to discover what is already motivating them.

This takes place in your initial consultation and history, which I feel is the most crucial part of the new patient onboarding process.

Brown offers these three steps.

  1. Discover. Discover through intense listening what they want. For example:
  • What do you consider most important for you about your health?
  • What do you think is the biggest problem regarding your health?

These questions, and others, open the door to understanding what the other person wants. And if they know you understand them and are authentically interested, they will be more inclined to listen to you and trust you.

  1. Summarize. The second step is to summarize what the patient said about what they want. This brings out what they said on the table so that you both can agree. For example:
  • So, as I understand it, you are looking to get rid of the pain, not for just a week, but altogether so that you can get back to playing polo with your grandkids, correct?

Now you both can agree on what they want.

  1. Solve the problem. The third step is educating them on what you have found after your exam and imaging. But you direct the education to exactly what they especially want. Now they are interested because you are addressing the motivation that they already had.

This is a simple procedure that is genuine and caring. Not always easy to find these days, so you will stand out from others by using this method.

I would even spend time now and then rehearsing this. Even the pro’s practice.

Brown is not the only person who has offered this procedure as it is so fundamental. But we can never be reminded of the basics enough. He also said:

…the secret of success is:

 Find out what people want and help them to get it.

Help your patients achieve their goals in 2023, and they will help you achieve yours.

Seize 2023!

Ed

The Future

It is a peculiarity of man that he can only live by looking to the future.
(Viktor Frankl)

Traditionally, the first of any New Year is an excellent time to take stock of the prior year and make plans for the year to come.

Goals

In business, there are two (three, but for now, we will look at two) types of goals for your business:

  • Production Goals
  • Organization Goals

Setting production goals for where you want to be 12 months from now is the easy part of goal setting. The hard part is working out the organizational support you will need to achieve your production and collections goals. It could be more than you think!

But keep this in mind:

chiropractic and your services are never the primary barriers to practice success.

It is always management. It is the administrative issues connected with organization, including marketing, that gum up the work, gets in the way, slows your business down and holds you back.

Motivation

Part of management is managing your motivation. Yep… motivation needs to be managed. Keeping your spirits high and your drive strong is necessary for an organization to flow.

And this takes us back to your goals.

Visualizing achieving your goals will stimulate your motivation – and your drive. If you can’t see any way to your goals, well, that can be depressing. But if you can… if you can envision accomplishing your future goals, you will be motivated.

Viktor Frankl

I reference Viktor Frankl in my book, The Goal Driven Business.
Speaking of his experience in a concentration camp, “As we said before, any attempt to restore a man’s inner strength in the camp had first to succeed in showing him some future goal…”

He also said, “Even when it is not fully attained, we become better by striving for a higher goal.”

For your goal setting for the New Year, I recommend you start with your higher goals, the 3rd type of goal, which are beyond production and organization. For example, what brings you bliss? What gives you meaning?

  • Time with family and friends?
  • More vacations to more interesting places?
  • Going for the WIN of your best production and collections year ever?
  • Building a church?
  • Getting a diplomate in nutrition?
  • Improving patient outcomes?
  • Speaking out about health issues more?

Begin with these goals – the higher, wilder, richer ones. Then, look at your production goals, then your organizational goals.

I encourage you to dream just a bit and look at next year as your playground. What higher, richer, and wilder adventures would you like to accomplish?

Have some fun considering these types of goals and all the ways you would like to achieve them. This will add zest and a special spirit to your production and organizational goals.

Help with Your Future

We want to help you with your future. Your work is important, and helping you achieve your goals has been a driving force and a higher goal within our company for over 30 years.

For 2023, we have a few openings for our Private Client status on our Goal Driven Program.

If you are interested in working with us, please reply to this email, and we will schedule a time to talk.

All of us at Petty Michel & Associates want to help you achieve your goals in 2023

Seize the Future! (Carpe Future)

Happy New Year

Ed

Reference. More information on this is covered in sections in The Goal Driven Business, starting at page 19 and page 116.

Take a Stand: Define and Promote Your Brand

Using your brand to generate more patients, increase retention, and recruit top talent!

Promoting your brand has not been an important or even viable method of marketing for most chiropractors.

But that is no longer true.

Brand marketing needs to be part of your marketing mix. I will tell you why, but first, let’s define our terms:

Brand marketing is different from direct response marketing. Brand marketing focuses on generating awareness of your office, while direct response aims to generate new customers.

A smaller business with limited resources must focus on direct marketing rather than brand marketing. This is especially important when you begin.

Once your practice is maturing, your patients know you. You are the brand. You probably don’t plan on growing the business any further so there doesn’t seem to be any real need to promote your brand in the community.

But now there is.

More competition for patients

Franchise health companies are stepping up their activities. For example, the Joint Chiropractic, which filed with the SEC for around $35 million 10 years ago, and is a public traded company, acquired an additional 7.5 million in funding just two years ago. Their website says they have more than 600 locations, and I have seen their marketing activities in Wisconsin.

Physical therapy franchises are spreading, such as FYZICAL. According to its website, it has grown to more than 448 locations in 7 years as of 2021. In addition, acupuncture franchises, massage franchises, and dental franchises are on the rise.

Competition for Qualified Employees

You can also see increased competition if you have been recruiting doctors, providers, or support personnel lately. Job seekers can acquire a startling amount of information about you and what it is like for employees to work with you. They are interested in your culture, benefits, and values – which are all part of your brand.

What Makes You Different and Better

It could be said that your brand is: what makes you stand apart — and better – from all the comparable alternatives.

It is your Unique Selling Proposition.

A well-defined and promoted brand will help you:

  • Generate pride and loyalty in your patient base
  • Encourage more patient referrals
  • Improve team morale
  • Generate referrals from external referral sources
  • Improve marketing recruitment efforts for top employee talent

How to Define Your Brand

Once again, it all goes back to goals. (Doesn’t everything?)

What is the mission of your office? What are its values? What are its valuable outcomes?

This Is a Distillation Of Your Story: why you are a doctor, why you are in business, and what brings you joy daily?

Answer this for yourself, and then ask your staff:

What makes us special?

Survey a few of your patients: what makes us special from other providers? Why did you choose us?

Your brand showcases all this into an identity that people can know, like, and trust.

It can be somewhat symbolized with a logo and tag line, like the Nike “shoosh,” and the tag line: “Just Do It.” It can be represented in your newsletters, your office decor and cleanliness, the appearance of you and your team, and in all aspects of your promotions on social media.

But primarily, it must be demonstrated each day by you and your team living up to your values, your commitment to your mission, and providing world-class service and outcomes.

The world is moving faster, and we all have to work to stay ahead. And if we do it right, not only will it be rewarding but also fun.

Carpe Posterum (Seize the Future)

Ed

Need help with your branding strategy? Schedule a call and let’s have look at the best strategic options
SCHEDULE NOW

 

Where Everybody Knows Your Name: Creating a Chiropractic Community

Used to be a popular TV program called Cheers back in the 80’s. It was modeled after a bar in Boston with the same name. As a situational comedy, Cheers presented a familiar group of customers who came to the bar to have a drink, but also to relax, socialize, and have good cheer.

 

Patients come into your office to improve their health and find relief from discomfort. But they are also looking for something more.

 

Remember that a practice is a network of relationships created and sustained through communication and service. That’s my definition. There are other definitions, I’m sure, but at the foundation, communication is critical.

 

It can be a lonely world where there seems little time for real communication – or friendship.

 

You are more than a doctor, and your staff are more than just support professionals. You and your entire team are part of a caring family, a community of like-minded people who are committed to health and helping each other achieve it.

 

Creating a community is a big deal in businesses now. For good reason… Belongingness has been identified as an intrinsic motivation we all have, according to Self-Determination Theory. But it can be contrived and gimmicky if it is not genuine.

 

In the best offices I have visited, staff and doctors formed a work family… genuinely caring for each other as well as for their patients. The patients were also included in the family. Sometimes, I would see them spending too much time gabbing at the front desk or bringing fresh produce for the doctor from their garden. I would even see patients just stop by the reception area to chat amongst themselves, catching up on shared concerns and local news.

 

Yes, the best practices have policies and procedures. These are the systems that help ensure fast and efficient service in high quantity with high quality.

 

But procedures cannot take the place of a real person interested in and caring for another person.

 

In very lay terms, the spine is the structure that supports and protects the function of the spinal cord. It is the function that counts, that comes first.

 

Many offices have their function impeded by tangled up, omitted, or unfollowed procedures and policies. You definitely need a strong infrastructure to have a prosperous low stress business. But the reason, the goal for good systems includes having good communication with your patients and each other.

 

There are many troubling issues we all face. Make your office a place where people want to go for better health and better friendship.

 

A place where everyone is glad you came and where everybody knows your name.

 

Ed

 

Theme from the sitcom Cheers
“…Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.

 

Wouldn’t you like to get away?

 

Sometimes you want to go

 

Where everybody knows your name,
and they’re always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.”

 

Carpe Posterum (Sieze the Future)

 

Ed

Improve Patient Retention Through Gamification

winner running through the finish line

It all comes back to goals – helping patients achieve theirs.

Last week I discussed improving patient retention through excellent onboarding.

Onboarding is a 21st Century term meaning, in this case, those actions you take with a new patient to introduce and orient them to their new service. The analogy would be a new passenger coming “on board” a new boat. (The link to this article is below.)

The other activity I mentioned that can improve patient retention is also a 21st term: “Gamification.”

Merriam Webster says gamification is: “the process of adding games or gamelike elements to something (such as a task) so as to encourage participation.” The concept is not new, but it has become a science and is integrated into all video games. I cover this in detail in my book, The Goal Driven Business, which I recommend you purchase and use. (Link below.)

Games are native to our species. Even to puppies, as you see them rolling over each other. Kids love to play with their parents, and as they get older, with other kids, and then enjoy organized sports. The Olympic games began, according to one source, in 776 BCE. We love our games, and perhaps, we need them.

Awards

A game poses a challenge where you can overcome barriers and demonstrate your grit. If you win –hurray! Winning is the prize, but sometimes you also receive an award.

In ancient Greece, winners received an olive wreath as a crown. In modern Olympics, the winners receive bronze, silver, and gold medals. In some martial arts, as you advance in your skills, you are awarded different colored belts. When you graduate from college, you receive a nice certificate you can hang on your wall to impress your relatives! (sarcasm)

Your patient has accepted a challenge, along with you and the entire clinic team, to achieve certain health goals. So why not acknowledge or even reward the patient for completing specific benchmarks along the way?

Years ago, I recall some offices would have a special short ceremony for their patients once they completed their program of care. First, the staff would help the patient don a black robe used in graduation ceremonies and a graduation cap (mortarboard) and tassel. Then, they would take a polaroid snapshot (a brand of camera that produced instant hard copy photos) with the doctor and the patient in their graduation garb, give a copy to the patient and attach another to a bulletin board. I have even seen this in a hospital setting, just without the robe!

In Your Practice

Gamification can be applied in your office in many ways.

For example, after completing their 6th visit, the front desk could award patients a silver star sticker. After the 12th visit, they are awarded a gold star stuck to a coffee mug with the office name and logo. Finally, after completing their care program, the patient could receive a diamond star attached to an office t-shirt.

Gamification aims to keep everyone engaged in the “game” of achieving health goals.

One approach to bringing this about is to have a team meeting and go over this idea. Encourage unbridled creativity! Use the best ideas that make the most sense and run the program for three months on a trial basis. Set goals (and awards) for the team for percentages of patients completing their programs.

All these are examples of gamification. But even a “Glad you made it today Mrs. Jones. Good to see you and your daughter” is a kind of an award. Unfortunately, in life, we are rarely recognized for our accomplishments – and mostly for our errors.

So, compliment your patients for their courage to improve their health. It is a big deal and a major accomplishment that they even show up, let alone follow through with their care.

After all, games are fun. So, let the games begin!

Ed

Link to Onboarding Article

Link to The Goal Driven Business

Make each day an Ode to Joy!

“Music is … a higher revelation than all Wisdom & Philosophy”
― Ludwig van Beethoven

Takes 5 minutes. This is an inspirational musical event. The link is below.

It is worthy of the best humans have to offer – and akin to what you provide innately to your patients – as doctors, providers, and support professionals.

Match this with all you do in April and you’ll have a great month!

-Ed

 

For more information on how to create a more profitable business that is more fun than what you are doing now, please purchase and then use the book, The Goal Driven Business.

What You Must Do Before You Try to Improve Your Practice

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Will Durant

Too often, we stop doing what worked and yet wonder why our business isn’t doing as well as it had in the past.

When I would visit an office that wanted to improve, I would initially ask them what they were doing when the office was performing better?

The staff and doctors would pause, think, and gradually, the answers would begin. “Well, we used to call the new patient after the first adjustment…” “We used to have a radio program…” “We used to send out birthday cards… “We used to ….”

After each answer, I would ask, “Well, are you doing that now? The answer was usually “no.”

If business is improving, if the scoreboard shows that you are having a winning season, why stop doing what is working?

Keep doing what works!

This may seem obvious. It is. But we all fail at this one time or another, so it bears repeating.

What keeps us from continuing to do those things that are most successful? Boredom, staff turnover, or a momentary crisis when many procedures get washed overboard.

All offices suffer from what I call Procedural Atrophy – a gradually wearing away of what works. The result is only the very minimal procedures that keep the doors open are performed. Progress exams are no longer done, and the front desk no longer smiles when answering the phone.

The Goals Achieve Process – Now You Can Improve

You want to improve your business – provide better service, increase revenue, decrease stress.

But first, ensure that you are still doing what you were doing when you were doing well. Keep applying your successful procedures!

THEN, make improvements.

Various organizational processes are used in large companies that entail a sophisticated method of improvement, sometimes called Kaizen, Six Sigma, and Lean. Kaizen is a Japanese process developed by an American, but you can earn a “Black Belt” in Six Sigma. (I know. Confusing! People get paid big bucks for this stuff!) We have a very simple improvement process called the Goals Achievement Process outlined below.

  1. Review your numbers for the last few years.
  2. Notice when you were doing better.
  3. Make a list of the procedures, projects, and policies that were successful then.
  4. Also, include the level of your motivation and your attitude, and what you were doing to keep you inspired during those times.
  5. Get the successful procedures on checklists for your team to implement and ensure they are done again.
  6. Assign your manager to ensure that these procedures stay in place.
  7. Do a version of this each month, over and over.
    1. Review what worked and what didn’t the prior month.
    2. Check what procedures weren’t done or done well, or need to be improved, or discontinued
    3. Make a 4-6 step plan for the new month to improve those areas that need improvement.
  8. Optional: Use a professional coach/consultant to help you keep everything on track and improving!
  9. Also, read The Goal Driven Business.

In an entrepreneurial practice (the Personality Driven Practice), the owner is good at using their creative energy to get things started. And while this burst of energy is essential to start a business, it usually doesn’t continue once the “newness” wears off. So, they go in search of a new “shiny thing” to implement or try in their Practice.

A Goal Driven and systematized business works both creatively and methodically to become expert at doing the same procedures over and over, each time as if it was the first time. There is a vast difference between the amateur or serial entrepreneur and the expert who is still training and working to improve.

As Clarence Gonstead said: “Practice. Practice. Practice. Never stop.”

Stay on the Rails

It helps to think of your business as a train. You gradually build up speed and momentum. Keep doing what is working and keep it on the rails. Then, improve it.

Have a great week!

Ed

A new review for the book The Goal Driven Business:

A MUST-READ FOR ANY BUSINESS OWNER!

Throughout the years of my Practice, Ed has helped coach our staff and change our thinking from “personality” driven to “goal” driven – allowing my office to stay open and profitable whether I am here or taking time off!

This book is so easy to understand and gives you real steps to take now in your business. I highly recommend this book to anyone who currently owns a business, is thinking about owning a business, or is a manger of a business!

Donna Brown, D.C.
Business Owner, Group Practice

Everything Else: Why The Goal Driven Practice is More Profitable and More Fun

What gets in the way of you growing your business?

What holds you back from your growth? From increased services and profits?

What keeps you from providing better services and improving your marketing results?

The government? Your childhood? Your neighbor’s cat?

One thing that is NOT holding you back is chiropractic or whatever services and skills you provide.

It is everything else.

When you are first growing your business, and let’s say you are barely at 40% of your full capacity, your practice may be performing well. You may have an assistant, but for the most part, you can see patients and generally oversee the operation of your practice. Life is good, and the future is … wide open.

But almost imperceptibly, as you start seeing more and more patients, the tide of administrative demands starts rising.

Eventually, you can look around your desk and see “undones” and “half-dones” and a hundred or so “to-dos” littering your office, smartphone, computer, and brain. You try to keep up, but there seems to be just too much to do.

So, what do you do? There seems to be only one solution – you settle. You settle into a comfort zone just to a point where you can earn enough to pay your bills.

Growth becomes a trap, and after many attempts to reach your goals, you finally settle.

Is there a way out?

Yes. But it has been hidden. And booby-trapped.

But you should know, after years of observation and analysis, what is holding you back is not your lack of effort. It is not chiropractic or your professional services.

The fact is, you can’t really get to where you want to go from where you are now. You can’t get there from here.

You need to make some major Big Shifts. 

To get to your goals, you have to start from a different place and build a newer version of your business. This is your next stage. Stage One is survival and entrepreneurial growth. It is a Personality practice.

Your next version is a fast, more advanced business that will take you to your goals and beyond.

The new version is called a Goal Driven Practice.

To achieve this requires making some significant changes or Big Shifts.

MANAGER OR ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT (BIG SHIFT #7)

One of the solutions to breaking out of the trap and moving closer to your goals is assigning someone on your team to help you with…Everything Else.

This could be a manager or an administrative assistant. In either case, the role would probably only require 5-8 hours per week – at least at first.

One of their goals would be to remove everything from your desk, all your to-dos, all administrative traffic, sort it for you, and then work out with you what should be done with each item.

You would delegate, delay or dump each item.

This would help free you to increase your services as a doctor and give you time to expand the business as the CEO.

You can produce $500 to $1000 in services per hour as a provider if you are unfettered. As the CEO, you can direct your business to produce much more than this per hour. So, why are you spending time drowning in trying to do $20 or even $30 an hour jobs?

Everything Else gums up the works. It slows you down, confuses the staff, and the patients feel the confusion and notice the neglect, however slight.

This is why I came up with the Goal Driven System. It unmucks the gears of your business so that you can freely provide services and not be haunted by the looming demands of hundreds of to-dos.

This is covered in the book, The Goal Driven Business. If you can do this, you will be more productive and have more fun.

This is so valuable that I will be scheduling upcoming Zoominars on this subject for you and your manager. And stay tuned for upcoming programs on manager training, and training and even coaching on the Goal Driven System.

And just, just for fun, (I am smiling) don’t miss this future article:

The 2 Management Consultants from Petaluma California.

Seize the future

Ed

For more information on The Goal Driven System visit Goal Driven

The Cathedral, Stone Blocks, and Your Goals

stone cathederal

(This is the third in our series on goals.)

The Cathedral, Stone Blocks, and Your Goals

Christopher Wren was one of the greatest English architects. He designed 53 different churches in London before he died in 1723 at the age of 91.*

There is a story about how he walked unrecognized one day among the men who were at work upon the building of St. Paul’s Cathedral — which he had designed. St. Paul’s Cathedral sits on a hill and is one of London’s most famous and recognizable churches.

“What are you doing?” he inquired of one of the workers, and the man replied, “I am cutting a piece of stone and working hard so I can feed my family.”

As he went on, he put the same question to another man, and the man replied, “I am an expert stonemason, and I am building a solid wall.”

He walked a little further, and around the corner, he asked a third man what he was doing. “I am helping Sir Christopher Wren build a beautiful cathedral that will be a place for worship, where people can come to pray, where the poor can come for clothing and food, for the Almighty.”

This is a parable that has some measure of truth, but I have not been able to find any credible verification. But the point of a story such as this is to illustrate an idea or moral.

All three workers had goals. They expressed these to Sir Christopher when asked what they were doing. We can assume that each stone cutter was skilled, worked hard, and did the same work as the others.

One can guess that their goals kept them motivated. But each viewed their goals differently.

The first two workers had immediate tangible objects as goals – a cut stone block and a well-built wall. However, the third stone cutter’s goal was a purpose, a vision of the future he was working to help achieve.

From this, we can look at all goals at two different levels: at a higher level, such as a purpose, and at a tangible level, which is a practical manifestation of the purpose.

In your practice, these two levels of goals might look something like this:

Higher Goal: Our mission is to help as many people as possible in our community become healthier, relieved of discomfort, and better educated so that they continue to improve their health and those around them.

Practical Goal: A person who completed a program of care, whose pain was relieved and is now healthier and incredibly happy with their results and of the service they received and has enrolled in a wellness program.

stone mason building a wall

Practical goals are quantifiable in a set period. For example, how many new patients can we generate, how many visits can we achieve, and how many programs of care can we complete next month?

There must be an equal emphasis on the higher goal, often called a mission, and the tangle goals, often called quotas or objectives.

Too much attention on the mission, and we live in a dreamland and go broke. Too much attention on production quotas, and we eventually feel like we are on an endless assembly line, find no meaning in our work and lose our motivation.

Like the stone cutters, dream about the cathedral but also set a target for how many blocks you will cut and how many walls you will complete next month.

Both echelons of goals should be viewed, reviewed, revived, and recalculated as needed at each team meeting.

Goals are your future – where you want to be. And, where you want your patients and your community to be. So, nourish them both as a mission and as outcomes, and the work to achieve them will come much faster and easier.

Carpe Posterum (Seize the Future),

Ed

*Wikipedia

Whose Goals: Yours or Theirs?

goals-2022 nurturing your goals to growth

At the beginning of each New Year, it is customary to reflect on the past and look at and set new goals for the New Year.

This can help you have a happier and more prosperous New Year.

Life can get messy and confusing, and like a rookie quarterback facing many onrushing tacklers, even frightening. The solution is to have planned goals already established that you can confidently move forward towards regardless of the circumstances you face.

Here is a vital tip about goals that is often overlooked:

GOALS NEED REGULAR NOURISHMENT.

Weekly, even daily, a fast reflection on where you are going and WHY helps focus and energize your drive towards them. Once established, you need to take time aside weekly, and more so on a monthly and quarterly basis, to rekindle them and mark your progress towards their achievement. Make adjustments and course corrections as needed.

Do this as a scheduled and determined ritual!

Share them as well. There is nothing better than sharing agreed-upon goals with others and working together to make things better. Work with your patients, your team, and your family to achieve shared goals.

And do this or else!

There are good consequences in doing this and not good consequences if omitted. Other powerful interests have different goals for you and your patients. So does plain old inertia.

In this New Year, stay true to your goals, nourish them, and help others do the same.

Ed

For more information on how to do this, please read my book, the Goal Driven Business.

Also, stay tuned for a new training program we will be offering on the Goal Driven System. It will be limited to just 10 offices and last for 6 months. Its goal is to train the business owner and manager/senior staff member on the Goal Driven System to transform their practice into a Goal Driven Business. What is a Goal Driven Business?

Faith Demands to Make a Difference

GoalDriven.com - Faster to a Better YearDecember 30, 2021

A year ago, who knew what the next 12 months would be like?

Yet, here we are today.

As the New Year is just before us, again, one can only wonder at what the future holds. Is this the “New Normal?”  How far will it shift in the next twelve months? For you, your patients, and your business?

Whathe goal driven businesstever new realities lie ahead, we are ready to help you and your business. We will be launching a new approach to practice and business building with the theme of Faster to Your Future in January. It is based upon the book the Goal Driven Business.

 

But just before we start the New Year, I wanted to pass along a message of encouragement.

It often amazes me that with all the wars, both “hot” and cold, the greed, the fear, and tyranny, with all of mankind’s utter insanity over the centuries, we are doing as well as we are. Somehow, as Abraham Lincoln predicted in his first inaugural address in 1861, “…the better angels of our nature…” came through and prevailed. Whatever challenges we may have, his were enormous. He was facing a nation divided, secession of the southern states, the policy of human slavery, civil war, and a world of other conflicts.

But in the end, there is something about the Innate Goodness of Life that seems to propel mankind forward towards a better future, however slightly. I think that the more we trust in the Better Angels of our Nature, and in the Goodness of Life itself, the more sure our road will be toward a better year for us all and a happier future.

“I have one life and one chance to make it count for something . . . I’m free to choose what that something is, and the something I’ve chosen is my faith. Now, my faith goes beyond theology and religion and requires considerable work and effort.

My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.”

― Jimmy Carterjimmy carter supervising

So with this, we look forward to working with you to help make 2022 both prosperous and rewarding.

With admiration from all of us at Petty Michel and Associates,

Ed