New Year's Goals for Your Medical Practice in 2014

Have you made any New Year's resolutions for your practice (or even for yourself)? If you have, I would like you to stop and start over. Yep, just go ahead and throw that resolution sheet in the shredder. We are going to do it differently this year.

In 2014, we are setting goals, not resolutions. You may be wondering what the difference is… because on the surface they can sound very similar. They are similar, but the difference is one simple thing: success.

You see, only about 8 percent of people stick to their resolutions. You can find some slightly more positive studies that say up to 22 percent of people stick to their resolutions.

Instead of resolving to do more of this and less of that, start by setting a few goals that can you can reach by February 1. Then, set some more goals that can be reached by March 1. If a monthly goal seems too big, set daily challenging but achievable goals. Set as many of these short-term goals as you can, and then set a cumulative goal to reach by the end of 2014.

You may be wondering why I asked you to do it "backwards" or why I want you to set short-term goals first … it's simply because sometimes we get so hung up on the big goal that it seems so out of reach that we stop there. We never complete the goal planning because it seems like too much.

There is one more thing I want you to do with your 2014 goals; if you don't do anything else take a moment or two and do this one thing. Take each aspect of your life and work and determine how you want it to make you feel, not how organized or how profitable or how many patients you want … that is for goal setting. Literally how you feel. For example, some of desired feelings I want in 2014 while working with my clients include: creative, successful, fulfilled, abundant, pioneering, excited. The list can go on and on. While you are at it, make the same list for your personal life and any other aspects of your life you would like to improve or maintain in 2014.

This can serve two important purposes: first it can give you a barometer to gauge those big decisions by, because you can then think of or look at your list and say "Will making decision X lead to more creative and exciting moments?" Second, this gives you another avenue for success. It is almost the end of 2013, and I have achieved most of my personal goals, all of my business goals, AND did it all in a way that made me feel the way I want to feel. Let's face it, life is too short to be unhappy or trapped in places and ways that don't feel good.

Happy 2014!