How you run your life is how you run your business.
Most physical therapy private practice owners today wake up thinking that their problem is marketing or staff or a lack of systems – the reality is that the REAL problem (the cause of all of those symptoms) is likely staring back in the mirror as they clean their teeth each day.
There’s a dumb theory doing the rounds that as a business owner you’ve got to somehow separate your work – from life. It’s often pandered by (and to) those struggling in both areas of their life as if a lack of “work life balance” is the cause of the failing. It is assumed that one or other is somehow out of sync and therefore the answer is to rein in one and focus more on the other. What a load of crap. It is not the cause – merely a symptom.
Here’s the thing, do I miraculously become someone completely different when I get in my car and drive the five minutes from my home and to my office? Do I suddenly become more disciplined? Do I somehow become more focused? I think not. The reality is that you are who you are whether you are at home – or at work.
And how you run your life away from work is how you will run your life when you get to work.
You’ll bring whatever habits or ill-discipline you have in your home life to work with you. The same person who can’t focus on his children when he gets home – can’t focus on completing a marketing campaign when he gets to work.
The reason he can’t focus on his kids is not because he can’t seem to finish a marketing campaign – it’s because he can’t focus.
That’s it. Being focused is a skill. Something that you learn how to do. It takes discipline and it is a muscle that you have to flex and stretch every day. It is not miraculously gifted to you and it is something that must be worked at – just like every other skill in your life.
“You seem very disciplined – how do you do it?”
This is a recurring question that I hear regularly in my life these days. As I get more disciplined – the more I accomplish. The more I accomplish the more people want to know how I do it.
Want to know my answer to the question?: “What choice have I got?’ Because the alternative is NOT a life that I want to live.
To be ill-disciplined puts me in a long line with people who have so much potential that will never bear fruit and that scares the hell out of me.
I once heard a phrase that summed this up perfectly: “hell on earth it would be to meet the man you could have been”.
It describes my ultimate nightmare. Getting to the end of my life and NOT doing everything humanly possible to fulfil my potential or make the most of the amazing opportunities I’ve been given.
Being in business is not a chore – it is a privilege that should not be taken lightly. The impact that you get to have on peoples lives – both employees and customers (and then in-directly the people close to those) should not be underestimated.
I am lucky that in one business I get to make people healthy – and in the other I get to make people rich!
When you see people’s lives genuinely change as a result of what you do, the books that I’ve written, the events I’ve held that renew people’s desire for success or give a new zest for life, the marketing strategy campaigns that bring people through the doors of my cash based clinic –those same people arriving in pain and leaving not long after able to walk freely or finally sleep better – when you FOCUS on all of that, it is much easier to find the discipline and focus to keep doing it.
Healthy And Wealthy – The Results of Better Business Skills
One of our Mastermind Members, Tamer Issa, of Issa PT in Maryland… joined my program with a physical therapy clinic that was sinking fast. He was stuck. Tamer was carrying what seemed like the weight of the world on his shoulders. His health was impacted just as much as his bank balance (negatively).
Fast forward 6 months and he was almost unrecognizable – not just in his profitability but most importantly, in his health.
How good must his wife feel to finally have her husband back? How great must his kids feel to have a father with more energy than they’ve likely seen for years? I bet they can’t wait for him to walk through the door just as much as I now bet he loves walking through the doors of his PT clinic to continue to make the sweeping changes that he’s started.
As for my patients, I don’t get to see many of them these days – but that’s ok, I have a crystal-clear picture in my head of what impact my business has upon their health and ability to walk or sleep.
After all, my businesses, the people in it and how they all operate – are nothing but a reflection of how I operate.
If I am a mess – so too my business. If I am organized and focused – so too is my business and it’ll show up in the profit column at the end of the month.
Final point: if you want to know why your business is the way it is today, look at the decisions you made in the past. Want to know how it will look in the future, look at the decisions you are making TODAY!
Raising your own standards starting today is the fastest way to raise your profits and getting clear on WHO is causing them is tough, but it’s vital that you do it. After all… what is the alternative?
Transform Yourself from a Physical Therapist into a CEO of a Successful Physical Therapy Practice
Check out Paul’s NEW book Leadership in Private Practice.
Discover how your Private Practice could be more profitable if you weren’t treating patients, all day, every day!
This is a MUST READ for any Private Practice Owner who wants to remove themselves from the day-to-day running of their business and build a team of players who can run their business without having to be in the office every day.
Take your first step to becoming a great leader and CEO of your business: