I think it was Jim Rohn who said ‘School is never out for the pro.’ If you’re a true professional you’re always learning, eyes and ears open for anything that is useful to you or will help you get better.

Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s business partner, used to say never go to bed at night without knowing something new that you didn’t know when you woke up this morning.

The day you stop learning is the day you start going backwards. The day you think you know it all is the day you might as well accept that where you are at is as good as it’s ever going to get for you.

The ‘average’ practice owner unfortunately runs things like an amateur. They have lower standards. They have unrealistic expectations. They’re inconsistent. They put things off endlessly. Especially anything in the ‘difficult but important’ category. They may say they’re ambitious and that they want more, but their actions say otherwise. They basically tinker with their businesses rather than step up and act like a true professional.

I know whenever OSA members make this distinction in their mind, everything changes. The biggest shift happens when you start working ON your business like a professional instead of an amateur.

Here’s a tip that personally helped me make some big leaps forward with my practice:

Instead of just focusing on the goals and results you want for your practice, get very clear on the kind of person you need to BE to make that happen. Set some goals for how you need to behave if you are going to reach your goals.

If you’re goal is to have a £2 million pound practice, ask yourself what does a person like that behave like? How do they communicate with their staff? What kind of team do they put around themselves? How organised and disciplined are they? How much do they read, and study and work at getting better? How disciplined are they about managing their time? How do they respond to problems and challenges?

In other words, set a vision for who you want to be.

 It is your behaviour and actions that bring about the results you want in your practice and your life. You are a human BE-ing. It’s all about the BE-ing. Your habitual actions on a daily basis.