As practice owners we are daily assaulted, bombarded, pulled in all sorts of directions, and distracted from the most important things. Technology that was supposed to simplify our life has made it more complex. Most people mindlessly chain themselves to technology and leave themselves wide open to the largest number of distractions possible every waking moment. Constantly checking email at work and at home. 24/7. Facebook. iPhones. 5G. Wi-fi. Laptops. All these things can be used to your advantage but if used mindlessly it will invite maximum distraction and put hurdles between you and your goals. Instead of all this wonderful technology giving you freedom, it becomes your leash. Always around your neck. Always on. Pulling and jerking you any which way.
The most successful entrepreneurs do not play the game that way. We refuse to be dictated to by others. We refuse to let our days be determined by chance. We block ourselves off from distractions. We set our own course.
One of the most important disciplines to work on is the discipline to ignore many things and focus on a few.
Most things that come across your desk or arrive in your inbox will NOT move you closer to your goals for your practice. If you allow yourself to be led on wild goose chases with every new opportunity, every new technology, every new product that is put in front of your nose you become driftwood. No particular course or clear destination or timescale. Just floating around on the waves.
Better to set your own course. To know where you are going and when you want to get there. With this clarity it becomes easier to quickly say no to and ignore everything that is trying to pull you off course.
In this case (and many cases) less is more. You pay attention to fewer things but you do them so well you achieve and accomplish far more. Don’t be the person who is making an inch of progress in a thousand directions. Ignore most of it so you can make a mile of progress in the one direction you truly want to go.
All of the OSA strategies I share with you have come from years of focus on being an optician that makes the process of buying glasses effortless and enjoyable for clients. So those clients spend more (5X more) and do it happily, and return to us, and recommend us and enjoy their relationship with us. The only way I have been able to achieve a dispense value that is 5X the industry average is by focusing on only a few things and ignoring many things. Don’t run around like a headless chicken chasing every “new opportunity”, every new piece of technology, new products. As Pareto would say, ignore the ‘trivial many’ and focus on the ‘vital few’.