Setting goals for your dental practice

Derek Hein

Do you remember when you established your 2017 practice goals? Did you take the time to set goals? As you have only a few weeks left to make those goals a reality, will you achieve them? What was your plan to achieve those goals? How have you been monitoring your progress?

A study that discussed goal setting analyzed a group of Harvard MBA students over a 10-year period. The students were asked about their professional goals and monetary earning goals. Only 3% of them had any written goals accompanied by plans to accomplish those goals, while 13% had goals in mind but did not write them down or mention them to anyone, which left 84% with no goals at all. The study concluded 10 years later with the same group of students. The 13% who had goals in mind but did not write them down earned twice that of the 84% who had no goals. Most astonishing was that the 3% who had written goals were earning 10 times as much as the other 97% of the class combined.1

Without something to keep you in check, it’s easy to stray from your goals. Use the study as your motivation, and think about incorporating SMARTER strategy to set goals:

Specific—Set specific attainable goals and write them down.

Meaningful—Set goals that you will encourage you to do what it takes to achieve, (the “why”).

Achievable—Goals must be achievable given current and available resources.