To prosper means to “flourish, succeed, thrive, to experience favorable results.” According to author and lecturer Catherine Ponder, you are prosperous to the extent that you experience peace, health and plenty in your world. Using this definition, we must look beyond the “bottom line” of a practice to determine the true sense of prosperity. I assert that to the extent that the doctor(s) and staff experience abundance in their lives, they attract patients naturally and seemingly effortlessly.
It’s important to understand how the law of attraction works. As far back as elementary school, we learned that opposites attract. Remember when the teacher gave us magnets and we could not put two negative sides together and the magnets automatically went positive to negative poles? Later we learned how electricity worked and that negative charges were pulled to positive charges.
While that is true for physics, in the people world, or in the metaphysical world, the opposite is true: like attracts like. I realize there are numerous examples of couples who were attracted to each other and seemingly because of their differences: the shy person with the extrovert; the go-getter with the lay-back partner; and numerous other examples. However, if you look beyond the superficial, the long-standing relationships have more in common, and they “think alike” more than the appearances may indicate.
How this applies regarding money is, if you believe money is scarce, you either don’t have much, or what you have is never enough. In other words, what you believe is what you get.
The importance of “like attracts like” in the practice is obvious when you look at the basics of practice management. Let’s take the example of a doctor opening a new practice. First, the doctor should decide what kind of patients he/she wants to treat (adult or child; income level; number of patients/day, etc). Then the doctor works with a designer and architect to create an office that will attract and accommodate the desired population.
On the not-so-obvious level, if the doctor and/or staff are “in survival” regarding production and collections, they will create more of what they do not want! The corollary is true as well: those who are confident about their practice and their future create more production in the practice.
The following are examples that demonstrate the power of individuals’ beliefs on the outcomes they produce. As is often said, “There are no accidents!”
Dr. Ray McLendon of Kingwood Texas opened his first practice in 1983 just in time for the Texas economy to crash and begin what would become a national recession. It was estimated that people were leaving Texas at the rate of 5000 per month. Despite the fact that other practices and businesses were “downsizing”, within 18 months Ray had a $500,000 a year practice. When asked why he was so successful where others were struggling just to keep afloat, his answer was “I choose not to participate in the recession.” He also attributed his success to his “attitude of gratitude.” He says that “when you have nothing, you’re grateful for whatever you get.” Thus, any patient who came in was warmly received, was given the highest level of service. Those doctors and business owners who were distracted by and enrolled in the failing economy stopped doing what works, i.e., creating an upbeat, fun-to-be-in practice.
A treatment coordinator, who will remain anonymous, was having personal financial problems and was deeply in debt. Struggling to make ends meet at home, she viewed her co-workers and doctor with envy as they seemed to be financially fit. She was relieved that her children were too young and didn’t need orthodontics because she wouldn’t be able to pay for them if they did. She also thought the doctor charged too much for braces. Guess what…her case acceptance was 50% in a good month.
For some of you, this may sound like “la-la land” and that I wear long flowing robes and burn incense. However, the notion that your thoughts have energy and send signals out to the universe letting it know what to send you, has been around for longer than you and I. In his book, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition, W. H. Murray writes:
Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth…that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too….a whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way.
Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” is one of the all-time best-selling books worldwide. He was one of the original promoters of mastermind groups because of the increased energy of collective thought it creates!
A review of a multitude of books written on prosperity, at the core of them all is a simple message: you have to think and believe prosperity in the present, not “someday when (you fill in the blanks) happens, then I will be happy, rich, successful…whatever.” That sounds rather simple. And if all that it took was understanding the principle, then every one of the tens of millions of people who read books or listened to tapes and lectures on prosperity would be enormously prosperous, in all aspects of the definition.
Apparently, putting the principle to action and changing behavior is more complex. It requires a willingness to explore and discover your own internal conversations about money and prosperity in general. As Dr. Phil McGraw likes to say, “You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge.”
The first step on the path of discovery is to become an observer of yourself and the conversations you have with yourself and others. Most of our current beliefs and attitudes come from the programming we had growing up; some are very useful, and some very detrimental to our current lifestyle. For instance, if your parents were very frugal, you may have followed in their footsteps; or if their frugality was upsetting to you, you may be still “rebelling” and spending every dollar you make. When you examine what underlying principles are driving your actions, you can make conscious decisions to keep or create new ones that support your achieving your goals.
While skills and work experience are important in the hiring process, skills can be taught…character and personality are embedded from childhood. Paul Zuelke of Zuelke and Associates, recommends doctors run a new credit report on potential employees. This would be most important for administrative staff who are more likely to handle contract entry, payment posting, etc. It requires the applicant’s permission, which can be done by having the applicant sign a statement that he/she understands a credit report will be obtained for employment screening purposes. (You must contact the credit bureau to get the correct type of report since a report for employment purposes will not disclose certain aspects such as the person’s birth date, etc.) The information you get from the report will tell much about the person’s attitudes regarding money and his/her level of integrity. The amount of debt is not as important as the record of timeliness of payments, bankruptcy records, etc.
Let’s talk about you, your employees and your practice. When production figures go down, do you get down too? Do you get distracted by problems in your personal life, problems with the IRS, employee issues, patient complaints, and the plethora of situations you encounter as “life happens?” Do you start to question if “you’ll ever make it?” (Are you aware that the biggest reason a practice fails to thrive is that the doctor and staff get “distracted” and start treating patients while on “cruise control” instead of truly being with them?
These are ordinary reactions and quite normal. There is nothing wrong with any of them. However, if you want extraordinary results you have to think beyond “normal.”
There is an old adage that says “success breeds success.” People want to be part of a winning team. Winners create an aura of success that attracts more success. Assuming you have a morning huddle with your team (and if you don’t, DO IT!) do you end with inspiration, high energy, and a “can do” attitude from all? It’s important to end the huddle with the experience of “first you win, and then you play the game.”
If you aren’t managing the conversations you and your staff are having about “the way things are”, then you will be at the effect of anything and everything that life deals out to you. A simple question to ask yourself (and the team) is “what do we want the patients to say about us when they leave?” Most likely the answer is “happy and bragging about us.” Then decide what actions each person will take to ensure that outcome. What attitude will support those results? What potential obstacles could prevent you from getting those results, and what could you do about them? In other words, stay conscious! Not just for one day, or a week. Practice making conscious choices until it becomes a habit!
To support myself in staying conscious, I use affirmations to create a new mindset of prosperity. Affirmations are stated in the present tense and without the use of negatives.
For example, the simple statement “I am prosperous” focuses me on the blessings I already have, and puts me in an “attitude of gratitude” which sends out a signal to the universe of what I am attracting and what to send me. I have added a list of examples of prosperity affirmations at the end of this article as well as a
suggested reading list.
After years of engaging in these practices, I can tell you they work. The only question is, will you work
them?
Here’s to our prosperous future!
PROSPERITY AFFIRMATIONS
- There is gold dust in the air for me!
- Everyone and everything prosper me now and I prosper everyone and everything.
- I am blessed with abundant love, peace and joy.
- I am prosperous.
- There is enough for everyone.
- Money comes to me from all directions and I am rich.
- There is no fear in me. God provides lavishly for me and all humanity.
- Large, rich, opulent, lavish financial surprises now come to me and I am grateful.
- My success creates more abundance for everyone to share! This spillover is God’s purpose
behind all success in my work. - I stir up the gifts of God within me and around me, and I am blessed on every hand with
happiness, success and true achievement. - I am an irresistible magnet for money, success and happiness, and I now draw to me all that is
necessary to achieve my goals. - I love the highest and best in people and I now draw to me the highest and best people (clients,
patients, friends, etc.) - I give thanks for ever increasing health, youth and beauty.
- I give thanks that every day in every way I am growing richer and richer.
- The more fun I have the more money I make.
- Money is energy and is here to serve me in fulfilling my life’s purpose.
PRACTICE PROSPERITY READING LIST
Richard Gaylord Briley The Seven Spiritual Secrets of Success
Richard Carlson, PhD Don’t Worry, Make Money
Russell H. Conwell Acres of Diamonds
T. Harv Eker Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich
Jacob Needleman, PhD Money and the Meaning of Life
Suze Orman The Courage to be Rich
Suze Orman The Nine Steps to Financial Freedom – Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying
Catherine Ponder The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity
Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer Creating Money – Keys to Abundance
Marsha Sinetar Do What you Love, the Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood
Thomas Stanly, PhD and William Danko, PhD The Millionaire Next Door