FEATURE FIND

Remember my two rules for increased profit:  EARN MORE; SPEND LESS.  Under the SPEND LESS category comes Impression Material Saver Foam Inserts, one of Practicon’s newest finds.  Made of soft memory foam with peel-and-stick backing, simply adhere one of the Inserts to the palatal portion of an upper impression tray before loading VPS material in order to reduce the volume of impression material needed.  The amount of VPS material is reduced by 25% per impression, saving up to $3 per impression.  Quickly multiple the approximate number of impressions you do annually times $3.  That can total some serious savings by year’s end!

UNCERTAINTY---A MOLE HILL, NOT A MOUNTAIN

Believe it or not, even extremely successful people deal with uncertainty.  Observers of such achievers may think that every confident successful person moves full steam ahead, sure of himself or herself, navigating to avoid the currents of uncertainty without a ripple.  Not true!  The successful person just realizes that with each step forward uncertainty may seem overwhelming, but experience tells them that answers will be clear, opportunities will come.  They are not afraid to move out and then have to say, “I don’t know what comes next, but I’ll find out and adapt to it.”  They seek help when needed, and when counsel is received, they acknowledge it with humility.

These successful individuals measure success by the scoreboard, not by the playbook.  A winning coach enters each game with a plan, but is willing to change plans during the game in order to win.  A wise person once said, “Write your Vision in ink, but pencil in your Plans.”  Course correction mid-stream, meeting uncertainty head-on, is often necessary to reach one’s envisioned destination.

VISION

Have a VISION for your practice??  No?  Well, now’s the time to articulate what you want for and from you practice, both long-term and for 2012.  Too often we want to have every t crossed and every i dotted, every resource perfectly in place before we begin moving toward our VISION, our dreams, our goals.  Stagnation is often the result of such paralysis by analysis, such craving for perfection.

Consider this:  VISION doesn’t follow resources; resources follow VISION.  Remember the popular movie theme, “Build it and they will come”?  VISION allowed a baseball field to be built in an unlikely spot, and come??---Yes, fans came!

Another example of VISION FIRST:  a snail began his very slow climb up an apple tree one cold February day.  A friendly worm stuck his head out of the tree crevice where he lived and advised, “You’re wasting your time and energy.  There are no apples up there.”

The snail kept creeping upward as he replied, “No, but there will be by the time I get there.”

Commit your VISION for your practice to paper, move relentlessly toward it, and witness the rewards of your efforts.