Issue 14 - November 2003

Success? It’s your destiny
By Mark Sanna, DC

I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know:

The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.
— Albert Schweitzer

Inspect the average healthcare provider’s bookshelves, desk or file cabinets and you are bound to run across an assortment of cassettes, books, seminar notes and other paraphernalia all dedicated to one subject — achieving success.

Doctors and their team members are known for building veritable libraries of motivational materials. Yet, despite absorbing the collected wisdom of many success gurus, the average healthcare practice remains just that: average. It doesn’t have to be that way. Success is your destiny. How do you take control of it? Embrace these guidelines:

• Define your purpose;
• Believe in yourself;
• Make your actions and decisions matter;
• Learn to love yourself;

• Jumpstart your drive to succeed;
• Seek out a mentor or coach;
• Commit to your destiny.

Define your purpose
Why are so many professionals stifled in achieving success in their practice? Too frequently they define success exclusively in a single dimension — money.

People who operate within a narrow (monetary) definition of success often find themselves ill-equipped to handle financial setbacks, because if that single dimension collapses, they have nothing else to hold on to.

While we can’t always control the outcomes and economic conditions of our practices, we can always control how we perceive and interpret these outcomes.

Don’t be misled by the traditional success dogma that offers simple answers to complex issues through clichés such as, “Persistence is the key to success” or “You’ve got to set your goals.”

Relying on clichés to motivate you is like depending on candy bars for nutrition. People leave motivational seminars all pumped up, but soon lose their enthusiasm to keep going. Persistence and goal setting play a role in achieving success. But instead of focusing on them as the primary factors leading to success, begin at the true source — your sense of purpose.

Once your purpose is in place, you can get more specific by setting goals.

Believe in yourself
While a variety of obstacles can keep you from achieving your potential, the most common is the fear of failure. Underachievers frequently think to themselves, “If I try to go to the next level, I could fall on my face, and embarrass myself. I could be exposed as not having the potential that everyone thinks I have.”

Successful people believe that they have the power to influence the course of events. If you believe that life is largely up to chance and that what you do doesn’t really make a whole lot of difference, you won’t have the drive to get out there and make things happen. You also won’t have the drive to sustain yourself when things go wrong.

People with an external locus of control attribute what happens in their lives to the luck of the draw. As a result, they quit much sooner than someone with an internal locus of control who thinks, “I’ve been through this before. I know what to do to bring things around again.”

Make your actions and decisions matter
Maybe you’ve tried but haven’t experienced the success you are capable of and feel like you have lost control over your future.

Get over it. Success is not about how many failures you experience, but how fast you recover, learn from your mistakes and continue toward your goals.

Learn to love yourself
A belief in yourself and your abilities is critical to long-term success. However, anyone who has attended a motivational seminar has heard that “other people can’t love you until you love yourself.” Chasing this goal, people struggle unsuccessfully to love themselves. Why? Because it is the other way around —you can’t love yourself until other people love you.

Introspection is important, but it will never provide you with an insight to your value. We can never know who we are except through the eyes of someone who loves us as we are.

Jumpstart your drive to succeed
What steps can you take to jumpstart your drive to succeed? After you have cleared your head of unresolved conflicts and have gotten in touch with your sense of purpose, you are ready to begin setting goals. Once you have set a goal, act on it promptly.

Do not underestimate the importance of positive self-talk, but avoid the mindless repetition of affirmations. Ask questions instead. When you repeat to yourself “I am successful” and write it down a hundred times, your brain responds automatically by saying to you, “Yeah, right. I don’t feel so successful.”

On the other hand, if I ask you, “Why is the sky blue?” your brain immediately begins searching for the answer. Instead of saying, “I am successful,” ask, “Why am I successful?” to affirm your worth.

Seek out a mentor or a coach
Success is more likely when you seek out people who can exert a positive influence on you. Surround yourself with people who are more successful than you are. These individuals can act as coaches and mentors and play an important role on the path to success.

Commit to your destiny
If you are wallowing in a negative spiral or merely plateaued and looking for a way to take the next step forward, these ideas provide fodder for making positive changes in your life. But therein lies the key. You can’t just think your way to success. Listening to tapes, reading and dreaming about doing things differently are not enough.

The most critical step is to act. When you act as if something is so, it becomes so.

You will meet resistance. It’s similar to beginning a new exercise program: Your muscles are tight and stiff and they resist. The same is true with your mental muscles. If you’ve been running on self-defeating thoughts and beliefs, at first your mind will resist new ideas.

Consistently run these new beliefs through your mind at regular intervals, act on them, and you will find that success is your destiny.

Dr. Mark Sanna is CEO of Breakthrough Coaching. He can be reached through his Web site at www.mybreakthrough.com or by calling 800-723-8423.