How to run the best possible practice in 2017

Editor’s Note: Welcome to “Eye Catching: Let's Chat,” a blog series featuring contributions from members of the ophthalmic community. These blogs are an opportunity for ophthalmic bloggers to engage with readers with about a topic that is top of mind, whether it is practice management, experiences with patients, the industry, medicine in general, or healthcare reform. The series continues with this blog by Donna Suter, president of Suter Consulting Group. The views expressed in these blogs are those of their respective contributors and do not represent the views of Ophthalmology Times or UBM Medica.

What do the following have in common?

Opening a new book; the smell after a spring rain; how one feels after a really good night’s sleep; seeing the sun rise: All might be described using the adjective ‘fresh.’

My dictionary defines fresh in the following manner:

•  Not previously known or used; new or different (Example: "The court had heard fresh evidence.").

•  Recently created or experienced and not faded or impaired (Example: "The memory was still fresh in their minds.").

I see the beginning of 2017 as fresh. A year of fresh possibilities. It is new and brimming with fresh beginnings, filled with hopes and dreams.

If you are not feeling it, perhaps you are ensnared in the gray world of A, B, and C. This ABC is a continuous loop. You are not sure how you got there or how to get out.

In context, ABC is an initialism. Each letter is used when spelling Anger, Bitterness, and Criticism (ABC).

You know you are caught in a trap of ABC:

•    When the headlines cause your blood pressure to rise.

•    You look in your inbox for political updates expecting to read of reimbursement cuts.

•    In the office, you recommend basic spectacle lens technology because you assume your patients do not want to pay extra.

•    And, most tragically, you may expect your employees to fail and never compliment their successes.

These three letters, A, B, and C, will never underpin actions leading to fresh. They have no place in my fresh new year.

Please join me. This can be the year you begin retooling your practice into the one that brings you happiness each and every day.

Most New Year's resolutions, no matter how well-intended, are doomed to fail for one often overlooked reason: they are incongruent with our dreams and values. In The Art of the Fresh Start, Glenna Salsbury provides tools to uncover the values that guide you, leading you to discover what you want to achieve and how to get there through internal motivation.

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