Our behavior directly influences the results we see in our life and career. In the dental practice, recognizing the need for conscious change and following through requires true self-discipline.

We all know what we need to do to improve our situation, whether that be in working on patient care or engaging in more education. The hard part is that even once we’ve gotten the information we need, we still have to implement change consistently.

Conscious Change & Practice Success

Discipline goes counter to human nature. In the practice, we know we should always be on top of things like scheduling a patient’s next hygiene appointment or asking the patients we trust most for referrals. These are the behaviors that require diligence and more attention than we may have on any given day.

It’s not easy to change. It’s not easy to commit to using intraoral cameras more often or anything else you have as a goal. The difficulty lies not in an individual failing, but in the structure of our brain.

Conscious change is a fight against our natural inclinations. It requires holding ourselves accountable to the behavior changes we want to implement.

Self-Doubt and Commitment

We also have to face the self-doubt that comes with change and handling any hiccups that occur. It’s painful to make mistakes, but even more painful to stay mired in old, stale behaviors.

One thing that helps is transparency and being held accountable by an external source. Project management software already does this well. It keeps track of our successes and failings for us.

We should be using this tool to identify our weaknesses and thereby improve our results. Once we notice what behaviors aren’t driving success, we can replace them or find avenues toward heightened performance.

How do you support behavior change in yourself? Let us know your thoughts!