Magical thinking is NOT your friend
Magical thinking is awesome. If you don’t have to face the hard things that make you uncomfortable then those issues will just POOF disappear. If you leave the laundry on the end of the bed-POOF it will be folded and put away. If you keep scheduling clients back to back-POOF you will have time to go to the bathroom and even eat lunch. If you avoid looking at your finances-POOF you will have millions of dollars in your bank account.
You know that magical thinking has not worked and your problems in your practice have not gone away… they actually have gotten worse. 😳 Oh Damn….
Say it with me.. I can’t ignore the problems I am having in my practice. I have to take action or things will stay the same. Say it again….
Check in with your body. How do these things feel?
Continuing to schedule clients back to back where the only time you have to eat is shoving a handful of nuts in your mouth as you walk to get your client and doing this 5 days a week..
Every time you take a day off, you scramble to squeeze everyone in and even schedule in days and hours that don’t work for you
Tax time comes and you don’t know how you can come up with the money to pay your taxes
YUCK!!! It does not feel good. You’ve got a knot in your stomach. You’re drowning without a life raft. You’re unsettled and uncomfortable and don’t even know where to start to make changes. But you DO KNOW you can’t keep doing the same thing or you will burn out…. And do so fast.
Magical thinking and avoiding things that make you feel uncomfortable may feel good in the moment, but at the end of the day you are left with a deep desire and wish for something better.
What if you tried some reverse magical thinking (Yup, just coined that phrase!). Dream about ending your day at 5:00. Dream about having a solid handle on your finances and not only being able to pay your bills, but being able to plan for taxes and save money for the Disney vacation you are taking in November. This settled your stomach and quieted the constant chatter in your brain didn’t it?
Facebook or Intstagram make is look easy to run a buisiness and be successful. No one is showing pictures crying at their desks. No one is making posts saying they cursed out their schedule that they made themselves. You’ve never seen a post where someone double booked themselves or forgot they scheduled a client.
Seeing all the “successful” private practices makes you feel a lot of shame and embarrassment that you’re struggling to run your practice. Well the truth is…. you have a ridiculous amount of clinical training, but no where in your degree or the hundreds of hours of CEUs have you been taught how to run your practice like a business.
If what you are doing is making you feel sick, you know it’s time to make some changes. Change is hard and scary, and I want you to be in this field for a long time to come. If you allow things to stay the way they are (NOT WORKING) you will burn out.
I want you to pick one thing that matters most to you and make that change.
Now your turn tell me about your reverse magical thinking for your practice:
-What does your dream schedule look like?
-What is your ideal fee?
-How much vacation do you want in a year?
-What is your sweet spot for how many clients you see a week?
Tell me in the comments!
