From time to time, you may hear “it’s impossible” when you ask for something to be done in the practice. Bosses hear it from staff and staff sometimes hear it from bosses. No matter who is saying it to whom, it can be very frustrating to be told that something is impossible when it’s important.
“Impossible is just an Opinion”
This is a quote from the famous lyricist and novelist, Paulo Coelho. But can it be true? We have seen people pull off amazing miracles because they didn’t buy in to the concept that something was impossible. Some people have the opinion that nothing is actually unattainable in this world. Maybe that is the correct way to look at things.
In analyzing practices to see how we can help [our free, in-depth practice analysis], we often hear doctors say that it’s impossible to get staff or it’s impossible to get a lot of new patients from digital marketing or that it’s impossible to get a staff member to do things the way you want them done or to speed them up, and so on. But are those opinions or are they factual?
The Correct Approach
- The first step is to assume that something CAN be done about the problem. Do not immediately buy into the opinion that something can’t be done or is impossible. Think or search outside the box for alternate ways to address the problem.
- Sometimes the problem or difficulty has many layers and so it seems impossible. The approach here would be to take it one step or layer at a time and handle or accomplish that, then move on to the next level. Build up a stream of successes rather than taking on some mammoth challenge and failing.
For instance, we hear endlessly that you can’t find good staff or have a good team. Yet obviously that is an untrue blanket statement since we have thousands of clients who have found awesome staff (read more on “Fastest Growing Job Requirements“). So, where did they advertise the position, what were they looking for in the candidate, how far afield did they look, maybe they didn’t even need the position they are looking for but rather, they could handle the need a different way. There are a lot of options and ways that our clients have found the right staff despite being in the middle of nowhere with no apparent candidates. They did not buy into the opinion that it was impossible, and so they were successful.
- Set some unrealistic goals for yourself. Definitely you want to be able to accomplish goals that challenge you. If you only set realistic ones, there might not be enough excitement or reward and so you may fail.
- Hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky famously said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” Obviously you can’t succeed unless you try. And that means that you have to take action.
So saying that something is impossible IS just an opinion. It is not a fact. Don’t buy into it!
