This video is part of an ongoing series on Defining Success. To view the series from the beginning, click here. To receive notifications when new blogs are posted, subscribe to the Spear Online RSS feed.
The first of an ongoing video series focusing on the possibilities of treatment planning a patient with two outdated posterior restorations.
What does “doing what you want” look like for you? How can dentistry give you the means to design your life to acquire that freedom? As he continues his time in Hawaii, Frank reflects on dentistry, freedom and retirement.
Tune in Tuesday, Jan. 5 for more of Frank’s thoughts on free time.
Watching President Obama in the news recently I was struck by how a big part of the role of the President is to be a gatekeeper. As vast and powerful as this nation is, there are only so many resources to be deployed, only so many challenges you can call priorities at any given time. Every interest group has its own idea of what should come first, and by setting the administration’s agenda, the President is deciding where the country’s focus and resources will go. No matter where we are on the political spectrum, I think we can all sympathize with the political no-win involved: the people who you say no to are unhappy with your decisions, and the people you say yes to will complain that you aren’t doing enough. The art of politics lies in be able to ensure that the benefits of your “yeses” outweigh the sacrifices of your “no’s.”
But of course you don’t have to be President to face this dilemma. As a business operator you make choices every day, and every choice comes with its own implications. The trick is to make those choices in a conscious way that recognizes those implications, which is often harder than it sounds. Many of us have an “I can do it all” mindset that makes us want to tackle just about any task, challenge or request that presents itself. I know I did—until I came to the realization that every time I said yes to something, I was saying no to something else. And sometimes the things I was saying yes to were not as important to my goals and my quality of life as things that were getting pushed aside.
That’s when I made the decision to evaluate each and every choice about where my time and resources were going in a conscious, deliberate way. I scheduled time with my sons because I knew if I didn’t reserve it, the time would be eaten up elsewhere. I became selective about what I would commit my personal energy to and what I would delegate. I gave myself permission to say no. And in doing so, I believe I became a better, more focused, more effective leader—and I removed a lot of the noise from life.
I encourage you to reclaim control of your life in this way, and to be more mindful of what you’re committing to. Because when you are just dealing with each issue that comes your way and saying yes to everything until you run out of time and resources, you are letting every issue assume equal weight on your scale of importance, and despite how busy you are making yourself, you’re living life in a passive, reactive way. This applies to the way you schedule your appointment book as well as to the way you protect your family time.
The answer then is to balance your yeses and no’s in a way that is aligned with your values, to critically evaluate each new request for your time, and to ask yourself “if I say yes to this, what am I saying no to?” Make sure your yeses line up with your objectives and don’t be afraid to say no to the low-value “time vampires.” That’s the way to minimize stress and optimize focus in a way that respects the value of your time and the integrity of your vision.
Happy Holidays – Hawaiian style! Sand, surf and sincere wishes for a happy holiday season.
The next time you tell yourself you can’t do something because you don’t have the right resources, think about this young man:
This is William Kamkwamba, born into wrenching poverty in Malawi, who at the age of 14 built a windmill from spare parts and provided life-saving resources for his family and the people of his village. I’m reading his story right now in a book called The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind and it is truly remarkable and inspiring. Here’s an excerpt from the book’s jacket:
“With nothing more than a fistful of cornmeal in his stomach, a small pile of once-forgotten science textbooks, and an armory of curiosity and determination, he embarked on a daring plan to bring his family a set of luxuries that only two percent of what Malawians could afford and what the West considers a necessity—electricity and running water. Using scrap metal, tractor parts and bicycle halves, William forged a crude yet operable windmill, an unlikely contraption and small miracle that eventually powered four lights, complete with homemade switches and a circuit breaker made from nails and wire. A second machine turned a water pump that could battle the drought and famine that loomed with every season.”
You can see him recap the story himself in this video. (Turn on the subtitles if you have problems with his accented English. Personally, I think he sounds fine.)
There are some very powerful lessons here, one of which is that sometimes it’s more important to be resourceful than to have a lot of resources. As Teddy Roosevelt once put it: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” That’s an obligation we all owe to ourselves, I think—to make the most of what we have in any situation. And the incredible story of William Kamkwamba is a perfect illustration of what we human beings are capable of when we really take that message to heart.
I am a learner. In fact, that is one of my defining qualities and core values. I love learning about dentistry, fly fishing, wing shooting and being a new grandpa. I am always curious and completely certain that there is always more to know.
I came here to Scottsdale because I had the opportunity to live my values. I love teaching as much as I love learning and most of the time I can’t tell them apart. As an educator, I want you to learn all that you are capable of learning. I want to encourage, cajole, push, prompt and whatever other verbs fit to help you get where you want to go.
I have made tons of mistakes in my 31 years in dentistry, but one thing I got right was to find mentors who could help me define what I wanted from work and life. Great people whom you all know like Frank, Pete Dawson, Gerry Chiche, Pascal and Michel Magne, Matt Roberts, Lee Ann Brady, Gary DeWood, and Rich Green have all contributed mightily to my development.
Then there are people whom you may have never heard of who probably had a greater influence on my life. They are the folks who guided me early in my career and helped me make great choices. Jack Love, Ron Marrow, Joe Maybury and others who pushed me to learn and do more.
Then there are my study club partners. We have been together for 12 years. We don’t meet much anymore, mostly due to time constraints and distance, yet, we grew up together and those five people mean the world to me.
I get to lead Spear Study Clubs. I am passionate about it since I know how impactful a great study club can be in helping dentists grow much further and faster than they would on their own. I think that is pretty cool. I get to do something I love, with people I care about and who empower me, and I get to live my values through work. It just doesn’t get much better than that.
Hear what Frank looks forward to as he embarks on his annual Maui retreat.
At this time of year, I always feel particularly blessed to be living a life that has brought me in touch with such a rich diversity of experience. I’ve lived in Africa, in England, in Canada, and now in the United States. I’ve traveled extensively and met people from around the globe. In my work and in my personal life, I have people close to me from a variety of social and ethnic backgrounds, people of different religions, with different styles, different degrees of observance, and different traditions. But amongst all these variations, I am struck by how much we have in common, especially when it comes to that basic human need to connect.
That’s why I love the holiday season. It gives all of us an opportunity to remove ourselves from our hectic routines and truly celebrate all we have, with those we love. And I guess that’s why it disturbs me to see so many people race through the season with a checklist mentality, not taking the time to savor these moments with friends and family and to really appreciate the abundance in our lives.
The transition to a new year is also the perfect time, not only to reflect and celebrate, but to look ahead with purpose. And I don’t mean the usual easily-made, quickly-forgotten New Year’s resolutions. I’m talking about a real strategy for the upcoming year—a detailed, specific plan for improvement and growth in the context of an over-arching vision. My ritual for this time of year is to give myself some time away to read and think and create my big picture for the year ahead. I always return re-energized, my mind teeming with new ideas and fresh insights, my agenda infused with new priorities (just ask the people who work for me). I consider this time to be vitally important to my business, because it’s the thinking I do now that shapes my focus and drives my actions for the months that follow. It’s not the kind of thinking you can fit around your work and home commitments—you have to allocate special, dedicated, reserved time for it.
I urge you to give yourself the gift of mindfulness this year. Don’t let the season become a source of additional stress—a blur of shopping trips and parties and last-minute preparations. It’s ironic, but the only way to really honor the traditions of our past and the possibilities of our future is to give full value to the now.
Happy Holidays, everyone.
Treatment planning can be both fun and frustrating. It is the foundation of what we do every day, but I never get tired of learning more about the process. Why is that? One of the things I have come to accept over time is that my treatment planning is always influenced by me! Without intention, I treatment plan what I do well more often.
I have procedures that I feel very comfortable and confident with – ones that have been consistently successful for me. On the other hand, I have procedures that make my stomach queasy, which I have experienced failures with. Guess which ones I treatment plan more often? I also know that my plans are influenced by how I would choose to treat my own dental health. Stepping out of my own way when I plan will always be a challenge.
The gift of using a treatment planning process is that it separates my perspective from the realities of the clinical situation and focuses me on the clinical decision points. Following the process of Facially Generated Treatment Planning also keeps me in a rhythm of looking at the entire case and not choosing what to present because of assumptions I have made about the patient’s interests.
Continued learning gives me the opportunity to treatment plan with other clinicians; this is an incredible experience that allows me to see the influence of my perspective creeping back in. It illuminates the gaps in how I am applying the system and tightens up my approach while at the same time broadening the clinical alternatives I see as possibilities as I hear how other clinicians see the solution.
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