This weekend we had another successful coaching session as part of our latest strategic entity “The New Dentist Academy”. I got an email and call from a former resident that needed some help in navigating post residency options and decisions. He finished a GPR 2 years ago and is about to receive his certificate as an Endodontist. He had several questions about what to do next. He mentioned that he had two potential job opportunities but in two different states 2,000 miles apart. He wasn’t sure what to do or how to make a decision, or how to make sense of it all. One of the first things that said to him was, “What is your ideal scene? What do you want to be doing in the next 2 to 5 years? Do you want your own Endo specialty practice? Do you mind working for another Endodontist or working as an endodontist within a general practice group? Although he had a few responses, none of them were specific enough to say that he had a decision or had an idea. Immediately, I advised him to strongly consider doing this next exercise: write down your ideal scene and what are your 3-5-10 goals (3-year, 5-year, 10-year), your core values or things that you’re not willing to give up? Who are you? What are you about? What things are most important to you professionally and personally? I explained to him that until he completes that exercise no decision can be made. 
Until he’s able to sit down and think through all of those questions nothing moving forward would make a difference. Additionally, I recommended that he share his list, this information, with his wife because she to needed to know and be part of the overall decision making process. He needs to know her “ideal scene” was well. He responded, “ Wow, Dr Hayes I didn’t even think about it like that! That’s very very helpful…you’re right, I need to do that before I make any decisions.”
As the coaching session continued I mentioned possible scenarios, examples of ideal scenes, and their implications both short-term and long-term. Again, I emphasized that none of that made a difference until he knew exactly what he was about, what he wanted to do, what his aspirations were, and what his ideal scene was going to be. After about a hour and right before we ended, we planned the next session in 2 weeks to make sure that the assignment got done but also to solidify that my help and his active contributions would be continued every step of the way.
The key takeaways from this coaching session deal with a main point for all of us, but especially for new dentists which are: before you know where you’re going you have to know why you want to go there and what are the factors that’ll allow you to go, and what is the ideal scene for you so that it will enable you to go on to achieve it. Without you knowing this important ideal scene concept no positive decisions can be made.
Do you have a difficult decision to make?
Are you unsure about your future and how to get there?
The answer is simple: get out a blank piece of paper and write up the following:
What are your core values?
What is your ideal scene?
What things are non-negotiable for you, not what’s right or what everyone else is doing, but what you want and what you would envision?
What do you aspire professionally in your career?
Email me your ideal scenes at newdentistcoach@gmail.com so that we can look at them together and discuss what the next steps could be for you….
Coming Soon: TheNewDentistCoach.com
