Practice Paralysis and How to Treat It

 Are You Suffering from Practice Paralysis?

I see hundreds of small healthcare practices struggling with something I call Practice Paralysis. It’s stopping these practices and the people in them from achieving their dreams.

So what is it and how do you know if you are suffering from it? AND more importantly, what is the cure?

Practice Paralysis - What the heck is it ⁉️

 

Practice Paralysis is a very common condition that I see so many healthcare practice owners struggling with, day in and day out. Put simply, Practice Paralysis is a condition where you feel stuck. You no longer feel in control of your practice, or where it’s heading. You’re stuck on some rails taking you in a direction you are not sure you want to go and you don’t know how to change direction. 

 

 

Practice Paralysis - Have you got it? 

Like most medical conditions, there is a whole list of telltale signs and symptoms that will help you make that diagnosis. 

So do you recognise any of the following symptoms in your practice?

 Do you :

1. Feel overwhelmed by your practice and everything that you need to do inside it?
2. Feel generally unhappy with life?
3. Have no spare time for yourself, family, or friends?
4. Feel personally and/or professionally unfulfilled?
5. Feel like the practice is running you, rather than you running the practice?
6. Struggle with financial uncertainty?
7. Shift between business stress and clinical boredom a lot of the time?
8. Struggle with patient numbers? (too few/many)
9. Feel trapped inside the practice without the freedom you hoped for?
10. Feel unsupported or isolated inside your practice?

 

If you feel you are experiencing 3 or more of these symptoms, you have a positive diagnosis of Practice Paralysis.

 

But I have great news 🎉

Like most medical conditions there is a clear and effective treatment plan.

BUT I want to manage your expectations at this point.
As you can see from the list of symptoms, the condition, like many medical problems, is multifaceted, which makes treating it complex, but not impossible. 

So I want to encourage you to dig deep and start getting proactive about resolving your situation. Just like many of your patients, the sooner you take ownership and decide to do something about it, the sooner you will see the transformation you want in your practice.

 

Practice Paralysis - So what is the cure 💊?

Sadly like pretty much every complex medical condition there is no simple magic pill.

The overriding treatment plan, like any, firstly requires you (the patient) to take ownership of changing your situation.

ARE YOU UP FOR THIS?

YES?  ERM I'M NOT SURE!

You have to be all in, to stand a chance of a full recovery, so if you are not feeling a full HELL YES inside, you need to park this idea until you do.

If you're 📣 HELL YESING as loud as you can 📣 let's get your rehabilitation started 😁 🙌🏼

Your rehabilitation involves 7 simple (note I didn't say easy) steps:

 

1. Own the key problem, YOU. I know this hurts but the person you are being, the thoughts you think, and the actions you take every day have led you to this point. So to get different results you need to reverse engineer the situation.
   - For different results, you need to take different actions.
   - To take different actions you need to be thinking different thoughts.
   - To think different thoughts you have to have real awareness of your thoughts and be proactive about changing them - every day.
   So step 1 is to work on yourself and shift your thinking away from self-limiting, negative, or just small thinking, to empowering, positive and expansive thinking, which in turn will impact your actions, which in the longer term will get you different results.
   
   
2. Get clarity. So many practice owners are on the hamster wheel every day doing the doing without really knowing what they want to build or why they are building it. You need to get really clear on what that looks like for you. With that clarity comes focus and aligned action.
   
   
3. Commit to consistency. This is one of the hardest because no one can do it for you! Showing up every day and working on the actual things that will move you toward your goal, is the key to success. Obvious, I know, but many practices stumble at this point.
   
   
4. Know your numbers. You have to know exactly what is going on in your practice from a numbers perspective to be in control and taking informed and effective decisions.
   Energy flows where your attention goes, so monitoring specific metrics every week will help you start to get different results.
   
   
5. Build strong relationships. Your team, patients, referrers, suppliers, and local people all need to feel a personal and genuine connection to you and your practice in order for you to build a strong supportive practice community around you. That strong community, not a random collection of people, will fuel you and your practice.
   
   
6. Grow a positive reputation. You have to be good clinically, not brilliant, but good, to get great patient outcomes and deliver a great patient experience that will grow a strong positive local reputation and build a strong thriving practice.
   
   
7. Build a strong presence. People have to know you exist and know what you do to ever consider buying from you. You need to use effective marketing to build this presence both on and offline. 

Does that make sense?

 If you're a visual learner I thought this might help you understand what that rehabilitation plan looks like.
Start from the left in paralysis and follow the curve over to the right and practice momentum.

Did that help?

Are any 💡 coming on for you?
If so please scroll down to the comments section now before you forget and share them with me. I'd love to understand how this helps.

 

I know once you see it, the steps look obvious, but I also know from experience that many practitioners are so stuck in their practices, they don’t know where to start.

If that's you I want to invite you to take an easy first step.

Come and join me and 100's of other healthcare practitioners rehabing their own way out of practice paralysis, inside our FREE Practice Momentum Academy.

Within the Academy, you can access a community of people all on the same journey, and also a whole bunch of free resources that will help start your practice paralysis rehab. If you start thinking new thoughts and taking new action you will start creating momentum in your practice, moving forward towards the thriving practice and richer life you really want and deserve ♥️

 

 

Hopefully, in there somewhere, you learned something about the condition of practice paralysis, if you might be suffering from it, and much more importantly what you need to do to rehab yourself back to full practice momentum and a richer life.

Thank you soooo much for taking the time to stop by our Practice Momentum blog today.
I really hope you found value in spending some time here today.

And don't forget if you recognise yourself in any of these symptoms, are struggling to make any headway, and feel you need some rehab buddies, please do come and join us in the Academy - I would love to see you there.

Until next time