646: The 1 Key You Need to Get Started on a Better Practice and a Better Life - Heather Crockett

The 1 Key You Need to Get Started on a Better Practice and a Better Life

Episode #646 with Heather Crockett

If you're feeling stuck and want to change, now is the time to do it. To help you get started, Kirk Behrendt brings back Heather Crockett, one of ACT’s amazing coaches, with the number-one key to making change and progress in any part of your life. It’s time to stop sabotaging your success! To learn how to get out of your own way, listen to Episode 646 of The Best Practices Show!

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Links Mentioned in This Episode:

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Main Takeaways:

Getting started is the hardest part of anything.

Stop getting in the way of your own success.

Find someone to help you be accountable.

Now is always the time for change.

Don't stay stuck!

Quotes:

“We oftentimes get in our own way of seeing that success of getting started. So many doctors, especially clients that I coach, tell me that they wish they would have started sooner. That's why this is important.” (2:29—2:43) -Heather

“People say, ‘Well, change takes time.’ No, it doesn't. Change takes a second. All you have to decide is, ‘Today is the day. I'm done. I'm changing. I'm signing up for a new program.’ Now, the key is, change has to be sustained.” (2:47—3:00) -Kirk

“One of my favorite coaches of all time, when I was in the toughest spot of all time in running ACT Dental, I reached out to him for help. I said, ‘I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait until next summer.’ He said, ‘Kirk, what's the benefit of waiting?’ I didn't have an answer. I remember exactly where I was. I was in the parking lot talking to him on the phone. He said, ‘There's no benefit. You're going to call me next summer, and you're going to be older, and these problems are going to be bigger. There's no benefit to waiting.’” (3:04—3:38) -Kirk

“What dentists often think is that they want their practice to be better. They want their life to be better — like you wanted your company to get better. But, ‘I'll wait for that perfect moment.’ When I was recently sitting in church, one of the speakers shared this with us. He said, ‘If not you, then who? And if not now, when?’ That really resonated with me. Of course, I'm thinking of things that pop into my own head, ideas that are coming to me for my own personal life. But I'm also thinking about my work life, and my clients, and their team members as well with this thought-provoking statement. This immediately brings those insightful thoughts to your brain, exactly like what you experienced, Kirk, with that coach. Why are we waiting? It causes us to step back for a minute and evaluate our current circumstances to say, ‘Okay, what is it exactly that we want to achieve, and how quickly do we want to achieve it?’” (3:50—4:47) -Heather

“Some of you think, ‘Well, I've got to start my own practice.’ The day you decided that was a beautiful day, and you found the resources. Some of you decided to move your practice to another location. All you have to do is start the search. And so, just the decision in your brain to take the initiative is really important.” (5:12—5:31) -Kirk

“Nobody controls you and what you do. Right? Taking that initiative has to be self-motivating. You have to be aware of the situation first, aware that your practice needs improving, aware that — for me, it's that I want to get back into yoga again. I used to be really good at that. For me, it's that self-awareness that, ‘Gosh, I haven't done yoga in so long. That's probably why my body is screaming at me half of the time.’ So, you have that awareness piece, but that self-management of taking initiative, that's the change that you were talking about. That's the first thing that you have to do, is say, ‘I'm going to make a change, and I'm going to make this happen.’ But you can't do it alone.” (6:08—6:50) -Heather

“The first step is just being aware. The more aware you are of your situation, the more you get annoyed with yourself because you want to see that change take place. So, taking that initiative and that first step.” (6:56—7:09) -Heather

“You'll naturally face two evils, and the two evils will be procrastination and perfection. You always want to, ‘I'm going to wait.’ And then, the second one is, ‘Well, I've got to get this perfect before I start.’” (7:19—7:33) -Kirk

“You've got to get moving. You've got to start somewhere. That's where “Get Mo” comes from. Start to move. Start to take some action and get moving on whatever it is that you're hoping to achieve.” (7:44—7:56) -Heather

“One of the concepts that I like that works for me is the 80% approach by Dan Sullivan. So, procrastination and perfection get in the way, for me, daily. Now, the important thing of getting anything to 80% is I'll draft it up, I'll look it up. Some ideas don't make it to implementation. But the fact is I drafted it, I looked at it, I had other people look at it, and we're just going to start it. And it can take an instant to do that.” (7:58—8:25) -Kirk

“Do you ever wait for the “perfect” moment to start something? For example, do you remember when Biggest Loser was really big on TV? I used to watch that all the time. There were so many contestants on there that would say, ‘Oh, I'll start Monday. I'll start Monday.’ So, ‘On Monday, then I will weigh myself. Then, I'll start counting calories. Then, I'll start exercising.’ But after 52 Mondays, you realize that you're a year older and you never started on Monday. We make these excuses, as humans, over and over and over. It's natural for us to make those excuses. We put barriers in our way because change is hard and uncomfortable.” (8:34—9:17) -Heather

“Change is hard. Complacency is easy. It's really easy to sit in front of the TV and eat some ice cream at night before I go to bed. It's really easy to do that. It's much harder to pick up and move, and do my yoga, or do a HIIT class, whatever it is that people are doing now. That's so much harder than sitting back and taking it easy. But that's what gets in our way, because we wait for the “perfect” moment. ‘Oh, I'll wait till Monday.’ What's wrong with right now?” (9:19—9:52) -Heather

“I don't know who said it, but 90% of success is just showing up. I have found that to be absolutely true. Whether it be a study club, whether it be a course, there are so many things I signed up for and I'm like, ‘I don't know . . . Oh, I'm glad I signed up for this! I had no idea.’ You show up, you meet somebody, and you're like, ‘I am so darn glad I'm here.’” (10:19—10:38) -Kirk

“I used to say this years ago when I went to a gym. The hardest part of any day is putting on those shoes, because as soon as I put the shoes on, I'm actually halfway to the gym. The old gym that my wife and I used to go to had a sign right above the door, ‘Congratulations. The hardest part of your day is over. You got here.’ And I'm like, bam — that's it. So, sometimes you’ve just got to get there.” (10:54—11:15) -Kirk

“Nobody, at any age, knows how many Mondays they have left. One of the questions that I ask a lot of my clients when we go through a brainstorming exercise to figure out what it is that they want, because sometimes even my clients are like, ‘I don't know what I want. I just want things to be better.’ So, I will ask them a series of questions. One of the questions I ask my clients is, ‘If you died in three years, what would you want to accomplish in those three years?’ It helps put things into perspective. What it does is it tells me what's the most important to them, and what we should take action on now.” (11:24—11:59) -Heather

“Human beings need other human beings to help them get out of their own way, because we stick back into that “complacency is easy” mode. It's easy. ‘Oh, I'm comfortable sitting on the couch in my jammies with ice cream.’ That's easy. I'm not as motivated. Now, if I know that I have to report back to someone, or someone's holding me accountable to doing those things, or my friend is expecting me at 6:00 a.m. to do yoga together, I'm going to actually show up and I'm going to do it.” (12:21—12:52) -Heather

“Other people are going to keep track of what you promised, and then give you deadlines so that you can actually accomplish those things within that time frame. They're going to ask you about it. They're going to give you the support that you need. We talked about Biggest Loser, and I'm going to talk about another TV show. I promise, I don't just watch TV, but lately I've been pulled into Shark Tank. And these entrepreneurs, they're looking for that accountability piece too. They're also looking for someone to help them to see things that they don't see. They want another perspective, and that's what these other human beings can do for us too. I can sit in a yoga class, and the yoga instructor can say, ‘Yes, that looks great. And if you twist this way, or stretch a little further this way,’ or your Peloton instructor, they push you a little bit further so that you do things that you didn't even realize you were capable of. That's that whole accountability piece. That's when that magic happens, when you involve other human beings in what it is that you're trying to achieve.” (14:19—15:19) -Heather

“If you ever said to yourself as a dentist, ‘I'll just build a business. I don't need anybody's help,’ that's silly or arrogant, one of the two, because you need the help of a great accountant. You need the help of a great consultant. I mean, you’ve got all these things that you cannot do yourself. And a great coach can say, ‘Don't do that. That's dumb.’ A great coach also doesn't work in your business, so they don't care. They don't have the emotional constraints that you and your team have about upsetting anybody. They're going to do it for the benefit of the practice. And my whole point in saying this is that you can lean into accountability. It's quite wonderful when you don't have to fill your brain with, ‘How do I figure this out?’ or, ‘How do I do this next?’” (15:57—16:41) -Kirk

“I often say this to my clients. You're getting in your own way . . . We get in our own way. We make excuses. We place blame. You can make excuses or progress, but you can't make both.” (19:01—19:15) -Heather

“You get in your own way. So, enlist the help of someone that will help you to get out of your way, and then take that first step.” (19:35—19:43) -Heather

“If you're stuck, don't stay stuck. There's nothing worse than being stuck — other than talking to yourself about being stuck. That makes it worse. And 80% of self-talk is usually negative, so you don't want to do that either. You need to start talking to somebody going, ‘Stop talking like that. That's not true. Let's get you out of the mud.’” (21:07—21:26) -Kirk

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

2:19 Why this is important for your practice.

4:49 Take initiative and have self-awareness.

7:56 If not now, when?

12:01 Find others to help you with accountability.

18:55 Last thoughts.

Heather Crockett Bio:

Heather Crockett is a Lead Practice Coach who finds joy in not only improving practices but improving the lives of those she coaches as well. With over 20 years of combined experience in assisting, office management, and clinical dental hygiene, her awareness supports many aspects of the practice setting.

Heather received her dental hygiene degree from the Utah College of Dental Hygiene in 2008. Networking in the dental community comes easy to her, and she loves to connect with like-minded colleagues on social media. Heather enjoys both attending and presenting continuing education to expand her knowledge and learn from her friends and colleagues.

She enjoys hanging out with her husband, three sons, and their dog, Moki, scrolling through social media, watching football, and traveling.