Money: Your Relationship To It
A person’s relationship with money is both complex and important. In the world of business—and you are in business—your dynamic with money can be positive and healthy or it can be negative and stress-filled. If your practice—your business—is financially sound and you and your team are secure and happy, you will attract people who are the same. What you put out there will come back to you. Put up a mirror in front of the face of your practice and know that the patients and the relationships you have with your patients will be a direct reflection of what you are putting out into the world. If you are stressed about money, driven by money, don’t have enough money to pay the bills, or you don’t feel equitably compensated for your work, those negative feelings will be projected and you will attract people who are negative, demanding, and dominating or who don’t have enough money of their own!!! The mirror effect.
Have you ever thought about your relationship to money? Think about it for a few minutes. Your attitude toward– and relationship with–money can have a positive or negative effect on other team members and patients.
If, for example, you are discussing money with a patient but you don’t feel comfortable doing so, the patient will pick up on your discomfort. No matter how great the verbal skills, that discomfort may have an adverse impact on the patient and may affect whether or not they accept their financial responsibility or the treatment itself.
Can you develop a healthy relationship to money? Yes. Might it take some work? Perhaps. Remember that money is a vehicle. It’s not money that you want or need. It’s what money will do for you. It is a vehicle. Therefore, take some time to consider what is important to your life and to your ultimate happiness.
For example: If you say, “I want to increase our production. We need to see more patients or do more treatment.”
Peel the layer of that onion and look deeper. Why do you want to produce more? Is it the increased revenue, the actual money to be exchanged that will bring you pleasure? What will you gain from the increase?
Will you get to:
*Do more of the procedures your love to do?
*See more patients accept treatment and get healthier?
* Pay the bills on time?
*Stay in business?
*Have more take-home money for your family needs?
*Take more time off to spend with family or on personal interests?
*Pay your team in a more equitable manner?
*Hire the right people?
*Fund a retirement program?
*Buy that boat that you have yearned for so that you can fish more often—or whatever?
Or a combination of the above?
In this list of possible reasons for wanting to increase production, it isn’t the money that is the “goal”. The money—the increased production–is the means to the end—the vehicle. The ultimate goal could be health, family, quality time, stress relief. It could be any or all of these things or others. It isn’t the money that is the goal here–it’s the intangibles that matter–the important things in life: health, physical well-being, family, communion with nature, peace. These are examples of motivators that are substantial and relevant to life. Motivators are different for each individual—as unique as the individuals themselves.
