“Dyin’ ain’t much of a livin’, boy.”
-Clint Eastwood, The Outlaw Jose Wales

“Serenity now!”
-Frank Castanza, Seinfeld

Okay – so maybe Clint Eastwood  and George Castanza’s dad might be the furthest possible icons from you as a practitioner, but you have to admit to the relevant kernel of truth: slowly wasting away to the pressures of running a practice is no way to live.

The practitioners we’ve seen who are best at juggling the demands of patients, practice and personal life have one thing in common: they can let go. They’re able, almost on demand, to simply turn off their attachment to outcomes. They still want a certain result, but they’re able to detach from it in a way that leaves them able to move forward without crippling stress. Here are a few tips for following in their footsteps.

1. Accept the worst-case scenario

This is a a key insight in Escape 101 and a big part of our sabbatical planning, but it applies just as readily to practice management.

If you can identify the worst case scenario for a particularly troubling challenge, you’ll often discover that the worst-case isn’t as bad as you thought. And once you know what you’re up against, accepting it is often a yes or no proposition.

For our last sabbatical, we were anxious about what would happen if we took a half-year away from the practice. To help deal with it, we asked ourselves, “What’s the worst-case scenario?”

After some discussion, we came up with a simple dollar figure that represented the most we could reasonably expect to lose financially. All that remained then was to ask, “Can we accept that?” In that case, the answer was yes, and much of the anxiety vanished. (And, like almost all worst-case scenarios, that one didn’t come to pass. The practice was profitable while we were away.)

2. Remember Kaizen

Often the level of intensity we feel in practice is directly related to our desire to do everything now-to fix clients, build a busy practice, pay off debt. Nice idea, but it’s a recipe for burnout.

Behind the scenes of most successful and serene practitioners, things look a little different. The ones we’ve worked with all have a longer view of their practices. They tend toward a continuous improvement, or “kaizen” approach, always moving forward, always getting better in small steps. For them, even the biggest leaps are usually broken down into small steps, and the small steps are then gradually tweaked to work better over time.

Success rarely happens quickly. But if you make things a little better every day, every week, every month, you’re going to wake up one day with a roster of healthy clients, a busy practice, and no debt. And a bunch of people wondering how you did it “overnight”. 🙂

3. Take Time

Regardless of your efforts to the contrary, though, a practice can still become a pressure-cooker at times. Make sure you make and take the breaks you need. That can mean reducing your schedule (and improving your practice as a result), planning a vacation, or getting some serious distance in the form of a career break or sabbatical. Regardless of which you choose, sometimes you have to leave to let go.

-Dan