There is not just one answer to the question What does success look like? I hear therapists all the time say, “I just want to be successful.” However, what I feel is successful and important to my values may not at all resonate with you. There is one trait that I do feel we must share to create success, and that is the mindset.
Mindset is important for building your private practice. You need an attitude of “I am not quitting, no matter what.” Once you decide you are “all in” to your practice building journey, your next step is deciding is what will success look like for you. For some it may be working three days a week, working only with children, earning $150,000 in income a year (which by the way is totally doable). You need to have your vision and what you see as being successful mean. When we’re doing therapy, we often ask clients, “if therapy was successful, what would it look like? How would it feel? I am asking you to do the same for you. Take the time to vision what it is you want and set that goal. I understand that your definition of success will change over time. Success is a journey and not a onetime event. This vision should be part of your overall plan for a balanced life. I belong to a few Facebook therapist groups, and I see therapists struggling with creating a balanced life. I think that part of the balance starts with what you envision for your business and then building your business around those goals. I have a friend in a lower socioeconomic area, and her vision included working 3 days a week at her office, 1 day to write her books and 4 vacations a year. Oh, and she didn’t want to be bothered by doing billing tasks or working with insurance companies; she simply did not have time to deal with them. She also needed around $155,000 in income to support her family, which included one adult child in college. She knew if she could obtain these goals, she would define herself as “highly successful.” She started building her business with those goals in mind. It took her about 2 ½ years to get to the income goal but all the other goals she accomplished in about 13 months. She had her vision, and she put the work into building her practice. Within those 2 years, she worked hard and worked 4 days in her office instead of 3 days for a few months to make her vision a reality. She is an inspiration, and she stayed true to what makes her successful.
Your vision will change as you, your family, and your business grow. You will need to readjust your definition of success as you grow too. You might even add a different goal as you achieve the first ones. The important point is to define success for you. Here are a few questions I pondered as I was defining my success.
- How do you want to impact the world?
- Who do you envisage yourself becoming?
- What makes you happy?
- What do you want to be known for?
- Who do you want to spend time with?
- What type of lifestyle do I want?
- How is building a business going to help you achieve the above questions?
- What services will your business provide?
- Who will you provide services to?
- How much money do you want in the bank?
Be as detailed as possible even if you don’t know how to create your success right now. Once you have a clear idea of what you want, you can begin to break them down into small intentioned steps. You may find alone the way some of what you envisioned is not really what you want. Fantastic stop going after that and change the vision to include something else. Take time, sit down, and Vision, Dream Big! Ask yourself the hard questions and start building that business for you. It’s going to be great; I know it. If you need help with business planning schedule a one on one coaching session and create that vision.
Check out also my video on What Does Sucess Look Like in Private Practice?