By Peter G. Shaw-McMinn, OD
Remember when you dreamed of sailing around the world? Or climbing Mt. Everest? Or having your own building with a thriving practice? Sometimes after graduating from optometry school we forget the reasons we sought out optometry in the first place.
Exercise: Start Planning to Meet Future Goals
Click HERE to download a complimentary questionnaire on planning your ideal professional future.
Many of us recognized that the profession can give us the time and money to live many of our youthful dreams. Often we get so busy running our practice that we forget what those dreams were. Every year the first-year students at Marshall B. Ketchum University’s Southern California College of Optometry complete an exercise in which they plan for their future. Every year this reminds me of planning my goals, too.
My wife and kids would sit down with me, and we would go through the outline considering what we want our future to look like. Click HERE, or on the link provided in the blue call-out box on this page, to complete this exercise. It will require you to consider whether you have worked toward your personal and professional goals.
Close your eyes and imagine what you would like to see when you wake up in the morning and drive to your office to see patients. Does what you want to see correlate with what you actually see every day? If not, you may want to make some changes. Visualizing what you want can be a powerful motivator to focus your efforts on what is important to you.
Sit down with your family and complete the exercise. You may be surprised at all the options out there. It is a great big world, and we have a wonderful profession full of new technology. Design a life that brings happiness to you and your loved ones!
What have you already mapped out about your future professional plans? Do you have any tips for other ODs in the process of deciding their optometric future?
Peter G. Shaw-McMinn, OD, is an assistant professor of Clinical Studies at the Southern California College of Optometry. He is the senior partner of Sun City Vision Center, a group practice including five optometrists. Dr. Shaw-McMinn has served as chairman of the AOA Practice Management Committee and the Association of Practice Management Educators. He was the appointed Benedict professor in Practice Management for the University of Houston College of Optometry for 2001-2002. To contact: shawmc1@me.com.
