Ep #8: How to Actually Get to Your Goal

Episode eight, How to Actually Get To Your Goal.

Welcome to Clinicians Creating Impact, a show for physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language pathologists looking to take the next step in their careers and make a real difference in the lives of their clients. If you’re looking to improve the lives of neurodiverse children and families with neurological-based challenges, grow your own business, or simply show up to help clients, this is the show for you.

I’m Heather Branscombe, Therapist, Certified Coach, Clinical Director, and Owner of Abilities Neurological Rehabilitation. I have over 25 years of experience in both the public and private sectors, and I’m here to help you become the therapist you want to be, supporting people to work towards their dreams and live their best lives. You ready to dive in? Let’s go.

Hello, friend. This is an episode that I am really excited to record. I’m excited because I hear about this challenge a lot at work and I have lived this challenge myself. And just between you and me, I am living this challenge myself right now as well.

I’m super excited to reveal what I’ve learned in my 25-year career as a clinician, what to do, and more importantly what not to do. Learn from my mistakes, if you will. I also have some concrete concepts and tools that I think can really help you out. So let’s just dive in, shall we?

I’ve shared on here before how much of a goal-oriented person I am, and I wonder if you’re like that as well. I’ve used goals for both me and I’ve used it against myself over the years. And now that I’ve come back to using goals for myself, I can tell you how much I just love goals as a way to decide how I want to use my time in my career, and I really want that for you as well.

What’s amazing is that while I can definitely notice how I’ve been able to supercharge my career over the past few years, I’ve noticed that there’s been one concept that I’ve always actually used, even when work was really hard for me. And what I’ve noticed is how much it’s actually served me.

I get a lot of things wrong at work, but there are a few things that I’ve got right and I want to share some of those things with you today. This is really the difference between clinicians who are getting their goals and those who aren’t, and I’m telling you this is what has worked for me as well.

Now, first I want to acknowledge that not all jobs or roles as a clinician are the same. And there are many circumstances, situations, and expectations that really do make it difficult to achieve your goals at work. Now, I believe that that’s a lot less than most people think it is, but let’s acknowledge that this is a thing. And what I’m about to talk to you about doesn’t necessarily apply as much to those situations. If you think that might be you, please reach out to me and I’m happy to help you through your unique situation.

What I want to do today is even if you still believe you are in that small percentage, consider going with me for a minute. Even if it’s true that your unique situation, or circumstances, or expectations fall within that small percentage range, the concepts and techniques that I’m talking about today can still help relieve some of the pressure. You get to decide if the issue is you or your job. And then you get to decide what to do based on that decision.

The main difference I see between people, and more specifically the clinicians, that get results and those who don’t is their level of commitment. Now, I know there are those that will say that they’ll try this and they’ll have a much different experience than those that say that they’re committed to getting their result no matter what.

Now, while that might sound really easy and maybe even simplistic, you’ve probably even seen this with some of your clients. Do you notice that the clients that you have that have the actual commitment create bigger results than those who don’t? Even if they have amazing reasons why that commitment to things like home practice can’t happen.

So today I have a little screening tool for you to use for yourself to see if commitment may be a challenge for you. So let’s test your commitment for a moment. I want you to think about something you want to create for yourself. It could be something like getting things done at work in the hours that you want. Getting your documentation done by the end of the day. Getting a pay raise, or something different. Got something in mind?

Then let’s ask the following three questions. Question number one, are you really committed to getting what you want no matter what? Question number two, why or why not? I love that question. And then question number three, if you don’t get that result, are you willing to pay me $50,000?

Now, I’m not, obviously, requiring any kind of payment. But just notice the difference between wanting something versus fully committing. The difference is taking action until you have what you want, no matter what. So if you want to learn more about action and the kinds of action that are most effective, you can learn more in episode five, Why Action Isn’t Enough and What To Do About It.

The good news is that your commitment is only broken when you fail. And you only fail when you quit. Let me repeat that again, your commitment to your result is only broken when you fail. And you only fail when you quit. I know you’ve seen that with your clients, and I really want you to apply that to yourself as well.

When you’re continually taking actions toward your goal, no matter what the results are in any given moment, you’re still in the game. You may not be getting the results you’re wanting as quickly as you wanted it, but as long as you keep going, you’ll learn along the way. And by that definition, you have not failed.

One of the most favorite things I’ve ever heard from a colleague of mine at Abilities comes from a course they took and it really stuck with me. This colleague was taking a clinical course and the instructor said something to the effect of when you try something in a session with a client, if it works, you call it treatment. And if it doesn’t work, you call it an assessment.

I love this thought for so many reasons. But for the purposes of this podcast, I love the idea that not getting the result you’re looking for as a clinician, both inside and outside a client session, can always be seen as an assessment or an opportunity to learn.

If I were to extend this thought for a minute, isn’t it interesting that we don’t ever expect to know it all about a client, even as experienced clinicians, when we’re looking to create a result for a client? But when we’re looking to create a result for ourselves, if it doesn’t happen exactly the way we expected it to on the first time, then we can make it mean that something is fundamentally wrong with ourselves. Isn’t that interesting?

So I like to take that idea that was shared with me from that course and expand it to myself. So if I try something and it works as I expected it to, I keep going with it. And if it doesn’t, I try to learn from it and then try something else based on that knowledge. That is commitment. It’s just that simple.

So how committed are you to your goals? If you’re less than you thought or less than you want to be, please take heart. You’ve been practicing, including the way that you practice the way that you get to your goals, for a long time. And your brain has patterns in it so that it can be efficient and it can prioritize things to be safe, comfortable, and or easy. You have these well-established patterns, and the brain likes it that way.

So to change and commit to getting a goal or a result, you need to expect discomfort and to move towards it. And that’s just like what we offer to our clients. You can rely on your commitment, allow the discomfort, and then act anyway. So growth really means you committing to doing the work, including the work to change your beliefs about your own self-worth and capabilities as a clinician.

So to bring it back to one of the stories I alluded to at the beginning of the podcast, I can see I haven’t always taken a lot of directed actions toward my goals at work. One of the places that I do see my commitment, though, is to the company that I have helped to build.

You may or may not know that over 15 years ago, in October of 2007, I started my own clinic as a clinician. And when I say I started my clinic on my own, I literally mean at the beginning it was just me and a 1,000-square-foot office space for the first month.

Now, the following month I hired my first employee who, fun fact, still works with me as I’m recording this podcast today. And then I just hired more and more. And when I hired more, clearly, not every team member would stay long-term. But over time and with commitment now we have five locations with many amazing team members. And while I would be the first to say that more team members or more clinics isn’t universally better, I have never been more happy with the team we have and the impact that we create together.

Now, when people meet me for the first time and they learn about Abilities as an organization, they hear about the five locations, they often see all that’s been built and are super kind and complimentary to me. Now, I’m very clear that I do have a part to play in this organization, in that as I reflect on what my part is or what the most important part of my role is in what we’ve built as a team, it’s really my commitment to the company, the people I work with, and who we serve, and the impact we create.

It’s really the commitment that’s been the most important thing that I’ve done or not done. So ask anyone who’s worked with me, I have tons of flaws and I’ve made lots of mistakes. But one strength that I do have is the commitment to this vision, even when it has felt hard and even when it would have made much more sense, at least to my logical brain, to quit.

My commitment hasn’t been 100% all the time, nor now do I even expect it to be 100% all the time. But it has always been just enough to keep going. And now, with time, I can see how that was enough.

So, what could the impact of imperfect commitment be in your life, especially in your work life as a clinician? How could that impact your career and what could be the results that you create for yourself and for your clients? My challenge to you is to choose something, one thing, and make a commitment to that goal.

I know that as you do so, it will change everything for you. I know that because it’s changed everything for me. I can’t wait to see the impact that you create with this. See you soon.

To celebrate the launch of the show, I’m going to be giving away a $100 gift card and two $50 gift cards to Amazon. I’m going to be giving them away to three lucky listeners who follow, rate, and review the show.

Now, it doesn’t have to be a five-star review, although I sure hope that you love the show. I really want your honest feedback, so I can create an awesome show that provides tons of value for you. So visit abilitiesrehabilitation.com/podcastlaunch to learn more about the contest and how to enter. And I’ll be announcing the winners on the show in episode ten. Thanks so much.

Thanks for joining me this week on the Clinicians Creating Impact podcast. Want to learn more about the work I’m doing with Abilities Rehabilitation? Head on over to abilitiesrehabilitation.com. See you next week.