Have you started yet?  Sometimes the hardest step on this road is the first step.  Sometimes it’s right before the final step where you either make it or break it.  This chapter will offer you help to make that first step, and every step afterward.  But, remember ultimately following and taking our advice outlined here is entirely up to you.

If you’ve caught this coaching series in the middle, please take the time to start at the beginning of the coaching series and get yourself caught up!  Otherwise read on

Last week, I talked about Tracking Your Metrics as a Self-Employed Pharmacist ^[1].

Hopefully, you’ve gotten the ball rolling and have been talking to or working for clients and tracking what works and what doesn’t.  If not, what are you waiting for?  What’s stopping you from getting started?  Need a kick in the keyster?  Read on and I’ll see if I can kick some of you into gear.

This lesson is titled “Get Out There and Just Do It as a Self-Employed Pharmacist“.

It’s interesting how many people begged and asked us how did we get this, we’ll tell them exactly how we did it.  And you know what happens?

Something stops them from taking the simplest step.  An excuse crops up about why it won’t work.  Or maybe they didn’t get a response from the first batch of marketing letters and they just give up.

On Your Marks…  Get Ready…
How many people do you know live their lives on ‘get set’?  They get everything ready for what they want to do and then they just stop?  They never go.  They take their marks, they get ready, and then nothing.  They never go.

Below I’ve listed 14 points to keep in mind when you find yourself with a lack of motivation.

1. Focus on one thing at a time. We’re all busy.  Oftentimes there is so much to do.  When I’m trying to do too much.  It saps my energy and motivation. What I’ve done is itemize a goal list for myself.  With steps to complete each goal.  Concentrate on one step at a time.  Mark off each step as you continue.  Sometimes, you’ll have to stop for a bit to pick up the steps of another goal.  With focus and perseverance you can accomplish more that you thought.

2. Find inspiration. In the forefront of your mind, think about why you want to do this.  Why do you really want to get out from the big chains?  Why is your work environment so unhappy?

3. Get excited. Think about all the reasons being an independent pharmacist has so much more rewards.  Think about the benefits, not the difficulties. One common problem is that we think about how hard something is.

4. Set yourself a deadline. Set a deadline for upcoming steps and do everything you can to stick to it.  Enough said.

5. Post your goal. Keep your goals with each respective deadline where you can be continuously reminded of them.

6. Commit publicly. None of us likes to look bad in front of others. We will go the extra mile to do something we’ve said publicly. For example, when I wanted to run my first 5K, I told my co-workers at the time I wanted to run it.  The building knew about my goal, so of course there is always that one co-worker who is involved in good causes ask me to join in on a 5k run for breast cancer. I couldn’t back down, and even though my motivation came and went, I stuck with it and completed it. Now, you don’t have to commit to your goal in your daily newspaper or anything like that, but you can do it with friends and family and co-workers, and you can do it on your blog if you have one. And hold yourself accountable — don’t just commit once, but commit to giving progress updates to everyone every week or so.

7. Think about it daily. If you think about your goal every day, it is much more likely to become true. To this end, posting the goal on your wall or computer desktop (as mentioned above) helps a lot. Sending yourself daily reminders also helps. And if you can commit to doing one small thing to further your goal (even just 5 minutes) every single day, your goal will almost certainly come true.

8. Get support. It’s hard to accomplish something alone. Sometimes you need just a little bit of a push or a little encouragement.  You can find support through your family and friends or even here.  Just comment on our blog I’m sure others out there will reply with encouraging remarks or just email us, we try really hard to get back to each of our fans and listeners.

9. Realize that there’s an ebb and flow. Motivation is not a constant thing that is always there for you. It comes and goes, and comes and goes again, like the tide. But realize that while it may go away, it doesn’t do so permanently. It will come back. Just stick it out and wait for that motivation to come back. In the meantime, remind yourself about your goal, ask for help, and do some of the other things listed here until your motivation comes back.

10. Stick with it. Whatever you do, don’t give up. Even if you aren’t feeling any motivation today, or this week, don’t give up. Again, that motivation will come back. Think of your goal as a long journey, and your slump is just a little bump in the road. You can’t give up with every little bump. Stay with it for the long term, ride out the ebbs and surf on the flows, and you’ll get there.

11. Start small. Sometimes it’s because we are close to the edge of our comfort zone and we’re just really afraid to go that much further.  Take baby steps.  Instead of writing out your entire marketing letter.  Write one element of the letter, then another, and then another.  So on and so forth.  Before you know it, the letter will be complete.

12. Build on small successes. After you complete one step, start the next.  Don’t stop, keep going.  Build on top of what you’ve completed.

13. Squash negative thoughts; replace them with positive ones. I can’t tell you how many personal friends of ours quit trying, because of a variety of reasons.  “I mailed out 25 letters, got no response.  It doesn’t work”.

14. Think of this whole thing as a process. It’s not a one time performance.  Some aspects of our techniques will work perfectly,  others may come short, it’s up to you to refine and fix what doesn’t seem to work well.  Or make adjustments to improve.

Get Set…

Most people die on ‘get set’.  When it comes to their dreams and their goals or using their gifts or even trying to be independent.  They take it all to the grave with them because they lived and died on ‘get set’ and I never want you to be one of them.

The only way to be an independent pharmacist is to start doing it.  To get off of get set… and go.

Next Week’s Lesson?
Next lesson?  Well, there isn’t one in this series.

All that’s left is for you to get out there and do it.

That’s it for the coaching series.  But don’t worry we’ll keep blogging tips and tricks of the trade and of course let you know how we’re doing and what’s going on in our lives.

If you liked this series, sign up for our email newsletter.  That way you definitely won’t miss anything and you’ll get the pdf version of the series for free!

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