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3 Things that Can Improve Your Life Outside the Pharmacy Today

Posted by Benjamin Coakley on Fri, Sep 26, 2014 @ 06:00 AM


Most community pharmacy owners almost always tell us in our complimentary goals workshop that they community pharmacy owner, community pharmacy, life outside the pharmacywant to improve their quality of life outside the pharmacy.  They also almost always tell us that things would have to be different for this to happen. When pressed on what would have to be different, the answers depend on each unique situation.  We will address more of these in our next blog.  For now, we are going to focus on three things that you can do today to improve your life outside the pharmacy today.

The key to improving your life outside the pharmacy is working on the most impactful things and setting achievable goals. For example, a pharmacy owner told me one time that she wanted to take one week off per quarter and one day a week. This is an achievable goal.  An example of working on the most impactful things is promoting someone in your organization to be responsible for managing the pharmacy when you are not there.  Focusing on getting the right person in that role would be tremendously impactful because it will allow you to take time away mentally and physically from the pharmacy.

The three things you can do today are:

  1. Book your dream vacation: if you do not have a dream vacation, please take some time to think about where you would go if you had an unlimited amount of time. This is the first step to working to live rather than vice versa.  A personal example is my father encouraged me to create a dream list and one of the items on that list is to set foot on all seven continents of the earth. Now it's up to me to make this happen.
  2. Start with taking one extra day off per month: Sit down and write out the things that it would take for you to have an extra day off per month.  The key to this is being honest with yourself. One of my clients told me that there was no way that he could do this.  I asked him why and he said the pharmacy was too dependent on him.  He then said I know what I need to do to make this happen.
  3. Decide, commit, achieve - I saw this slogan for an exercise class I took a few years back. This has always stuck with me because when I begin to think something cannot be achieved, I remember this exercise program.  When I read the program manual I thought this could never be completed with my calendar.  Then I read the slogan.  It was so simple.  You can do anything you want if you decide, commit and achieve.

Our team at Waypoint have quarterly review and planning meetings to make sure we remain on track to accomplish our company goals.  The last session of these meeting is a reflection meeting of what we learned that quarter.  It provides a finality for that quarter so we can move on to the next.  One of our advisors one time said that he learned that success starts with what's between our ears. We all agreed that if we could just remove the barriers of success in our minds, we would experience more success in real life.

I feel that this is a big problem in the community pharmacy world. I wish I had a nickel for every time I hear "I can't."  If you want to change your life and have a better life outside the pharmacy, then try saying "I can" and then commit and achieve the success you desire.



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Topics: community pharmacist, life outside the pharmacy