By: Mr. Paul Sletten

You face great challenges as a dentist today. You push yourself to grow and improve as a clinician, to be an outstanding leader, relationship builder, finance manager and personal administrator. You become so fixated on these areas that you ignore other aspects of your life and throw yourself out of balance. In the words of John Bradshaw, that fixation makes us “human doings rather than human beings.”

The pressure to succeed today is enormous. To build a successful dental practice, you must be a high achiever. On the downside, this emphasis can create blinders and cause you to become inattentive to who you really are away from your practice.

These blinders can be especially damaging when it comes to life after you practice. Dentists who transition into retirement successfully and thrive often approach this new chapter with curiosity and openness. They view retirement as an opportunity to explore, grow and embrace life.

This mindset is often a continuation of how they have lived their professional lives—balancing career, family, community, spiritual growth, personal development, relationships and leisure. Their identity extends beyond their profession, seeing themselves as individuals who chose dentistry as a rewarding career and remained passionate about it throughout the duration.

As they cross the finish line of their dental careers, they do so with excitement and optimism, looking forward to what lies ahead.

Norman Cousins wrote, “The tragedy of life is not death; rather, it is what we allow to die within us while we live.” Some wonder aloud if there’s life after death. More should be wondering if there’s life before death. You are the author of your future. Creating that future is an act of artistry, much like the work of a composer, artist or writer. You write the screenplay and then produce, direct and star in your life film. 

Every day, you’re asked to make hundreds of decisions. If you have a clear vision of the life you want, you can make those decisions according to prior reflection rather than immediate action. Clearly defined goals give you a script for sorting through options and setting priorities.

Th e key is bringing who you really are to what you do. Your practice offers the perfect setting for expressing your values through relationships with your team, patients and the community. It is your opportunity to be truly authentic.

Start creating your life script by asking yourself what things you’re most passionate about. On a scale of 1-10, list four or five things that would be 9s and 10s. This is your passion index – check in with it periodically. Next, ask yourself to what degree you’re designing your life and schedule around your passions.

Update your passion index annually, otherwise, you will continue to script your life around passions that may no longer be significant. In that case, you live by default and not by design. Th at happens to all of us, to one degree or another. Our challenge is to recognize it and create an updated vision and action plan to help get unstuck and grow again.

Consider Making a Personal Inventory Using the Following Categories: 

• Faith – You are a spiritual being in a physical form. Do you take time to value and develop your spiritual nature?

• Family – What is the quality of your current family relationships? What are you doing to nurture family members, improve relationships, forgive, etc.?
• Fitness – What value do you place on your mental and physical health to you? Do you create time in your busy life
  to work out regularly and follow other healthy habits?
• Friends – What are you doing in your community? Have you taken the time to assess healthy and unhealthy relationships, and move on when necessary?
• Finance – What will it take to fund the lifestyle of your dreams? Is that lifestyle really important to you? Will the path you are on right now take you there?

You get 168 hours a week to live your life. How you set priorities and make tradeoffs determines the quality of your life.

Be proactive by developing a holistic view of your life at work and outside of work and establish a creative balance between the two. Th is is your major challenge. According to Bob Buford, “The first half of our life is about success and the second half is about significance.”

It’s time to take a close look at who you are. This is all about being. It helps you become more open and loving, less judgmental and angry, more candid and forthright, and more willing to access and take risks.

The path of self-discovery is your personal journey. It’s a joy when you learn to reduce the noise in your life and play the music in your soul. Begin now.

Paul D. Sletten is the Founder and President of The Sletten Group located in Denver, CO. He worked with fee-for-service dentists for the past 54 years and consults in the areas of life planning and practice transition planning, providing seminars, small group workshops and personal facilitation services.