Set Realistic Goals to Help Your Private Practice Succeed

Guest post from Danielle Wayne at Millennial Therapy

Many therapists, especially those that go into private practice, are perfectionists. If this is you, you’re certainly not alone. You probably set goals that may be unattainable and then get frustrated when they don’t pan out. Setting unrealistic goals can hurt your private practice success.

Now, of course, not reaching your goals isn’t a bad thing – we can learn a lot from not meeting our expectations all the time. But if your private practice goals are unrealistic, you might end up feeling like a failure because you didn’t achieve your goals. This can cause you to doubt yourself and lower your self-esteem. When it comes to setting goals, you have to find the right balance to stop you from being so hard on yourself.

The message here is not that you shouldn’t set goals. But setting unrealistic goals becomes problematic if you struggle to achieve them. Don’t tie your self-worth to your ability to achieve all of the unrealistic goals that you set for your private practice. This could lead to burnout. You might end up doubting yourself and your abilities as a therapist. We need to prevent that from happening.

Private Practice Anxiety and Perfectionism

Holding yourself to a high standard is one of the things that makes you a good therapist and a good private practice owner. However, if you’re an anxious perfectionist, setting unrealistic goals can be dangerous. If you don’t attain them, you might feel as if you’ve failed. But it's likely that your goals were unrealistic. How do you know if your private practice goals are realistic?

The thing about realistic goals is that they’re practical. Realistic goals include things like:

• Getting all your clinical hours and supervision time for licensure

• Renting an office space you can afford

• Hiring help for administrative work if you have the money for it

• Adding clinicians as you expand into a group practice 

• Setting hours that work with your schedule and lifestyle

• Seeing the right number of clients each day/week so that you don’t get overwhelmed

• Having time in your day to take a lunch break

• Setting aside a reasonable amount of time to write your notes
  

It’s very easy for realistic goals to turn into unrealistic goals. The thing about goal setting is that you might not meet every goal you set, but that’s ok. The key is not to tie too much emotion to the goals. It’s easy for perfectionists to be too hard on themselves. If you don’t meet a private practice goal, it’s not because you did it wrong. It just might not be the right time for you to achieve that goal.

There are a few ways to achieve realistic goals:

• Identify your capabilities and capacity to take on new goals

• Identify your strengths and weaknesses

• Identify opportunities and threats

• Identify potential negatives to setting a particular goal

• Make a plan

• Remain calm

• Accept feedback from others

You have a better chance of private practice success and meeting your goals the more you research them. Go ahead and dream big. Shoot for the stars. But pay attention to whether or not you can realistically achieve those goals. 

Unrealistic goals are difficult to identify because, with the right adjustments, they could become realistic goals. For example, if you set a financial goal for your private practice to earn a million dollars in a year, that’s probably an unrealistic goal. But if you set a financial goal that you think you could actually attain, then include it in your private practice goals.

Identify your abilities and what you can reasonably do. Staying with the financial goal example for a moment – break it up into quarters instead of the whole year. If you make a million dollars, that’s great, but if you don’t, that’s ok. Maybe it’s just time to re-evaluate your goals. Creating smart goals is one way you know when you need to pivot. Empower yourself to turn unrealistic goals into realistic ones.

An example of an unrealistic goal unrelated to private practice success, but one that many of us can understand, is setting fitness goals. It’s highly recommended to move your body. But if you set unrealistic goals regarding how often you exercise, how many weights you want to lift, or how far and fast you can run, you might be really hard on yourself if you didn’t achieve these goals. Ease into moving your body rather than diving headfirst into working out every day as hard as you can. This could lead to burnout.

You might be thinking, “what do fitness goals have to do with my private practice success?” I bring this up because it’s an analogy that most people can understand. Perhaps you yourself have done it. It’s a relatable analogy that can be correlated with your private practice goals.

When it comes to goal setting, start with yourself. Look within and find your authentic goals. Try to adjust your goals to be more attainable. Set yourself up for private practice success.

Why Is It Important to Set Realistic Private Practice Goals?

What you don’t want to do is to set your sights so high for your private practice that your goals are unattainable. This can lead to that spiral of self-doubt, depression, anxiety, and self-loathing that we all know too well.

Setting realistic goals is good for your mental health. And if your mental health is doing well, you’ll be able to better serve your clients. Private practice goals keep you working towards something. When you reach your goals you feel great. Your inner perfectionist will be happy with your accomplishments.

When it comes to goal-setting, it’s important to think about what you can realistically achieve. Go ahead and dream big. Imagine the perfect private practice. Imagine working with your ideal clients. What can you realistically achieve? Make sure that those goals and dreams are reality-based. You can do this!

About Danielle

Danielle Wayne is a millennial therapist who specializes in working with millennials with anxiety and ADHD. You can learn more about her by visiting her website www.millennialtherapy.com. Danielle hopes to inspire other therapists to set themselves up for private practice success by not setting unrealistic goals.