A C change

Even during ‘normal’ times February can be a testing month. The weariness of continued freezing temperatures and limited hours of daylight can take its toll on one’s spirit. The enthusiasm for New Year’s resolutions has normally waned by mid-January – the “I’m going for a run in the morning, you’ll see” soon becomes “Maybe I’ll go later on actually… we’ll see” – but the turning of the calendar presents the extra mental challenge that comes with the achievement of reaching a milestone. For example, many people now take part in Dry January and abstain from the consumption of alcohol for an entire month. However, far from using the obvious benefits offered by going alcohol-free as motivation to continue with the healthy lifestyle choice – they celebrate reaching their goal with a booze up!

There is, of course, a huge benefit to breaking a big endeavour up into smaller, more easily manageable tasks. I am sure everyone has at some point in their lives been daunted by a task that seems so complex that they do not even know where to start. In situations like this having small, easily identifiable goals can help you find a route to success. However, it should always be remembered that each individual milestone is not a place to stop and relax, it is simply a checkpoint on the journey forwards to the bigger goal. This applies equally to things like selling a practice (as covered by Dan Freshwater on page 22), building financial reliability (something discussed by Richard Scarborough and Michael Copeland on page 26), refurbishing a practice (a story of one team’s journey appears on page 52) and even in clinical dentistry (our clinical feature this issue comes from Andrew Chandrapal on page 62).