Don’t set goals without a clear vision, values and mission! Why psychologists and therapists usually fail at goal setting and how to plan better.

Why don’t we all have a clear vision in our business?

The secret to remaining motivated and happy running a business is congruence. If your business gives you the life you want to live and it fulfils your professionally you will not burn out. We need to be very clear on why we are in business (vision), what our values are (the person we want to be in our business) and how we are going to achieve it (mission). The problem is most of us feel vulnerable when we think about designing a business this way and that leads us to jump into goal setting to avoid those feelings.

What goes wrong when we don’t have a clear vision?

In private practice that can mean taking on any sort of work that you can get and charging whatever “seems reasonable” without really thinking about what you want from your practice. In an employed role that can look like taking any job that comes along, or staying in the same job for a long time without ever really thinking about whether it brings you true fulfilment. I have been guilty of doing both of those in the past. The most obvious example was when I set up my private practice. I had a clear vision of how I wanted to help people (trauma work) but did not consider how I wanted my life to look so I built a busy clinic with no consideration of my family life. 

Definitions of vision, values and mission

Vision - what is the change in the world you want to create? Be grand! How do you want your personal life to look? If your business is a massive success how will your life be different and how will the world change?

Values - how are you going to be in your business? What personal qualities are important to you? Values determine how you will behave in your business (and life in general). Everything from who you work with/for, who you hire etc.

May relate to key areas such as:

Health, family, work, creativity, social life, social change, a cause you care deeply about

Examples: I want to be as fit and healthy as I can be. I want to be creative. I want to be generous and compassionate in my work. I want to be calm and kind as a parent. I want to be an innovator. 

Mission - how are you going to take action towards creating that vision. Your mission is the vehicle that takes you towards your vision and lets you live your values. 

Goals - The specific and measurable actions you take. Only when you have vision, values and mission that make sense can you even start to think about goal setting.

Notice your barriers!

Notice that barriers that make it hard for you to think about your business vision. Are there thoughts that are hard to see past? Feelings that are difficult to tolerate? I know I didn’t really think about my business vision until a year a go because I just felt like such an imposter whenever I let myself dream big that I shut it down and went and busied myself in a spreadsheet instead. It is SO worth powering through those difficult feelings in order to build a business or shape a career that fulfils you

Reach out

It can feel vulnerable to admit to a grand vision. If you are a student on Psychology Business School we will work through those barriers together in sessions and members of PBS or the Do More Than Therapy membership can bring them to peer supervision or office hours. If not then reach out to people who you trust and let them help you think your ideas through. No one lands on a perfect vision or mission statement in one shot. You need to talk it through and think about it with others before you can create something that feels solid. 

Just starting out in private practice?

Do you sometimes wake up at 2 am worried that you’ve made a terrible error that will bring professional ruin upon you and disgrace your family?

I’m laughing now but when I first set up in private practice I was completely terrified that I had “missed” something big when setting up insurance or data protection.

Even now, three years in, I sometimes catch myself wondering if I have really covered all the bases. 

It is hard, no impossible, to think creatively and have the impact you should be having in your practice if you aren’t confident that you have a secure business. BUT it can be overwhelming to figure out exactly what you need to prioritise before those clients start coming in.

I’ve created a free checklist (plus resources list) to take the thinking out of it. Tick off every box and you can see your clients confident in the knowledge that you have everything in place for your security and theirs. 

Download it now from https://psychologists.drrosie.co.uk/client-checklist