Does making more money actually make a dentist happier?
Not the way most people assume. Everyone believes that more stuff equals more happiness, but the science does not back that up. We are each born with a happiness set point, and a landmark study showed that no matter what good or bad circumstances hit us, we tend to drift back toward that set point over time. Some people are born high on the scale, some average, some low. So the dentist who thinks the next jump in income will finally make him content is usually disappointed, because he migrates right back to where he started. This does not mean income is meaningless. It means income alone is a weak lever. Once you understand you have a set point, you get honest about whether you are generally a happy person, and you stop expecting the practice’s revenue to do a job it was never going to do.
If the answers you are finding here resonate with you, my team and I work with a small group of clients each year. The next step is a complimentary Discovery Consultation and Practice Review with Dr. McAnally.