Are You Sitting At the Front of the Class?

What happens to the kids who walk in on the first day of school and take a seat in the back of the classroom? What choices are they making in that moment?

In most cases these kids have deliberately chosen to distance themselves as much as possible from the teacher and the natural accountability that goes with sitting up front. They've chosen a situation where they can be easily distracted and not get caught.

And we all know what usually happens. They pay less attention, they take poorer notes, and predictably, they struggle to keep up. It becomes a downward spiral where bad results lead to lack of confidence and interest, which leads to worse results.

This applies to dentists and dental teams as much as it does to school kids. The dentists who have a professional development plan and a real desire to learn and grow choose to engage at the highest level and get the most from being a dentist.

They're the ones “sitting up front.” Others (and thankfully it's not that many) try to hide out in the back, doing just what it takes to get by and hoping nobody calls on them with a question.

The difference is that once you enter the professional world, there isn't anyone looking over your shoulder to check up on you. There is no teacher to grade your work and encourage you and no parents to monitor your progress. It's completely your choice whether you engage in the right way with the profession or hide at the back of the class.

This really hit home for me last weekend when I was onstage presenting “The Yes Practice.” Looking out over the audience and talking with the participants over the course of the program, I realized these are all really engaged dentists. These are “front of the class” people and it shows. That's what you're doing every time you attend a Spear workshop, meet with a Spear study group, take online courses, or even just connect with Spear digest articles like this; you're taking a seat up front and saying, “I'm in.”