At the last PRESENT Podiatric Residency Education Summit Midwest, I attended a couple of back-to-back lectures by the FABI group (Foot and Ankle Business Innovations) lead by Dr Lowell Weil, Jr. Needless to say, I learned a lot. However, there was a theme clearly running through the lectures, and that theme was intentionality. Over the subsequent week, I noticed that several conversations kept referring back to this theme. It may be I was suffering from availability bias or the world was trying to tell me something. Either way, I thought increasingly about this idea.

What is intentionality? Sounds like a Scrabble double word score, but once we talk about it, I think most of us will find this an accessible and very important concept. Intentionality is simply doing something with intent, doing a thing consciously.

Let’s look at a few examples from Dr Weil’s lecture. The FABI group discussed podiatrists marketing themselves in order to create successful practices. They recommended a lot of helpful practice adjustments, for example, maximizing a doctor’s online presence with a quality website, appropriately structured to bring in the types of patients each of us want. Dr Weil also suggested simple things such as dressing for success, making eye contact with patients, sitting at the patient’s level, and rehearsing clear explanations of treatments. The panel was clearly advocating thinking about every aspect of one’s practice and intentionally creating a certain practice environment.

This is in contradistinction to the way many of us live and work. So many of us just drift into careers, relationships, and activities instead of deliberately and thoughtfully choosing what to do. I made this mistake at the end of my residency. During my third year, while looking for a job, I did not sit down and consciously ask what kind of job I wanted. Did I desire private practice or something else? I simply looked for the best job I could find. As a result, I ended up as an associate in a practice situation that didn’t last.

Now, don’t get me wrong. My first boss was a wonderful man and a good podiatrist who treated me fairly. I was happy where I was, but not satisfied. I learned a lot working for him and at my next job, but neither situation was what I would intentionally have chosen had I really sat down and planned out my professional life. This went on until I found my current job at Western University of Health Sciences. My true professional passion is education and academics, and if I had consciously considered what I already knew deep down, I would have chosen a modified path to my current environment. I’m lucky to have reached the job I really wanted, but my trajectory may have been different, and I dare say, more efficient had I thought differently, more deliberately, at the outset.

If you’re going to think intentionally about anything, ask yourself the following questions:.

Let’s take a surgical procedure as a simple example.

You’re planning to do an Austin bunionectomy on a 35-year-old female who has been suffering from pain for two years. Instead of just walking into the procedure unprepared, you ask yourself the above listed questions with the following answers:

Obviously each of us might have varying answers to these questions, and that’s ok. The answers here are not as important as the conscious process itself.

Here’s another example. During the conference I had a great conversation with Dr Matthew Dairman, a FABI member and speaker at the conference. Through our conversation, I could tell he was a passionate physician with a successful and dynamic practice. When hiring new associate physicians, he asks them about their vision for their careers and searches for someone who first has a vision and one that fits well with his organization. His desire to look for an associate who is consciously thinking about what they truly want is powerful. He’s not just looking for someone who will see patients, work hard, and make him a lot of money. He clearly sees the road to success though intentionally considering what his practice needs.

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“Intentionality, followed up with focused effort, is the key to expanding your potential and reaching that level of success you want.”

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Too many of us spend our precious time living unconsciously. It seems this occurs because it’s much easier to do. It takes less work to just drift along, following the herd, doing what those before us did. But if you want to reach your maximum potential, it demands that you function in a conscious manner. Intentionality, followed up with focused effort, is the key to expanding your potential and reach that level of success you want.