Yes, there’s always an eternal argument around the ‘glass half empty’ or the ‘glass half full’ point of view.

For much of the month of October, when most everyone spent what seemed like an eternity watching the U.S. Congress wrestle with solving the problems of a government shutdown and the future of the debt ceiling, it was a challenge to keep up the optimism. Nevertheless, there is always a good reason to think positively, particularly at this time of year, when many people are putting together plans and budgets for next year.

Part of that can mean thinking about increments and looking for manageable goals. For example, if the U.S. optical vision care community could just improve the collective number of people having eye exams by 1 percent, that would likely translate into thousands more patients learning more about their eye health, considering their vision correction choices and improving the productivity for thousands of lives. (If you haven’t already, consider your own participation in ThinkAboutYourEyes.com).

Another way to view this is to take a close look at your own business and consider how you can bring new patients into your practice or office by reaching out to them via digital/social media and reminding them about what your eyecare experience and dispensary can offer them—before they get there. Might that set up an incremental increase from what each patient represents to your practice with each visit and/or might it garner you several new patients per month?

Our cover story this month also asks about realizing the potential of polarized lenses— as well as leveraging eyecare expertise in the Rx sun category. Millions of Boomers are interested and millions of Millenials, too, want to know more about polarized and sun Rx options. Can that be a growth category for you next year?