The News From Lake Woes Be Gone

Talked with a chiropractor who is going through a rough patch. He’s tried all the obvious things, such as reestablishing contact with his inactives, hiring the cheaper of the two recent new front desk CA candidates, putting his house on the market to lower expenses and most recently, eliminating the monthly expense of the practice management coach that he’s had for the last seven years. These and similar strategies fall into the “save-yourself-into-success” category.

They don’t work.

Oh sure, reduce unnecessary drag on the aerodynamics of your practice by eliminating needless expenses. But doing so won’t turn things around.

We talked a bit longer and he revealed a thoughtless luxury that he has been indulging in each day that alarmed me. It began to partly explain why he’s been unable to get sufficient traction to extricate himself from his growing financial difficulties.

Before I tell you what he’s been doing that is poisoning his chances of pulling his practice out of the ditch, let me offer a couple of suggestions that you could implement if you find yourself in a similar predicament:

Be optimistic. It’s a decision. You may not be able to control what comes your way, but you can certainly control your reaction to it. Your acting may not earn an Academy Award, but it may need to be of that caliber. Stay upbeat. Remain hopeful. Rise above and become oblivious to the mainstream angst. Be known as the most positive person that patients know.

Be thankful. This is the time to express your gratitude. Whatever your situation, count your blessings. I guarantee that whatever you’re going through, there are patients experiencing something far worse. How many thank you cards have you sent this month?

Clean up your act. Are you exercising? Increase your workout. Eat better. Get enough rest. Get adjusted regularly. It is imperative that you not only practice what you preach, but you must increase your ability to stand up to and accommodate physical, emotional and chemical stress.

Embrace a larger perspective. Your practice (and the economy) cannot grow without an occasional contraction. Step back and take a birds-eye view of your circumstances. Then, consider your difficulty in the context of the thousands of years of recorded human history. There have been far worse situations. Know that this too shall pass!

Trace subluxation to stress. Help every symptomatic patient understand that their health issues are merely manifestations of the stress in their life. As long as they have stress in their lives, they’re going to need chiropractic care. (This, by the way, is why chiropractic isn’t seasonal. In fact, if patients really understood this, December would be the busiest month of the year.)

Remain present. Realize that your life isn’t in danger. Yet, your shallow breathing and overall physiology is that of someone sensing impending doom. Doom that  your mind is creating. So create something else. For starters, consider how this could be the watershed for a cultural shift away from things artificial to things natural. It’s always darkest before the dawn. Are you ready for a flood of new patients? Stay here. In the present. Where you can actually do something.

Those are some things you can do and some things you can be.

If my chiropractor friend had been doing some of these he wouldn’t be raiding his retirement IRA and taking the losses and penalties for early withdrawal. But he may be doing that because of a habit he’s engaging in every morning while getting dressed.

He’s watching the news! Each morning he’s infecting himself with countless "thought viruses" based on fear, doubt, uncertainty, worry, scarcity and related negativity. How can he expect to rise above the cultural hypnosis that patients are suffering from when drinking the same Kool-Aid as they are?

If you were sucked into the political debates, the talking heads, the doom and gloom newscasts and the pundits shouting at each other, stop. Stop reading the news, listening to the news and watching the news. At least for the rest of the year. Avoid all media designed for public consumption. Period. Disengage. Detach. If you need to be entertained, rent some classic DVDs with stories that are affirming and uplifting. You may need to change your browser’s default home page away from the various news portals with their lurid headlines and stock market ticker. Take back your life. Refuse to play.

Become a brighter light in the lives of patients. Incandescent in your certainty. Beaming with optimism. Laser focused. It’s your turn to shine.

Originally posted August 18, 2010