Chiropractic Practice Blog

Do you have an isometric practice?

Like cartoon characters that run in place before plummeting off the cliff, the isometric practice is characterized by huge expenditures of energy, but little forward progress. It's a hand-to-mouth existence that first produces fatigue, then anger and then the resignation of burnout.

Escaping will require accumulating resources and increasing your margins. That may mean living significantly below your means. It may mean exercising 20 minutes longer. It may require shedding the weight, distracting habits and petty time wasters that soothe the disappointment we have with ourselves.

To increase your traction, ruthlessly jettison unnecessary habits and behaviors. Become present to self-limiting beliefs that are no longer true. Perform the most distasteful tasks first. (Yes, that one!) Consistently ask yourself, "Is this the highest and best use of my time?" Do what seems emotionally risky.

Even more important, ditch that "Plan B" you've been thinking about.

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Not sure if it’s my age, my leanings towards introversion or my busy schedule, but I confess that I’m having a difficult time with Facebook. I sort of get Twitter, and enjoy the constraint of 140 characters, but when it comes to Facebook, I’m at a loss.

Perhaps it all starts with the word “friend.”

Four or five years ago when I first set up my Facebook account, I started getting friend requests. Which apparently is one of the objectives. And in the process, I noticed an interesting problem. I didn’t really “know” many of the people requesting to be my friend. Apparently they knew me, staring back at me from within a sea of faces all day at a speaking gig.

That’s when I made my first major mistake. Because I didn’t know that the meaning of “friend” had changed!

Patients complete you.

If you attract clingy patients, it may be because you show up with the intent of taking credit as the heroic healer. If you attract irresponsible patients, maybe you show up prepared to assume responsibility for their health. Attracting largely symptomatic patients who leave as soon as they feel better may be because you show up as the "fixer" or "mechanic."

Attracting a different type of patient begins by you showing up differently.

Become more mindful of why you want more new patients. Is it to gain their admiration? Is it to prove chiropractic works? Is it to have your ego stroked? Your career choice affirmed? Your emotional or financial needs met?

This is often why so many chiropractors shun conventional new patient generating techniques. It requires that they show up in a way that isn't authentic or attractive to the types of patients they enjoy seeing!

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A common blockage to practice growth is poor patient boundaries.

Ignore this detail and patients assume the boundaries they have with their medical doctor. Which means that they think you and your adjustments are the hero (medicine), rather than their God-given ability to self heal (chiropractic).

If you want to help more people, and most chiropractors seem to want to, one of the essential prerequisites is to make sure every patient knows and agrees to the nature of your responsibility and the extent of their own.

This is a huge distinction. Sure, it’s tempting to neglect this difference and bask in the adoration that the success of chiropractic is likely to produce. But this error of omission hobbles the size of your practice and the number of people you can help.

Without clear boundaries, you’ll be drawn into energy- and emotionally-draining areas that stunt your practice and cap its influence.

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From time to time I encounter a chiropractor, usually a younger, more idealistic chiropractor, who has proclaimed that his objective; his purpose for being in practice is to create a “subluxation-free world.” I rarely hear this from more experienced chiropractors, tempered by the wisdom of many years in practice and having been trained at a time when chiropractic philosophy was still taught at chiropractic colleges.

I appreciate their passion and I’m thankful that they are so invested in a cause larger than themselves. However, in their zeal to change the world, chiropractors who make subluxations Public Enemy Number One, make three serious oversights:

1. You will not win by being against.
2. Subluxations are effects; symptoms.
3. Eliminating subluxations is the practice of medicine.

Care to join me on a quick exploration of each? Perhaps in the process greater clarity will emerge and an explanation for the current state of many chiropractic practices will be revealed.

Often an injured child will look around to see if anyone is looking before bursting into tears over a skinned knee. Similarly, some chiropractors are inclined to gather and commiserate about their circumstances.

This tendency, besides being unhelpful at solving their challenges, is actually about excuse making. Portraying one's career choice as a mistake or being a victim requires considerable creativity in light of these facts:

1. You know the truth about the nature of real health.
2. Only a fraction of the planet knows how to do what you can do.
3. If you're struggling, it's your fault, not the fault of chiropractic.

If pressed, the glass-is-half-empty crowd can name plenty of things they could do or should do that would grow their practice. Instead, they insist on success on their terms.

Who are the pessimists, naysayers and negative people in your life whom you need to disassociate from?

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Today’s chiropractic new patient is different. And an article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal confirms it. The article was entitled 'Nearly Half of Americans Are ‘Financially Fragile.' The main takeaway? About half of the people in the US couldn’t come up with $2,000 within 30 days to fund an unexpected expense!

That’s probably no surprise if you practice in California, with an unemployment rate of almost 12% or in Michigan with its 10% rate. (Compared with a mere 3.3% in North Dakota.)

While there’s little you can do to reduce unemployment or help people in your community who have little financial margin to pay for an unplanned episode of back pain, there are at least two things you can do.

1. Market smarter. Grocery stores are still selling the more expensive organic vegetables and free-range chickens, bottle water and supplements to people who aren’t expecting to be reimbursed by their insurance company. Find out where people who value their health hang out in your community and start making connections. Meet the owner of the local health food store, Pilates studio and health clubs. You MUST get out of your office and become familiar, attractive and accessible to those who share the types of practice members you desire.

2. New phone skills. If your front desk assistant has the mindset of an order taker, you may be losing potential new patients on the telephone while you’re busy in the back adjusting. Can (or will) your CA go the extra mile to calm the fears (physical, emotional or financial) of apprehensive prospects who call? Can he or she offer simple, direct answers about fees? The old “May I take your name and number and have the doctor call you?” doesn’t work like it used to, since a more responsive chiropractor may be just a mouse click away.

Chiropractic has not fallen out of favor. Subluxations occur even more frequently in stressful economic downturns. And there are still plenty of people who value their health and want what you offer. But can they find you? And if they do, how many are getting past your receptionist?

A common way to build oneself up (or more often, tear oneself down) is to compare ourselves with others. If you look, you're always sure to find someone better or worse off than you.

This is what the tabloids, gossip magazines and far too much of television is about. Since these media outlets exist solely to attract eyeballs so they can be sold to advertisers, many choose the lurid and the base, tapping into emotions of greed, envy and judgment.

Choose this week to break your addiction to commercial media. Shun radio, television and newspapers for a month or even longer. The bad news (to get eyeballs) and the celebrities (to get eyeballs) add little or no value to our lives and merely remind us of our shortcomings or things outside our control.

Declare your independence and attend to your own life, rather than wasting time sizing up someone else's.

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