Are you inclined to take it personally when patients don't follow through or drop out of care unexpectedly?

Attachment to what others do, especially patients, is risky business!

Naturally, if absolutely no one follows your recommendations, or most patients vanish without so much as a good bye, you have a problem. But that's rarely the case. Instead, it's a small percentage of your patient volume that dogs you. You turn their behaviors into a fascinating little story that ends up producing doubt, uncertainty or self-blame.

Please stop.

By accepting fault you've crossed the line. You've assumed responsibility (ability to respond) for circumstances and patient choices out of your control. You're attempting to usurp their God-given ability to express free will, conveniently setting yourself up for failure and disappointment.

Take heart in the fact that 100% perfect patient compliance would be boring after a month or so, anyway!

It’s popular to assume that virtually any malady facing a chiropractic practice can be solved with simply an injection of new patients. Income down? Get more new patients. Mid-day down times? Get more new patients. Higher co-pays? Get more new patients. Higher gas prices? Get more new patients. Higher rent? Get more new patients.

And while it’s true that a surge of new patients might temper the particular “ache or pain” your practice is experiencing, what about next month and the month after? A practice becomes stable from long-lasting relationships, referrals and reactivations. If you continue to have a voracious appetite for new patients after 10 years or longer in practice, you may have a new patient addiction.

Do patients who are bold enough to announce that they're only interested in a visit or two for the most superficial pain relief offend you?

The My-Way-Or-The-Highway crowd inflates with self-righteousness by driving such unenlightened patients away. Their ego, pride or false sense of control often ends relationships before they can even begin.

This is the difference between caring for patients and loving patients. When you care, you do so with strings attached. "I'll do this if you'll do that." When you love, you serve without judgment or expectation.

Allowing a patient's limited understanding or financial constraint to make you indignant or slighted is a needless form of self-abuse. It may take a decade of starting and stopping care several times before they "get" chiropractic. What's the hurry?

By showing up in your office, you have a lesson to teach patients. More fascinating may be the lesson of patience they are showing up to teach you!

Time to reboot?

If my computer gets a little sluggish it seems happier and more responsive if I take a moment to restart it. Apparently, this clears its memory, reloads the software and creates a clean slate.

Your most important CPU, your brain, could probably benefit from a restart too.

If you have the tendency to keep your head down and push, push, push and do, do, do, consider this a friendly reminder to come up for some air. Are you on purpose? Have you been pushed off course by the cross winds of third parties? Are you encountering the friction of doubt from the behaviors of patients?

Carve out some time at the beginning of each day to stop. Listen. Reflect. Refresh. And renew. Raise your antennae. Like pulling in a weak, distant station, slow down, quiet yourself and receive divine direction from that wee small voice you’ve ignored.

Let me first confess that I’m not much of a fan of so-called comedian Bill Maher. I find his sardonic style and political leanings difficult to swallow. However, this brief rant about health and health care is not only on the money, but reveals a painful truth that all too many chiropractors seem unwilling to tell their patients about. Simply put, follow the money. And there isn’t any money in healthy people. Or is there? (Thanks Mark Franzen, DC.)

If you focus on the problem, you won't see the solution.

Stage magicians are masters at using simple diversionary techniques to misdirect the audience's attention. Practice challenges can be just as distracting, misdirecting your attention to the most pressing symptoms, causing you to overlook the underlying cause.

Like patients who think their headache is the problem, the illusion that the problem is the problem is what keeps us stuck.

The "problem" is often only the symptom. Avert your eyes for a moment and you may be able to see the underlying cause. The lack of certainty. Poor preparation. The unwillingness to role-play. Untrained staff. The shunning of consistent and predictable systems. The risk of taking a stand. The fear of standing out. The anger that patients don't "get" it. Wanting to be liked.

Consider the high mountain stream. Sure, a few boulders are in the way, but gravity calls.

What's calling you?

What are you avoiding?

Anything that you're unwilling to look at, face, confront, examine, question or discuss is holding you in bondage. Like a bully that compelled you to avoid part of the playground or caused you to take the long way home, whatever you choose to avoid holds you hostage.

Secret behaviors, hidden habits, addictions and our basest nature are common suspects. Or maybe it's an employee who needs to move on. Or a checkbook you avoid balancing. Or perhaps clothes you'll never wear again that you hang onto because discarding them means accepting your weight issue. Need I go on?

This week identify at least one issue that you've been avoiding and commit to facing and cleaning it up. Avoidance has made it bigger than it really is. You'll be rewarded by a renewed sense of ease, simplicity and peace.

Which could inspire you to tackle another. And another!