A Patient's Point of View

Do you think you're separate, different and alone? That no one has suffered as you do? That without tremendous self-effort you would disappear into oblivion? Those beliefs begin to explain all sorts of sabotaging behaviors that keep your practice small.

If you believe you're separate, you might be inclined to adapt chiropractic to fit your worldview, rather than adapting yourself to chiropractic.

If you believe you're different, you might feel compelled to shrink and "stay under the radar" in the hopes of not standing out and becoming a target.

If you believe you're alone, you might see scarcity where there is abundance and imagine that your success only comes at the expense of others.

Look around. This is what it looks like when your conscious or unconscious beliefs manifest. Want to see change, growth and improvement? Identify your beliefs and make sure they align with the truth.

Pain, whether physical or emotional, is a warning sign.

While most chiropractors are comfortable working in the realm of physical pain, when confronted by emotional pain, theirs or a patient's, it's disorienting. Yet, the approach is actually the same: find the "subluxation."

The subluxation linked to emotional pain is often a hidden belief that is untrue. Believing a lie is the source of tremendous anguish and an unwillingness to accept "what is" produces needless suffering.

What do you believe (that isn't actually true) that is the source of your emotional pain, fear or anger? How have you been deceived, causing a distorted perception of what is so?

Blaming others, or our circumstances, creates a helplessness that stops us with inaction. Yet, facing the truth and putting ourselves right with what is, is a source of peace. This is one way the truth sets us… free.

Pray for the discernment to know what is, and isn’t, true.

Your practice is a manifestation of what you’re doing, which is the result of who you’re being, which is the result of what you believe.

If your practice isn’t what you want, here are some ways to get unstuck:

1. Know your purpose. If you lack the language to describe your reason for being, you’re missing a critical component needed to move forward. (By the way, your purpose isn’t to adjust as many people as possible! Confusing what we do with our purpose is a common misconception.)

2. Uncover the beliefs of someone experiencing what you want to experience. Don’t get distracted by their doing. Find out what they believe to be true. It’s what you believe to be true (that isn’t) that has you trapped.

3. Discontinue all distractions and addictions. Avoid all media, especially television, sugar, alcohol, pornography or any thing else you use to distract yourself.

Ultimately, getting unstuck is a spiritual exercise.

“I think my problem is procrastination, but I’m not quite ready to admit to it yet.”

If pressed, you could probably list a dozen things you could be doing that would grow your practice. What you need to grow your practice isn’t a lack of knowing, but a lack of doing. It’s not an information shortage, it’s an action shortage. It’s not for a lack of ideas, but for a lack of implementation.

At its root, procrastination is a sign of living reactively, without a passionate purpose for your life. Procrastination “takes you out” as a leader and influencer, reducing your ability to make a difference. When mere survival is your vision, most action steps seem like too much work or don’t supply instant gratification.

This week identify something greater than you and even your survival as a reason for practicing. Do everything you know how to do with the sole purpose of advancing that greater something!

You will either discipline yourself or something else or others will.

Lack financial discipline? The threat of shame and bankruptcy will oppress you, making it difficult to escape mere bill-paying survival.

Are you averse to delaying gratification? Then you’ll be governed by the most pressing, the loudest or the most demanding.

Do you choose not to manage your time? Then chaos and disorganization will control your life and blunt its impact.

Are you unable to control your temper? Then your relationships will be restricted to those who fear you.

Ultimately, personal discipline releases, rather than restrains; frees, rather than controls. What have you allowed to control you and your practice because you’ve been unwilling to embrace personal restraint? A written financial policy? Regular progress exams? Staff training? This week identify and begin taming that which holds you in bondage by being more disciplined.

If you’re afraid to speak in public, consider the fear of those who are contemplating surgery because they don’t know about chiropractic.

If you’re afraid to hand out a brochure or business card for fear it would appear self-serving, consider how selfish you’re being by keeping the truth about chiropractic a secret.

If you’re afraid to urge parents to have their children checked because of what they might think, think about the psychotropic drug use, knee-jerk use of antibiotics, tubes in the ear and the lost potential resulting from your silence.

Personal and professional growth is to be found just on the other side fear. You’ve already done the easy stuff. When you brush up against your comfort zone, push on through. That uncomfortablness is merely the sign of an imminent breakthrough and the temporary feeling that precedes becoming a more effective servant.

It surprises many to learn that putting off the less urgent (procrastination) is related to the hyperactivity exhibited by those who are unable to turn down virtually any request made of them. They are the two sides of the same coin.

Both pathologies are manifestations of lacking a purpose beyond merely surviving, being liked or getting by.

Knowing your purpose gives you the courage to say, “No.”

Knowing your purpose helps you say, “I’m really sorry, I’m overcommitted right now.”

Knowing your purpose helps you say, “It sounds great, but I’m not available then.”

Knowing your purpose helps you pass up off-purpose opportunities and avoid getting sucked up into the emergencies of others. Knowing your purpose provides a benchmark for making courageous decisions; distinguishing between what is important and what isn’t. Knowing our purpose may be one of the most important things to know about ourselves.

Virtually every interaction with a patient can be categorized as either manipulation or ministry.

Manipulation is an expression of ego. To cause someone or something to conform to, or act in ways (even if it is in their best interest) that satisfies you. To control, rather than release. To impose, rather than facilitate. To exert influence for your personal gain.

Ministry is to serve without strings. To love without reciprocity or expectation. To accept without judgment. To honor the patient and their sovereignty, even when they make choices different from the ones you would. To assume a level of detachment that is only possible with clear boundaries.

When you care too much, you blur the boundary between ministry and manipulation. It’s like building a fence on your neighbor’s property. Instead of legal action, patients merely vote with their feet.

Doubt is the real barrier to the life and practice you want. Sure, procrastination takes many out of the game. As does fear. But the atomic bomb of spiritual warfare is doubt.

Just a mustard seed of doubt contains enough "kryptonite" to cause you to question your purpose or make your life seem but a cynical waste of time. Doubt provides an access point for the enemy to place thoughts that sabotage certainty and confidence--the two unspoken things patients crave from you.

This week, confront your doubt. Whether it's taking post X-rays, conducting progress exams, resolving inconsistent sEMG scans or admitting that you're not going to get those receivables you've been carrying on your books. Whatever is producing your doubt, confront it, face it and stare it down. The path towards true healing is to muster the courage to go through, rather than around. To look at that which you don't want to see.

“Oh, I could never do that!”

That’s not true.

You could become an accomplished public speaker, sharing the chiropractic model of health with thousands.

You could get out of debt, have a cash practice and enjoy financial freedom as you practice chiropractic the way you dreamed of in chiropractic college.

You could work half the number of hours and earn twice what you’re earning.

You could become a success incubator for new doctors, clueless as to what real chiropractic is. And what it isn't.

You could. However, taking you and your practice to the next level will likely produce feelings of fear and uncertainty. Feel those feelings and do it anyway. The membrane defining your comfort zone is plastic and will conform to the slightest pressure. That pressure can come from the outside (reactive) or from the inside (proactive).

This week make a conscious effort to put a dent in that translucent film holding you back. Like health, growth comes from the inside out.

A recipe for unhappiness is to compare oneself with others. It is one of the surest routes to unhappiness.

For some, comparing the chiropractic scope of practice with that of a medical doctor may invite envy or jealousy.

Comparing your income with a patient or anyone else can invite feelings of anger or bitterness.

Comparing your patient numbers with any other chiropractor can breed confidence-robbing inadequacy or worse, prideful superiority.

Comparing yourself with anything or anyone distracts you from your purpose.

Someone, somewhere is wealthier, seeing more patients, better looking, happier, more fulfilled, more enlightened or more something than you. It’s also true that someone, somewhere is poorer, seeing fewer patients, having staffing issues or even more uncertain than you. (Perhaps because they’re comparing themselves with you?)

What are hoping to achieve by comparing yourself with others? It does not serve you. Catch yourself doing it and stop it. It is the fuel of resentment.

Fixation is unhealthy, whether in the spine, with your lymphatic system, your money or your love. A lack of circulation is a sure sign of pathology. Give and take, yin and yang, efferent and afferent, inhalation and exhalation are essential.

Chances are if you or your practice is facing the illusion of an insurmountable challenge right now, something isn’t circulating right. Some common culprits:

Your attention (focusing too much on yourself?)
Your energy (lacking enough to give to others?)
Your message (not communicated clearly enough?)
Your gratitude (failing to give thanks for what you have?)
Your love (self-serving, giving to get, strings attached?)

What have you stopped up, prevented from circulating? What unhealthy attachment have you formed to one side of the equation? What are you artificially imposing that is preventing ebb and flow? What have you dammed up, hoarded or grasped too tightly? What part of your life or practice can’t breathe?

What's the condition of your psychological immune system?

Just as a healthy physical immune system protects us from unhelpful viruses and bacterium, our psychological immune system protects us from emotional stressors.

With a healthy psychological immune system, rather than rationalization, denial and blame, we respond more appropriately to our environment:

Appropriate detachment. Trust patients to make the appropriate decisions about their health, even if they're not the choices you'd make.

Establish clear boundaries. It's your job to tell the chiropractic story. It's the patient's job to decide if chiropractic care is something they want. And for how long.

Comfortable with the truth. You accept what is so. You have banished the word "should" from your vocabulary. Your sense of peace affirms that the truth does set us free.

Frequent tendency to laugh. Laughter increases immunoglobulin A. Since you don't take yourself so darned seriously, you're a lot more pleasant to be around.

Truth health isn't merely being subluxation-free!

"How would you like things to be?"

It's a different way to begin a patient consultation and can reveal countless new possibilities rather than, "What seems to be the problem?"

The latter will likely produce a laundry list of what isn't working in their body and their life. Your role becomes reactive, assuming responsibility for solving their problem.

But the former, creates the opportunity for thinking about an alternative future, new choices and zeros in on what's important to them. Chances are they want something more than just their headaches to stop or their back pain to go away! When you tap into what they really want, you unleash a form of motivation that makes scare tactics and energy-draining compliance techniques unnecessary.

"What seems to be the problem?" implies you have the means to "fix" them. Careful. They will be doing the fixing, if there's going to be any fixing. You're a releaser, not a fixer!

Giving a better report, a better adjustment or cleaning up your procedures produce only modest gains. Sure, a 2% increase here or a 5% improvement there can add up.

But for significant growth, you'll want to look deeper. Breakthrough growth is only possible by changing what you believe. Busier practitioners hold a different set of beliefs:

A patient's rejection of care isn't a rejection of me.
I only invest my energy in things I can do something about.
I'm willing to risk a relationship if it means compromising the truth.
I focus on those who show up, not those who miss.
I have total certainty in what I do.
I must hold myself to high standards—even when no one is watching.
I know who I am and I'm comfortable with it.

These are rarely visible when touring a high-performing practice. They often use pretty much the same patient education materials, techniques and procedures that you do. But they show up embracing a very different set of beliefs.

Do you believe that?

Do you have a high maintenance practice? I don't mean a practice full of maintenance patients, but a practice that requires a great deal of emotional investment to maintain?

It may be a sign that you make patient relationships about meeting your needs rather than theirs. It means you have assumed a parental role, imposing your will on patients. Even if you justify your heavy-handed caring as in their best interests, your "mother henning" is disrespectful and unsustainable.

Patient's become the problem. You take their choices personally. Their rejection produces doubt, anger, fatigue and eventually burnout. When you live through others, you are unable to be the anchor patients secretly crave, impairing the most important component of all: hope.

By caring about what you have little or no control over (the pace of their healing, their desire to follow through, the priority they place on their health, etc.) your impact is blunted and your capacity reduced.

Do you take time out for you? If you're like most chiropractors, you're so busy doing, doing, doing that you've neglected you!

When was the last time you ducked into your favorite ice cream parlor? Or sat with a cappuccino on a park bench? Or indulged in a massage? Or just stopped to study a flower or listen to the birds discuss the day?

Have you become a human doing?

Many of us have been misled into believing that success and happiness is acquired through doing. Doing it better, faster, this way or that way. It's not true. If you study the busiest practitioners they are first masters of being. Being certain. Being clear. Being decisive. Being discerning. Being intuitive. Being present. Being comfortable in their own skin. All of which is nearly impossible if your head is always down, bulldozing your way through each day, simply doing the doings of chiropractic.

Pamper yourself. Clear your mind. Come up for some air. Be!

Do you listen or merely hear?

Great communicators are thought to be those who speak eloquent words. But effective communication is more about listening than speaking. Patients are drawn to powerful listeners:

Be present. Be completely with a patient. Don't try to simultaneously monitor a front desk conversation in the midst of a patient consultation. Banish your worries and personal distractions. Completely surrender to the moment and be fully present.

Show up empty. Be so certain of what is true that you can afford to set it aside and be filled by the patient's story. You can't receive if you're already full; full of yourself, your chiropractic story or your plan to "win them over."

Speak less. Constant chatter is a sign that you lack confidence and need to assure yourself. Pick your words thoughtfully. Slow down. Less is more.

As you become a better listener patients become more attentive.

While the fear of failure gets all the press, that's not what really holds us back. What actually stops us is the fear of blame. The fear of criticism. The fear of judgment. And the big one: the fear of responsibility.

Turns out, mistrusting our ability to achieve pales in comparison to the sting we imagine from what others may think or say about us. This keeps innovative projects from being launched, lectures from being delivered, convictions from being expressed and lives from being inspired.

"Who am I to make a difference?" we lie to ourselves.

Living small doesn't become someone who knows the truth about health and healing. Attempting to fly under the radar doesn't suit a revolutionary. Trying to fit in, be accepted and toe the line is actually a treaty with doubters and detractors.

Be responsible. Tell the truth. Plant your flag. And do so boldly.

If you've fallen into the common trap of seeing yourself as a patient "fixer," you're likely feeling a bit tired and overwhelmed. Carrying patients, rather than caring for patients, puts an unrealistic burden on you. It overlooks the immutable fact that patients do the healing, not you. At best, you're merely a "releaser."

Being responsible (response able) for something you can't control (their recovery), creates an overdraft on your emotional "checking account." It can produce resentment from patient choices, frustration due to their unwillingness to change, anger from missed appointments and defensiveness when results don't come as expected.

Patients (and their sometimes poor follow-through) aren't the problem. Attempting to practice with poorly defined boundaries and choosing to see their problem as your problem, is. Set clear boundaries. "Here's what you can expect from us... And here's what we're expecting of you..." should be part of every report of findings.

Is it part of yours?

Are you a new patient farmer or a miner?

Do you see your community as fertile soil for planting seeds, or a place to stake your claim on new patient "ore" to be extracted before another chiropractor moves into your territory and gets it?

Farmers plant seeds, cultivate, fertilize and trust nature. They know there is no reaping without sowing. Miners take what is already there and rely on their self-effort.

If you believe there are a limited number of new patients to go around, you're practicing as a miner. If you tell the chiropractic story to strangers, trusting enough seeds will fall on fertile ground and move them to become new patients, you're a new patient farmer.

New patient mining is risky. You're at the mercy of insurance companies and ever-changing state and provincial laws. Want to help more people? Do more farming.

If patients think your adjustments are doing the healing, you've created an unhealthy co-dependency that obscures the truth.

Showing up as a "fixer" is an all too common symptom of underperforming practices. It makes the relationship about you and what you're doing, rather than the patient and the potential their maker gave them to heal from the inside out. What they bring to your table is more important than what you do on the table.

This week, be slow to accept credit for the progress mentioned by patients. Similarly, be slow to become defensive when patients seem frustrated over the pace of their recovery. Instead, be curious about what other factors may be preventing the healing process from manifesting.

In the same way your car keys merely unleash what was built into your car when it was manufactured, adjustments help release what each patient was given by their maker. Taking credit for it is tempting, but unwise.

Are you toiling merely for the promised reward of retirement?

Remember, we're wired to move, create, serve, right wrongs, alleviate suffering and commit ourselves to the pursuit of something meaningful and bigger than ourselves. Yes, we must rest from time to time to recreate and renew. But the notion that our purpose is to endure a wearisome daily grind so we can finally languish unused, is to trivialize the gift of life.

If you're not experiencing frequent bouts of deep, soul-satisfying fulfillment, an exotic vacation will be a hollow reminder that you're squandering your gift. A month or two of retirement would likely be even more disappointing.

If practice is a struggle, you've either made chiropractic small, reducing it to a spinal therapy, made practice about you or have allowed your practice to become irrelevant or outdated. No wonder it's tempting to look forward to three-day weekends, yearn for do nothing vacations and dream of retirement.

An exercise guaranteed to make you less effective is to compare yourself with others.

There's always someone else seeing more patients, making more money and playing with more expensive toys than you. And by the way, the reverse is also true. Regardless of your situation there's always someone else in more dire straits who would gladly trade places with you.

Comparing yourself with others is a sign of ungratefulness. Envying what others appear to have is being unappreciative for what you've been given. It's one of the ugly facets of pride that blocks further blessings. It keeps us small, petty and ineffective.

Instead, be genuinely thankful. If you have a challenge, be grateful. If you have troubles, be appreciative. If you have a void you need filled, remain cheerful. It's an opportunity to prove your worthiness for greater responsibility, greater service and further blessings. Only when you honor what you have do you prove that you can be entrusted with more.

Do you worry? The scriptures tell us not to worry about what we are to eat or wear or anything else. But we worry anyway.

Related to fear, and rooted in the future where we are powerless, worry is a prayer for what we don't want. We forget that our thoughts have power. What we give our attention to, grows. Turns out, worry helps manifest the very thing we don't want.

Oops!

When I was going through the toughest times launching Patient Media, I did my share of worrying. As a spiritual exercise, I took on the responsibility of keeping our several bird feeders filled. I saw it as a way to express my faith. It was a way of surrendering to and trusting nature. It was a way to be an instrument, attending to "the least of these."

What are the acts of faith you could perform to free yourself from worry?

How long can you focus on a single idea or task?

Whether you're in the adjusting room, reading a book or in the middle of a prayer, many of us lose our ability to focus.

The consciousness created by effective healers (by their attention and intention) is achieved by the ability to remain present. Athletes call it being in the zone. It requires complete attention to the task at hand. Being fully present is the only way to suspend the pull from the past or the projection of the future.

If you allow yourself to be distracted by what the patient will think or do, some little worry or fear, a conversation just out of earshot at the front desk, you give up the powerful present. Achieving your goals or serving a patient is based on how well you can be present; in the now. It's what the busiest practitioners are being as they go about their doing.

Do you steal from patients?

When you encroach upon a patient's responsibility or attempt to rescue patients from themselves (in the hopes of secretly receiving admiration) you're stealing. You're not taking their watch or wallet, you're taking the lesson their body is trying to teach. By making their problem, your problem, by attempting to fix rather than facilitate, you're making the relationship about you and your precious reputation.

Their symptoms are a lesson. Will you obscure that lesson by taking credit for the results chiropractic care so consistently produces? Will you steal the limelight by hiding the meaning of their ache or pain? Will you steal their freedom by attempting to create a dependency? Will you steal their self-esteem by elevating the adjustment and your delivery of it?

Patients are so accustomed to having doctors step in as the hero to save them from themselves, few will even notice. Nevertheless, it's still stealing.

What's your creation story?

Virtually every religion has a story to explain how the world was created. Many businesses do as well. Hewlett Packard started in a garage. Dell computers began in a dorm room. Patient Media started in my guest bedroom and the garage was our warehouse.

So it's not surprising that the most frequently-requested slide from my seminars is the Welcome to Our Office paperwork coversheet. It's an example of how you could more deeply connect with new patients by revealing a bit about you and your practice.

Did you have a miraculous experience that prompted you to become a chiropractor? Were you skeptical? Were you originally going to be an MD? What was it that inspired you to snub the conventional to become a chiropractor? When did you receive the affirmation that you had chosen the right career?

Share your creation story. Virtually every patient is craving to hear it.

Round up everything you expect new patients to read and watch during their first two visits.

Start with your website or yellow page ad, include your admitting paperwork, office policies, videos, brochures, wall charts, report documents—everything. You've probably forgotten what all these communication devices are saying. Moreover, since each piece has likely been added over time, see them through "beginners mind," like someone new to your office.

Are they all congruent with your philosophy? Can any of them be consolidated to reduce the amount of paper? Do they advance your purpose? Do they enhance your ability to create the type of patient relationships you want? Do they project the quality, attention-to-detail and aesthetics that would attract the caliber of patients you enjoy seeing?

While it's convenient to complain against the mainstream media, this week become more mindful of the media and messages you're sending new patients within your own office.

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Things change.

When change becomes disorienting it may be a sign that our internal compass is set to the wrong reference point (admiration, pride, looking good, money, etc.) rather than the truth. When we allow circumstances to dictate our attitude (we're up when the business is up—we're down when the business is down), we've become a victim. Naturally, patients have little interest in consulting someone so unanchored!

If you find yourself in this pattern, it may be helpful to create a list of what you believe is true. Here's a head start:

The sun will rise tomorrow.
I can't control patients.
Income is an effect of my service.
Patients do the healing.

List as many as you can. Then test them with someone you trust. Do they stand up? When we align ourselves with the truth we are free to be a humble servant and have the faith to rise above petty circumstances that are constantly changing.

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Are things going great? Fantastic! Things aren't going so great? That's fantastic too. Just remember the wisdom Solomon's wise men inscribed on his ring to provide guidance in either situation: This too shall pass.

If you're enjoying an endless supply of new patients, 100% compliance and zero no-shows, remember, this will pass. And if you're struggling to pay your bills and you're questioning your career choice, know that this too will pass.

Neither extreme is sustainable. It's when we face challenges that test our resources and creativity that we feel fully human. We don't want it too easy--or too difficult.

Same with patients. Ask patients to participate in their recovery by urging a change in their diet, exercises or making some other change. Too difficult and they'll become discouraged--or too easy (because you're doing all the work) and they won't appreciate it, it'll invite dependency, or worse resentment.

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The meaning of the word "health" has become corrupted.

You and I know health as optimum physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. But patients think it's about feeling good or being symptom-free.

Perhaps a more helpful communication strategy, especially in the stress-filled world of patients is to substitute the concept of ease instead.

Physical ease: Balance, alignment, poise and freedom of movement.

Mental ease: Confidence, harmony, creativity and peace of mind.

Social ease: Comfort around strangers, fearlessness and generosity.

Naturally, a lack of ease is the perfect introduction to dis-ease, the precursor to disease. Help patients understand that subluxation is merely their body's best survival strategy in attempting to accommodate the stress in their life. Since patients understand stress, linking chiropractic care to an improved stress response can better justify on-going chiropractic care.

What if it's actually ease patients want, not health?

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What if all the focus on doing this or doing that was replaced by a greater emphasis on being?

Instead of wondering what you'd need to do to stimulate referrals, consider how you'd need to show up so patients would be inclined to refer. Instead of concentrating on what to do to generate new patients, what character would you need to posses to attract vast numbers of new patients? Instead of the content and form of your report of findings, what if you invested your energy into being confident, optimistic, certain and compassionate?

Who you're "being" begins with your beliefs. Do you believe you're a spine fixer? A symptom reliever? A healing facilitator? A visit schedule enforcer? A problem solver? A health care provider? A skeptic converter? A miracle worker? A healer? A coach? An educator? A savior?

The number of patients showing up for you is merely a reflection of who you're showing up as for them!

Greater impact can be achieved by removing, rather than adding.

We seem inclined to think that by acquiring more techniques, knowledge or procedures we'll enjoy greater success. But that's window dressing. You and I show up fully equipped. Instead...

Remove procrastination, rather than adding to your to do list. Remove interferences, rather than adding a work-around. Remove distractions, rather than adding more hours. Remove generalities, rather than adding excuses. Remove complexity, rather than adding new procedures. Remove attachment, rather than adding blame. Remove deception, rather than adding compromise. Remove friction, rather than adding force. Remove distrust, rather than adding rules. Remove tension, rather than adding relief. Remove doubt, rather than adding faith.

Our influence is blunted and our vision obscured by the needless baggage from the past. By believing we lack the ingredients of success, we tend to search, collect and accumulate. Instead, shed what is no longer needed. Simplify. Grow.

This summer I'm commenting on a handful of the 3,000 proverbs written by King Solomon. Put his wisdom to work in your practice:

15:2 A wise teacher makes learning a joy; a rebellious teacher spouts foolishness.

Do patients find your patient education overtures a pleasure and a delight? Or has it become an unpleasant chore that is inconsistent and involves repetitious explanations in which patients remain passive and are largely feigning their interest?

If so, you've been teaching rather than educating.

True education is Socratic and interactive. It requires you be curious enough in what patients believe, to ask questions. (And listen!) You can only make chiropractic relevant by knowing what's meaningful to patients. Then, you must appeal to their right brain, not just their analytical left-brain. That means telling stories.

"A while back we were seeing a patient that thought…"
"When I first heard about chiropractic I was skeptical…"
"One of our many once-a-monther patients was in the other day and they were telling me…"

Abandon any preconceived notion of what patient education is supposed to look like or sound like. Once you start having fun, patients will too.

This summer I'm sharing a handful of the 3,000 proverbs written or collected by King Solomon. Put his wisdom to work in your practice:

18:15 The intelligent man is always open to new ideas. In fact, he looks for them.

Some of the most successful chiropractors I know are those who avoided the temptation of Not Invented Here, suppressing the urge to reinvent the wheel, modeling the beliefs and behaviors of those already successful.

Ironically, the folks who are struggling are those who dogmatically cling to their own notion of what patients should do. When patients don't, patients become the problem! They persevere anyway, trying to superimpose their notion of reality onto patients until they're sufficiently humbled. Then they're available for a new way of practicing.

Who's doing what you want to be doing? Who has what you want to have? Become a student. Believe what they believe and you will be able to do what they do. Like a necktie that goes out of style and then returns, it's an idea so old it seems new!

This summer I'm sharing a handful of the 3,000 proverbs written or collected by King Solomon. Put his wisdom to work in your practice:

12:27 A lazy man won't even dress the game he gets while hunting, but the diligent man makes good use of everything he finds.

Are you being a good steward of your inactive patients? Do they know they'd be welcomed back to your practice? Do you still express interest in their life and their health?

It's tempting to write off inactives as having somehow rejected you and chiropractic. This prompts many offices to spend inordinate amounts of energy trying to acquire new patients. But the real opportunity is to cultivate the dormant relationships of those whom had a positive experience, know where your office is located and would prefer to return to familiar place when they experience their relapse, rather than start over with someone new.

Many inactives are merely waiting for a reminder or an invitation. They think you're angry with them because they let you down by dropping out. Remember, it can take a series of relapses that span several years before a patient "gets" chiropractic. Be diligent and make use of all your resources.

This summer I'm sharing a handful of the 3,000 proverbs written or collected by King Solomon. Put his wisdom to work in your practice:

15:22 Plans go wrong with too few counselors; many counselors bring success.

Who are your counselors?

My experience has been that in many offices, the support team is one of the most overlooked, undervalued and virtually ignored source of advice. Many chiropractors shut off the wisdom from this source by ignoring their suggestions, making the staff afraid to offer a competing viewpoint or simply never asking for their per