Faster To Tomorrow

Road to Your Chiropractic Goals in 2013

It comes at you fast. 

The New Year. Like a fast train, you know it’s coming, and suddenly, it is already whizzing past you.

Actually, each year it comes by faster.  You may not have yet fully had a chance to finish all of last year’s work, or set your chiropractic goals for the New Year.  But nothing slows down the advance of this New Year – and before you know it, it will be spring.

And come summer and fall, what will you have changed in your practice? Probably not as much you would have hoped for.  Why? Because change is coming at you so fast it’s almost too much to keep up.

And it’s not just you that is experiencing change – our whole world is changing. Faster and faster.  The political noise and tumult we hear constantly are just the symptoms of the conventions of the old grating up against the realities of the new.

Ray Kurzweil, whose predictions have been mostly correct over the last 20 years or so, predicts that by 2045 we will have computers that will be able to teach themselves so fast that the speed in which they learn will reach infinity.  This is a very rough description of the Singularity he describes in his book. (The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology)

           “An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential…  There’s even exponential growth in the rate of exponential growth…  The twenty-first century will see almost a thousand times greater technological change than its predecessor…”     – Ray KurzweilSingularity

In other words, change is changing exponentially.

This New Year of change is faster than ever before.  But if we move way out beyond all the hue and cry of chiropractic philosophy, “evidence based” chiropractic, “injectables”, politics in and out of the profession, the rah-rah and rock and roll, there is a quiet universe waiting of healing and success which we may only get glimpses of.

In my opinion (IMHO) … it is a world which you, the chiropractor, have always been in. It is not a matter of reaching your goal as a healer. You are already there. Science in fact is catching up to what  D.D. Palmer talked about as the 19th Century rolled naively into the 20th.  Bruce Lipton, a professor in biology who once taught medical students at a medical school here in Wisconsin, after his research and similar epiphany, now teaches chiropractors at a chiropractic college.  He gave a wonderful presentation at Life West Presentation in San Francisco in 2012. I was there and heard him. (Spontaneous Evolution by Bruce Lipton)

Bruce Lipton

Bruce Lipton with Ed Petty
Ed Petty and Bruce Lipton

But the truth is, you, as a chiropractor, are already there. You have already ridden the wave and, to some degree, are on the other side of the Singularly.  You may not  fully realize this, the full power and truth of your profession, and I certainly don’t pretend to.  Well, maybe you do since you are reading this, but probably most doc’s don’t fully appreciate what they have with chiropractic.   But the Innate power defined and used by chiropractors is there. How else do you think it has been able to survive and persist over these 120 years through the teeth of vested interests and vicious and covert attacks – that still persist? (see Doctored, the Movie.) It is certainly not because of the great skill and effectiveness of your national or state organizations (not to discount the good work they have done here and there.)

 And this brings me to the point of this article: you have got to upgrade the architecture and skills of the management of your office.  So, while the healing aspect of your profession is, and has been, way ahead of the times, in many cases your management is not.  Military control of your staff, robotic scripts, referral gimmicks and other relics from the 60’s and 80’s have no place in the future.  Dr. Noope left the building a long time ago.  (Who remembers him?)

For you to succeed, your management and marketing has to be way ahead of the curve. The world is changing so fast that if you are not keeping up, patients will look for chiropractic offices that are.  It is that simple: lead from the future, or perish as an amalgamation of P.T., massage, and G.N.C.

It is now 2013 and by now you may have, or should have set some chiropractic goals for 2013.   The challenge now is getting there. This is also our challenge as Petty Michel & Associates consultants and coaches as well.

This year, our goal is to get you to your goals FASTER.

Faster to the future and faster to your goals. It is a challenge, but we have been developing newer and faster approaches that can help you (and your team) get more done quicker.

We want to help you get to tomorrow’s goals – faster and once there, help you stay there and enjoy the ride.  “Get There Faster and Stay There Happier.”  Yep, them’s our goals!

As the world speeds up and changes faster each day, we can whine about how we are being left behind, stoically assert our principles and pretend everything is just the same, or embrace the changes and in fact drive them forward ourselves.

On February 1st we will be announcing new management technologies to get you to your goals  faster and funner.  Or Funnier.

In either case, please stay tuned.

There is nothing like a dream…

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What will the New Year bring – for you, your family, and your business?

No one can know for sure.  But we do know this much – either you create it or someone will create it for you.

Your dreams count. They count more than anyone may have let you to believe.

All things are created twice. First you dream your dream, then you build it.

We’d like to help you build your dreams in 2013.  There is no getting around it – we are all in this together.

And, by the way, we want to thank you for your efforts in making this world a better place. We know how hard you work and the sacrifices you sometimes have to make. We also know that you aren’t always recognized for the good you do.

We know that the world will be a better place in 2013 because of your dreams and efforts.

So, here comes 2013. Let’s get busy – it will be a blast!

Spring and Meaning

Spring.

And almost three months into the New Year.

It was just 3 months ago when the New Year began. What about those goals you set? Those resolutions you made? How are you doing on achieving them?

You know, it is just amazing, working with the great doctors and staffs that we do. It is so evident that success is so attainable. It is just peeking around the corner, waiting for you to do just that next key action that will propel your office to pick up the speed needed to take you to the next level.

One doctor we are working with, after being in practice nearly 20 years, is hitting his best ever days and highest ever weeks this month. His staff have been emailing us their successes as if they are texting us from a rock concert!

We live for this stuff, by the way – your successes. Many times after years of gradual improvements, it is so gratifying to see an office take off with stability.

Another doctor who has been in practice for years has been breaking collections records. And volume…seems like it is nothing to have a 1000 visit month – with many if not most new patients coming in from referrals.  One doctor we work with routinely sees over 1000 visits each month, and each month works with his colleagues and associates to help them hit their best-evers. Another doctor had over 150 on the books for him to see yesterday (Wednesday).

From our perspective, it looks like chiropractic is having a renaissance.

Of course, this is not the case with all of our clients. Some are still laying foundations for future growth. Success can come, but sometimes only after years of implementing the right procedures.

But what are these “right procedures”, and where do you look? Insurance department, clinic management and organization, marketing?

Some of you may feel that you are in a rut,  that you and your practice are stuck. If so, take heart and have hope. Things can change and you can do better. We have seen it happen with many doctors in these last three months.

There are so many distractions in our lives, and many of them are negative and disheartening. Demoralizing. Frightening. Discouraging. Yet, we see doctors who have been stuck, finally get things going and do better. After years of stagnation, we see them do their best ever.

Practice development success is dependent on the quality of your systems and organization.  That’s 50%

What’s the other 50%?

Part II

The other 50% is an “Inside Job.”  That is, your success is dependent upon the structure of your office, but also on the function of your behavior. The quality, and quantity, of your energy, your attitude, and your creativity is easily 50% the cause of your success, or not.

So, if your numbers are down, you should spend half your time improving your systems, and half your time…improving yourself.

Are you frightened stiff? Have you developed “hardening of the attitudes”? Are you resentful, a seething caldron of anger? Do you feel burned out, frustrated, or feel like you just can not make the changes needed?  Believe me, this manifests one way or another in your practice. And in all areas of your life.

We all experience these feelings, among others, at times. Sometimes they are acute. But after you have been in business for a while, you may not even notice that you have become less than enthusiastic about practice.

Yet, even if you were locked up in solitary confinement, you would still have the power of choice. You could still be creative.  Even if you were shackled, starved, beaten, imprisoned, you could still find meaning and purpose in your life.

This is the basis of an entire branch of psychology as developed by a former prisoner of the Nazi death camps, Victor Frankl. His observations lead him to identify what he saw as the basic principles of living, including:

  1. “Life has meaning under all circumstances, even the most miserable ones.
  2. “Our main motivation for living is our will to find meaning in life.”

Successful people have meaning in their lives.

If you can find purpose and meaning in this very moment, in this day, with your next patient, with this year, your probability of success will be greatly increased. More importantly, you will find that what you are doing is more satisfying.

Fear will vanish, hardened attitudes will become flexible, and your energy will return.

Structural changes will need to take place, of course. Better clinic systems and organizational procedures will then take you to the top. And keep you there.

We can help with all of these, by the way. But you should know and be reassured that chiropractic is happening. It is hip, it is popular, and it is growing, probably more so now than ever before.

Naysayers say otherwise to promote their goods or services. They are sell outs. Don’t buy what they are peddling. Chiropractors have always been challenged and it is actually what has helped you be strong and survive.  Insurance cutbacks are not new.

After more than 20 years in business,  we are still amazed each day when we hear of the stories patients tell of their success.

Chiropractic works. It has, does, and will for at least the rest of this year. So, find your meanings and purposes, get help to upgrade your clinic procedures and organization, and make those yearly goals you set for 2008.

Heck — why not beat them and make this year your best ever?

Spring has its own meaning, its own purpose: to grow and create. This can be your purpose too.

Every moment, every day. Right now.

Goals For Patients and Chiropractors

Goals Give Us Tools to Put Dreams Into Action

Phyllis A Frase

If each of us is on a lifelong journey to find our hat, to know who we are, then by implication we are all on a journey to somewhere. It is our passion for that destination that makes us engaged and purposeful about our work and lives. Without a dream, without goals, we have no direction. As the old expression says, “If you don’t know where you are going, any path will get you there.”

William James, the visionary turn-of-the-century psychologist, might be considered one of the fathers of self-actualization. He understood the power of our thoughts to affect our lives. His advice then is as true today as ever: “Seek out that particular mental attitude which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘this is the real me,’ and when you have found that attitude follow it.”

Many, many people are afraid to follow their dreams. They are afraid of goals or at least resist them. They think goals take the fluidity and spontaneity out of life.  And they worry about how they will feel if they don’t reach them.

But we need to remember that goals are not a blueprint; they simply provide a vision.

Think about it in terms of a fishing line. A big goal, like a big fish, puts some tension on the line. You’ve got to have tension to succeed. You can’t catch a fish without it. If you line goes slack, you know you’ve lost a big one. If you yank too hard, you risk losing the fish and the lure as well.

We teach our patients our chiropractic truth and values. We offer gentle but continuous pressure to gradually pull and lure them into referring, committed lifetime oriented chiropractic patients. But if you lose patience and jerk the line too often, you can lose the patient by not having systems and procedures that guide that patient. Constant dialogues, clarity, trust and soft tension on the line—those are the qualities that lead to the results and relationship we look to have with our patients.

In your life you’ve got to go after your goals and dreams. Of course, for the passion and the persistence to be there, and to take ACTION and not think about it, they need to be aligned with who you are and not what everyone else thinks you are. They also need to be about what you what to accomplish. And yes, you will surely lose some.  But you can’t catch a dream without tension on the line.

So be purposeful. Don’t be satisfied just dawdling along. We need to save people chiropractically…..If you don’t do it and take action, who will?