Mastery Mindedness

Monday February 27, 2012

2012-02-26T15:59:00.000-08:00

Be TLC Bred...

Quoting our TLC coach, Dr. Rich Santangelo, he states he is "TLC bred". Once we become teachable, then we will attract the lessons and teachers to fulfill that need and desire. So often we are closed off to being truly teachable. We state we want change and growth but the reality is we have reasons and maybe even excuses for why we will not just do what we are asked to do.

Each of our journeys will progress at different time schedules and that is how unique we each are in TLC. We all agree that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. In TLC, we are all students and we are all called to be leaders. It is our TLC community that brings out our hope through all of our voices.

This week, recognize the areas of your practice and life that you have been a student and the areas that you have not been willing to be a student.

Share in your training a specific procedure that you have not been willing to be a student with. Each of you in your training should share the procedure that you will this week be a student.

By your becoming a student, you will inspire your patients to be a student of their own healing.

Monday February 20, 2012

2012-02-19T18:05:00.001-08:00

Sacredness of Your Adjustment

Patients deserve you to provide for them a sacred experience. Their adjustment needs to be honored by everyone starting with you, the doctor. Each and every adjustment is a life changing experience. You as the doctor need to give them that experience.

Think this week on what would create that sacredness – maybe it would be silence during the adjustment, maybe it would be you or your tech CA silently praying, or thinking about how that patient would receive the adjustment.

Give sacredness, honor the experience, and let the patients receive the gift of transforming their lives with each adjustment. What we have to give patients is priceless. Treat it like that and see how each adjustment transforms their lives.

Monday February 13, 2012

2012-02-12T17:27:00.000-08:00

Creating a Village: Bring Your Family Along

Creating a village – this is what TLC has as its core mission and why not adopt this mission for your practice as well – a village where people look out for each other, help each other, and inspire each other.

Chiropractic at its heart is the perfect medium to bring people together. People who are like minded and are searching for healing from inside out. People in a village take responsibility for themselves and they realize their critical role at lifting up others.

This week, talk with your CAs about this vision. If they are congruent with this vision of a village, then run with it and start sharing this message in your spinal workshops. Put up signs and announce that you are creating a village, a village unlike any other. One based on educating, transforming, and inspiring lives one spine at a time.

Monday February 6, 2012

2012-02-05T19:42:00.000-08:00

Do the Dance

NP = New Life

Are you celebrating each life that enters your office? You may think it's silly but creating a new patient dance is a certain way for you to celebrate the new lives entering your office. Don't be afraid to let your patients see how excited you all get at one new life.

Dr. Rob Garfinkel shared with us at the seminar his team all call new patients NL (new lives). That is a great acronym. They are much more than patients; they are lives coming to be transformed.

This week, create your new patient dance and maybe call new patients, new lives. Ring the cow bell and all of you stop and "do the dance". Celebrate, get crazy and rejoice in one more life transformed.

Chiropractic is so much more than a drugless healing profession. It is a philosophy, art, and science designed to transform lives. Celebrate new lives.

Monday January 30, 2012

2012-01-29T17:25:00.001-08:00

Anything You Value is Worth Working For...

There is no substitute for work. Worthwhile things come from hard work and careful planning.

Anything that you value is worth working for. You would be willing to do whatever work is necessary if you knew you would be assured of your success. You can be assured of your success if you are willing to work first.

In our chiropractic practices, we must all train really hard before we can expect us to be successful and rewarding. Once we put the effort in on a consistent basis, we will reap the rewards of the work. "Work really hard" needs to be a mantra that you as a team adopt. Don't be scared of working really hard. Focus on the benefits that your work will have on your patients and the exceptional experience they will have in your office as a result of your hard work.

This week, let's all pick the hardest thing to train on like your TIC talk on spinal workshops. This week, write out the next week's topic like "healing is a process that takes time" and let's each write out the three points of how healing takes time. Some examples might be when you sprain your ankle, when you get a stomach virus, or when you hurt your back. You are in pain one day and the next day, you are all healed and better. We need to learn that healing takes time. Who do you know who does not know that healing takes time or who needs to be reminded of this? Let's invite them to next week's workshop with you. Of course you will be coming – that is a given.

Healing takes time and working really hard is worth the investment in time and energy.

Monday January 23, 2012

2012-01-23T04:59:00.000-08:00

Be Your Best When Your Best is Needed...

Be your best when your best is needed – which is all the time. When is your best not really needed? Would it be okay if you chose to not be your best when you were driving or when you were walking across the street with a car coming? If you are not at your best, that choice would also compromise someone else's safety and success. Don't we take even more pleasure in other people's success than our own?

In our chiropractic practices, what if we deliver an adjustment and we are not at our best? What compromise would that have on someone else's nervous system? Each adjustment is critical and builds upon the next.

This week, our challenge is to realize we are called to be at our best all the time – in the office and at home. At the office this week, do one thing to deliver a superior adjustment; whether that means studying something of your technique or daily from a chiropractic philosophy book. Also, this week at home, strive to be at your best by thinking of someone else's needs before your own. Sometimes that means not saying anything but showing up with kindness and compassion. That is your best!

Monday January 16, 2012

2012-01-15T17:04:00.001-08:00

Journey with Our Patients Over Time

Are we interested in journeying with others over time? Is the process really our destination? Certainly the process is more "it" than the outcome; but maybe it's not even the process but the relationships which are our real destination. We say we care about others but often, that may look like we care as long as they are following our recommendations.

Maybe the question to ask is, "Do we love each patient where they are at now?" What does loving a patient where they are at look like? We believe it looks like a doctor and team of CAs who don't "need" the patient but rather long in their hearts to give the patient the chance to change their lives with chiropractic. It looks like this process will take time and that means our TIC talk must reiterate the process and reassuring statements that the cause of the problem is clear and correcting subluxations will be a continual process. Be bold with your recommendations – patients are hungry for clarity and are willing to follow you as their doctor and leader.

This week, challenge your team to honesty and see that all agree you can step up your journeying with patients, through prayerful consideration of your patients in your prep time doing P.R.E.S. or in your TIC talk that will be what each patient needs to hear because it will be coming from the place of your love to be included in their journey over time.

Monday January 9, 2012

2012-01-08T18:09:00.001-08:00

Once a Person Gets in Action, Their Fear Subsides

Fear and action cannot simultaneously exist, so the question is where in your life do you exist in fear? Wherever that is – act now, do not delay. Any action is more productive than no action. The "right" action is not the pursuit. Action is the pursuit.

Act and it will be different because act and you will be different. Our quest this week is to find the area of life that we each have had fear in – fear associated that has justified our inaction. This week, the goal is to take one action in that area of life that until this moment has been filled with fear.

What do we have to lose when we choose action over fear? Nothing. Our lives will be enriched by our choice or action. This week, take one action in the specific area that you have been fearful of. One action will lead to more actions. Take the 1st step, be brave, be bold, and act. Act and be freed of fear.

Monday January 2, 2012

2012-01-01T16:57:00.001-08:00

You Can't Go Back

Once you pass through one stage in life, you can't go back and go through that stage of life again. Some of us welcome that concept because they don't want ever to go back to a previous time. Others of us wish we could go back – wish we could relive our lives for another chance to experience our lives anew.

If we live everyday in practice knowing we can't go back – this moment is it – we must live this moment in state with our patients, our team members, and realize for better or for worse this moment is all we have.

If we can't go back, then making the most of every moment is the answer. We must live as this is the last moment of our lives. What is the message to say to the patient before you if this was your LAST moment to share with them? Love expressed through chiropractic is the hope. Touching their hearts, not their intellect is the key. Reach beyond yourself, touch their hearts each and every day. Know that you can't go back. We are moving forward with or without you. Engage in the moment and be blessed!

Monday December 26, 2011

2011-12-25T18:07:00.001-08:00

What We Know Has Very Little to Do With What We Do.

Hmm… that says it all. We all like to stay intellectual in knowing but applying the knowing to doing that is the challenge and the intellectual pursuit protects/shields us from real vulnerability and honesty. We may know exactly what we need to do to improve our practice but why don’t we do what we need to do? Why don’t we act and act differently? Hmm… that is the question. Knowledge does not drive us to different choices of action. Knowledge without implementation can lead to depression. We know what we need to do but we do not do it – we do not act differently.

In chiropractic, we know we are different. We are making a choice to choose health and wellness but is that what we do? Do we live that choice? Are we willing to act differently or just know we are different? I propose this week, we are willing to move past our knowledge and move to acting differently. This week, write one specific thing you know you need to do differently and do it. Just this one week – this one day, make a different choice and see the difference.

Monday December 19, 2011

2011-12-18T18:26:00.001-08:00

Prove You Know It – Teach It

Here, the rubber meets the road. If you think you know a procedure and have excelled at implementing it, then volunteer to teach it. First, have your CAs teach not just the procedure but the why behind the "what" of the procedure.

When your CAs own the procedure and the "whys behind it", then you doctors need to get on our weekly Cornerstone calls and share your experience, strength, and hope. You will only know that you really know it when you share it with others, so share it with our TLC family. Jump on the phone lines and share a victory in mastering a procedure, share a victory of knowing and owning the why. Share, share, share and you will grow. More importantly, our TLC family will grow. Do it for them!

Monday December 12, 2011

2011-12-11T18:06:00.001-08:00

Dear TLC Family and Friends,

Identify What You Don't Know

Don't be scared of what you don't know; acknowledge it and speak it. Truth will flow when you honestly speak with what you don't know. This is why report cards work. Report cards reveal what you don't know. Take every chance to do a report card on your practice.

Acknowledging what you need to work on is the most important step. It does not matter how long you have been working at this process, it is a lifelong process. Coaching is about learning and relearning and doing that together as a united group, focused together on achieving our best possible outcomes.

This week at your team training, ask the question – what is one thing we don't know? Your CAs will know this right away. Then share with a fellow TLC doctor what you don't know and you will grow.

Monday December 5, 2011

2011-12-04T17:13:00.001-08:00

Tackle the Hardest Subjects First

These are not my words but our son's 4th grade teacher's study strategies. We almost always shy away from the toughest/hardest subjects and we never tackle them first. In TLC, we challenge you to be different – tackle the hardest first. You have the support, the encouragement, and accountability so you are safe. Rely on your family; we are here for you. Tackle the hardest issue first. You will always be rewarded for taking this step of faith. Once the hardest topic is addressed, all else will be easy. Call that patient you really don't want to, help the CA do a recapture call on a challenging patient, open a conversation with your spouse on an important subject. Take the action now. You are the difference. Be it and follow David's 4th grade teacher's advice. Tackle the hardest subject first.

Monday November 28, 2011

2011-11-27T16:51:00.001-08:00

Study Something Everyday...

How true is this? Are we continuing everyday to be students – students of the growth and excellence we want to experience? It takes a decision to take action everyday to study – are you a student? Would you describe yourself as a student as one of your top five attributes? Being a student puts you above others who want the growth but are not willing to do the work.

Our question to you this week is: are you training monthly with your fellow DC's? Are you adding trainings because there is more to cover each month?

"Just had another great TLC session. The DVD of the R-ROF was awesome. My group is shaping up into an enthusiastic team of DOCS in Training. Thank you for the opportunity to house these sessions. They are helping me grow. It definitely has helped with my concentration through my recent challenges."

-Dr. Avi Musnik on TLC Live Doctor Training

There is more to work to be done – we in TLC are different. Be the difference – engage, grow, and be the difference. Join a live doctor training or start one in your area. Be a student and grow.

Monday November 21, 2011

2011-11-20T17:28:00.001-08:00

Only Ever Vitalistic Words...

That is a challenge. Let's start this mastery mindedness from the “and” point. This week you select one day or even one session and decide to only ever voice vitalistic words. Vitalistic words like tone, regeneration, expression, enhanced, vibrant, optimal, protective, reflexive, care, adaptive, balance, adjustment, alignment, ease, neuroplasticity, elastic, persistence, repetition, conduction, uninhibited, pure, clean, training, discipline, respiration and elastic. Some vitalistic statements would be: positive constructive momentum, adaptive retracing.

Patients who are vitalistically rich are fun to be around. Their pursuit for vitality extends beyond symptom care. Yet when someone is in pain it takes quite the rare individual to still keep their compass setting more on vitality then pain relief. That is where your job comes in to simultaneously help them with their pain (either through your care of the flesh or the comfort of your spoken word) while still laboring to adjust their mind set. Then their compass setting will remain dedicated to vitality in the long run.

Pick your three favorite words or phrases from the listing above and write them on an index card and tape it up in your adjustitorium. Then pick a number of times that you aspire to use those words each day. See if you can be victorious at your own quest.

Only ever vitalistic: life enhancing, enriching words that have the power to lead us to the humility and ultimate surrender. Practicing with only ever vitalistic words is where the joy exists in practice.

Monday November 14, 2011

2011-11-13T16:17:00.001-08:00

The “And” for Patient Care

In our practices we intuitively know that there is no end; there is only AND. That statement needs to be proclaimed with joy to our teams, to our families and to our patients. Patients need to know that there is no end. There is no end to the benefits they will experience year after year with regular chiropractic care. They need to be told that all they need to focus on is the and; “and” they will need to get adjusted for the rest of their lives, “and” they will need to train every week, “and” there will be no end to that.

There is everything to look forward to in chiropractic when we realize this truth that there is no end. Our practice can and will daily change to reflect us and our team and with each addition of a new patient and, and, and...

This week challenge yourselves and your patients to speak these words. “There is no end”. The statement is simple “How prepared are you to receive whatever arises with the response AND? Our growth in practice will be compounded when we embrace this truth. You can provoke these conversations with patients through a white board statement.

Monday November 7, 2011

2011-11-06T17:09:00.000-08:00

The “AND” for doctor care...

In caring for a doctor's practice success it is not uncommon to find their future prosperity thwarted by the perils of the negative reactionary thinking towards things that happen day to day. These negative reactions and thinking could be: stress over an insurance company announcing it will be paying less or requiring more paperwork, announcement of a team member needing to reduce their hours for family needs, a family drops out of care. In any of these instances, the doctor may feel like it is the "end" of this or that, when actually it is a great new beginning, AND what are you going to do about it that grows you even greater?

When Ghandi faced tragedies of compounding deaths and British intolerance on his own soil, he never engaged it as the end of anything. He merely enlarged his response with "and" we will be more joy filled, more faith filled, more loving, more gracious and more self retrained then ever before.

What difficulty that you have recently faced will you be more productive by addressing it not with how it is the "end" of something in the past, but how this is a chance for you to bring out your best AND rise above? You are greater than any circumstance select one circumstance this week "AND" be your best.

Monday October 31, 2011

2011-10-30T17:21:00.001-07:00

Beyond hope management...

There are some areas of each of our lives that exist in hope management. We hope things will be better but we are not actually doing anything to be better. Hope is better then hopelessness but hope is not sufficient. As we search for answers to what will prosper our lives and practices, we see others and sometimes they inspire hope in us. Our search persists as we know there is more – more even then collecting more money or adjusting more people. We get to the more when practice is no longer about us. When we do what we do in pain or in pleasure, we do it because people need us, they pursue us and we have a gift to teach them the principles. The principles are far bigger then the adjustment. The principles will lead people and us to surrender. We are called to this profession and to give of ourselves selflessly and not with hope but with power and strength that will direct our paths to prosperity. We can’t even imagine now but this path is only available
to those who surrender.

Our challenge this week is to apply this to the execution of your technique. Once you have balanced your leg lengths, muscles testing, checked your lines of drives, you surrender, not hope – knowing that God is the one to enact the healing. Think of a specific patient you know who is not getting the relief of pain or correction fast enough and to those patients think of saying "we know your healing comes from our surrender, together you and I turning over your healing while we are giving your body the best adjustments to optimize your nervous system." We don't need to hope for healing. Healing does not come from hope. We have to increase our faith in the healing and teach this to our patients.

Monday October 24, 2011

2011-10-23T16:27:00.000-07:00

Who are you when no one’s watching?

Integrity is being the same when no one is watching. When is no one watching you or your practice? Someone is always watching. Our opportunity is to be congruent. Be congruent in who we are and in how we practice. Our words must be constant. We can not possibly act one way at home and then be a different person in the practice. Our practice is our home. Our job must be in marrying our practice with our life. That is not to say there are no boundaries. Just as in a healthy marriage, boundaries must exist to protect both the home and practice. Our challenge is to be joy filled and congruent even when we think no one is watching. We learn more about our kids by watching them when they are going about their daily activities not thinking any one is watching.

Do we actually do the four primary tasks of the doctor when we think no one is watching because there is not a patient to adjust? Do we then clean up the new patient files and x-rays to prepare ourselves for more? Do we jump to train with our teams to build up their skills and abilities that tend to bring unity to the team? Do we get out of the office and meet people and improve our standing in the community? Are we daily working to improve how our patients witness us with integrity, how our team members experience the doctor doing as he/she espouses to, and how our communities experience our boldness and willingness to serve and give freely. Go forth with integrity.

Monday October 17, 2011

2011-10-16T16:39:00.000-07:00

Dear TLC Family and Friends,

Pulse Beat of Your Community...

Are you able to recognize the "pulse beat" of your community? Are you an integral part of your community such that the people that make up your community rely upon your service as an integral component of it? The pulse beat of your community – that is what your practice needs to be known for. We need to be sensitive to the nature of the community we have chosen and provide for the people according to their needs.

Do you promote to your patients that your practice goal is to become the pulse beat of the community? You need your patients help to establish your practice as such.

This week establish this campaign in your office. Ask each of your patients, put up a big banner asking for their help "Help us become the pulse beat of our community." Serving our community is the reason why we are here. Help us serve the community and really be the pulse beat of our community.

Monday October 10, 2011

2011-10-09T16:48:00.001-07:00

Dear TLC Family and Friends,

Am I ready?

Now that I am willing, the next logical step in the process is "Am I ready?" to take an action in pursuit of the new habit and behavior. Remember the question Socrates asked Dan in the Peaceful Warrior clip we watched at seminar. What time is it? And the reply Dan gave was NOW. Now is the acceptable time. What you know in your heart, don’t deny it. Act now. In TLC we surround you with people who want your best, want you to prosper in practice and at home. Are you ready? Why not now?

Why not ask your patients the same thing this week "Are you ready?" And they most likely will respond "for what"? A few of them will reply "Yes I am ready without asking any questions?" If you want that level of trust in you as the doctor, you must show up with that level of trust in your relationships like with your coaching.

Give you patients a challenge this week challenge for them to do something they have never done, or do to a greater extent and at the same time you tell them that you and your team are doing a challenge to a higher lever then you have ever done. What is your challenge that you are now ready to act on? What is the challenge you are ready to pose to your patients this week? Maybe you could ask your patients, "Are you ready this week to commit to attending one workshop with a friend this month?" That would be a productive challenge.

Be ready and take action this week.

Monday October 3, 2011

2011-10-02T15:58:00.001-07:00

Am I willing?

In TLC we work on the process. The journey and we know that is what we are responsible for. The first step in the process is to ask ourselves are we willing? Are our hearts open to receive? We must be honest with ourselves and recognize that all will follow from answering yes to that question. And nothing will flow if we honestly answer no, we are not willing. Being willing does not require anything else from us at this moment.

The act of saying I am willing is the most important step. Dr. Suzuki recounts the hardest violin piece to ever learn is Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. To go from zero knowledge or desire to the first piece is the most growth that you can ever achieve. The very action of being willing to take the first step is the biggest step we ever take.

With our patients and team members this week let’s all encourage them to be willing to make one more proclamation; that they are willing to consider one more piece of their "wellness/healthcare pursuits". Remind them it’s just like you telling everyone they need to be checked but also telling people it is not that you are telling everyone they need to be adjusted.

Go forth and be willing.

Monday September 26, 2011

2011-09-25T18:10:00.003-07:00

1 Point Lesson...

The power of 1. The Magic of 1, the 1 thing from each seminar we leave with, the 1 thing we want to invest in our children. There is also a 1 thing when it comes to our patient communications. We all can simplify our communication down to the 1 thing, that 1 thing that would make the most impact on our patients’ lives.

If in each communication we have with our patients we leave with 1 point, then we are ensuring that we will get the best possible results. Dr. Suzuki taught his violin teachers to leave each student with 1 point. 1 simple point that the student will take home from each lesson. This is our challenge as doctors to leave each patient, each day with 1 point. 1 point of education, 1 point of hope that they can change their lives, by making a decision for health care that leaves the patient stronger physically and mentally.

This week decide what the1 thing you want each patient to leave your office receiving. It is all about the 1 thing. Not just for us doctors, but this is a powerful training tool for us to impart to our patients. Write down that one thing. Say it over and over to yourself, to your team and then to each patient. Your one thing could be one of the 33 principles, it could be the power the made your body, Mrs. Jones, IS healing your body. Everyone needs to hear a simple truth like that, especially the people who are suffering and not feeling like they are improving. They need your simplicity and truth expressed directly and boldly to them. 1 thing, make it have the most impact possible. Decide and speak that 1 thing BEFORE you start adjusting on Monday.

Monday September 19, 2011

2011-09-18T18:23:00.001-07:00

Time – We All Want More of It...

You have all the time in the world... Most of us would be challenged with this statement. What do you mean; I have all the time in the world? You do not understand all the demands I have in practice, and at home. Maybe you have all the time in the world, but not me...

The only time that you really do have all the time in the world is when you are practicing. Practice is the only time you have all the time in the world. This is your opportunity to seize the moment, take your time, break down the study and drilling of a script into bite sized pieces. Chew on the words, understand the meanings, learn them verbatim and make them yours with adding your heart to the scripts.

In practice you are not in a rush. Practice means doing something over and over. It is not a performance, it is practice. You need to learn from your experiences in practice and then go back and study again. Studying makes the script come to life.

You have all the time in the world – when you are practicing. How does this apply to our patients and their lives? We must teach them that adapting the chiropractic lifestyle with the choices, and actions associated takes practice. And fortunately practice is the only time you have all the time in the world. Anything you do in the direction of implementing this chiropractic lifestyle will be way ahead of what you were doing in the past. You are on the right track, you are progressing. Your patients need to be regularly told that they have all the time in the world NOW that they are choosing the chiropractic way of life. They are already receiving benefits to their way of life that will show them there are endless benefits as long as they continue with getting adjusted. As the years progress that they have been adjusted they will see the cumulative benefits of the adjustments and they will realize that they do have all the time in the world.

Before chiropractic, the time in their lives was ticking away but not now. Now the time is actually going backwards, and helping them regain quality of life that they have missed all those years prior to chiropractic.

This week our challenge to you with your patients is to tell them that now that they are a chiropractic patient, and living the chiropractic lifestyle, NOW THEY HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD. This is a benefit that never can be taken from them and will add to every aspect of their lives.

Monday September 12, 2011

2011-09-11T17:40:00.001-07:00

SERVICE FIRST...

Stop looking for what you need and be of service to others. Such a familiar statement, but so hard to implement. Our lives and our practices are not about us. Our lives are about serving others. Are we really using that standard to evaluate all we do each day in practice? Is this a service to others? Is this procedure serving others, or just creating more paperwork? Everything we do and everything we say must be evaluated with the standard of is it serving others.

We would like to think that our lives are about us, and our needs and our desires. Some of us even feel entitled to think about ourselves. I have worked hard and can't I now just focus on pleasing me? Do I really still have to train, and get out of my office and spread the chiropractic message, haven't I done that enough?

When we stop looking at our own lives, and we start being of service to others, is when we grow. Then is when our practices explode. Because it is then we are truly getting that it is not about our needs, but serving others.

Our challenge to you this week is proclaim to your team a specific way you will be of direct service to another chiropractor in TLC, in your community, a friend from chiropractic school, and then take that action today, MONDAY. Your service might be to call a chiropractor you have not heard from recently, or to invite an old friend to join you at an upcoming TLC seminar, or to offer to bring a friend to a leadership camp, which you know will change their life, or to make a copy of a Back by Popular Demand audio on a specific topic that would bless someone else, or invite a friend to a Live Doctors Training, and if you don't have a Live Doctors Training, you do it in your office and invite another chiropractor. There are endless possibilities. Don't put it off, serve first and you will be blessed.

Monday September 5, 2011

2011-09-04T18:44:00.001-07:00

You remember best what you have done most often.

Whatever you do most repeatedly is what your mind remembers and what you believe best is true. It may not in fact be true but it is what is believed to be true. This applies directly to patients. If patients keep coming to get adjusted, then that is what they will remember as the best way to address their health. If patients only use chiropractic care for pain relief and we allow them to do so without teaching them that this is not truly what chiropractic care is, that would be wrong.

Our challenge this week is to remember best what you have done most often – so choose wisely. Choose the habits and conversations that are worth investing into your memory. Share this message with your team in training to help them to make important choices and the importance of what it invests in their memories. Ask patients, "What spinal habit are you most often doing at home, EVERYDAY?" Habits repeated will be remembered. Make yours worth repeating.

Monday August 29, 2011

2011-08-28T21:01:00.001-07:00

Think Before You Start...

What incredibly simple but difficult words. We would change our relationships with our spouse, our kids, and with our team if we just applied these simple four words? Think not of yourself. Think of the other person before you speak or act. Think means not to start blurting out something. Think first and respond only after thinking.

This week with your patients, try this new skill – STOP before speaking or acting. You have permission to stop and think of the patient first. Think of what they need and when in doubt, don't say it. Concentrate on wanting to give to each patient exactly what that patient needs and what the patient will value most. Catch yourself and do this with your team when you normally might jump in and verbally respond or act. Now stop yourself first to think before you start. It is a valuable tool. Patients will love to learn this skill too. Patients need to be trained to think before they begin their chiropractic care initially. They also have to think every time they get an adjustment to be ready to receive all the adjustment has in store for them. Share with your patients this tool and the value of this adjustment and their experience at your office will multiply.

Monday August 22, 2011

2011-08-21T18:01:00.000-07:00

What's easier is not always what is best...

EASIER – we often seek the easier path. However, easier is not always what is best. What is best is what will produce the most positive results. We must support each other to not look only to the short term return. Easier is most commonly associated with short term return.

This week, our attention needs to go to what is best. Our example of seeking what is best must be displayed to our team and patients. We must be caught doing our studying to be our best, training with our coaches, taking time outs with our team to learn how to be more.

Our challenge this week is to ask patients what they have been doing in their spinal health that has been easier than what is “best” and what they can do this week to pick what is best for their spine – not what is easiest.

Monday August 15, 2011

2011-08-14T17:22:00.001-07:00

Think Ahead...

Thinking ahead is something that we may easily say but are we really thinking ahead when we make all the small day to day choices? Choices to pick activities and people who encourage healthy habits. Are we thinking ahead when we say something without thinking first or when we think about ourselves first and not the person standing before us?

Thinking ahead in our practices means creating a stable base of patients who choose chiropractic regardless of symptoms. Thinking ahead means creating a practice built to outreach to families in the community – a practice for the future not just for our present needs.

This week, dream with your team what thinking ahead appears like – not just for this year or next but for the next 5-10 years from now. We must be teaching patients to think ahead to think of how their choice today to choose chiropractic will serve them in their future and will even benefit their children and grandchildren through epigenetics. Wow – what an important message thinking ahead has on our everyday life.

Monday August 8, 2011

2011-08-07T18:15:00.000-07:00

Teaching is fun – fun because everyday, it is a challenge if we agree that we as doctors are always seeking to find the right words and examples for each person. We are all teachers, so we all need to be constantly thinking of what the best expressions of our chiropractic message is to each person. We need to touch their hearts more importantly than their heads. We touch people's hearts through their emotions, through stories, and through meaningful words to them. This week, choose carefully the stories you will share that will encourage and inspire your patients to everyday choose the care that will change their bodies and their lives.

This week, your challenge is to start out with your team, speaking two stories that can be shared daily with your patients. Share the stories, modify the stories to cater to each person you are delivering it to. Enjoy your role as teacher and realize everyday is a new challenge with opportunities for you to be the person you need to be to reach not just your patients' minds, but more importantly, to touch their hearts.

Monday August 1, 2011

2011-07-31T19:13:00.000-07:00

If you were helping someone else, what would you tell them to do?

It is always easier to see in someone else what it is that they can do better and what they need to change. Our vision gets clouded when we look at our own lives but looking at someone else is so much easier. So why don't we use our community to help us to be better? We can facilitate patients to help each other and thus build the chiropractic community. Patients come to your office and expect you, the doctor, to help them. What patients don't expect is for you to teach them to help themselves and even more to help other people – not just themselves.

This week, ask patients to give one other patient a specific tool that has helped them in their journey for spinal health. That tool could be "Get adjusted even when you don't feel like it", "Come to at least one spinal workshop every month and not just for yourself but for the community", or "Do your exercises every day – no matter what".

Monday July 25, 2011

2011-07-24T18:11:00.001-07:00

Coach and Be Coached

We choose to coach our patients to live healthy lives, to choose wellness, to believe in above, down, inside out healing, and then at times we feel a need to not to be coached? How ironic is that? Everyday, our life's goal is accomplished by our being the coach. We coach our team to be the most they can be, we coach our spouses and kids in the quality of questions we provoke but still at times, we need to "take a break". A break from what? A break from being your best, from experiencing all your life has to offer? When would be the time you could take a break from being the best mother or father, daughter or son? NEVER. Then how can we ever allow the words "I am going to take a break from coaching" to come out of our mouths? Coaching is for your lives – to express more of you in an uplifting and encouraging environment. Be more.

This week, notice how many times you are tempted to "want" to take a break. We may want to take a break but to actually take a break is saying to all those around you, I am stopping and not willing to go forth and give and serve. You can't choose that. It takes more energy to restart your engagement than to slow down the process but keep moving forward. Think this week of patients who might be thinking of taking a break and share these thoughts and your reflections on how this applies to their health care. Help those to see slowing it down is much easier than restarting the momentum of healing and it is a lot more painful to stop and restart in our pursuit of health – responding to our bodies in the first episode of a warning sign or even more, before the first warning sign is the ideal.

Monday July 18, 2011

2011-07-15T14:06:00.000-07:00

Now What?

Now that you have graduated, now that you have opened your practice, now that you have a team that works well together, now that you have collections to more than cover expenses – now what? Do you ask yourself that question? Do you seek the answer and are you willing to do the work involved?

Realizing your accomplishment is that first step and then asking yourself what is next is the next step. Resetting your goals must be done immediately after accomplishing your goal.

Now what? Now what will serve your practice and your life? It is a similar question to the statement always grateful – never satisfied. Ask yourself if before adjusting your patients each day this week, now what? What is needed for that patient? You are the doctor who continually needs to be ahead of them before they ever ask themselves those questions. You coach your patients the way to do this is by asking the tough questions BEFORE your patients ever bring them up. Now what?

Monday July 11, 2011

2011-07-10T19:34:00.001-07:00

Wholehearted...

Serving wholeheartedly – not holding back in our service to others. This is quite a thought. To find more joy in serving others than in serving our own pleasures and needs. In our service to others, our lives have more meaning. We as chiropractors have the perfect profession designed, based on service and removing interferences in others' lives. Chiropractic does not ask you to serve others by taking away from their lives but by enriching and uplifting the purest expression of life.

We have chosen this profession and the question is, "Do we practice wholeheartedly?" Ask yourselves this week before each huddle, "Am I serving wholeheartedly?" To me, wholeheartedly means with no reserve – no holding back something for me or for just in case. What does serving wholeheartedly mean to you?

To experience service provided by a doctor and team serving wholeheartedly! WOW!

Monday July 4, 2011

2011-07-03T17:34:00.000-07:00

Myopia is the condition of near sightedness. We all have this condition – we are the center of all and not being able to focus on the bigger picture – the whole story, other people's needs – to focus beyond our temporary discomforts onto our true purpose.

When patients complain about their pains and slow progress, let's this week, recognize what they really suffer from is myopia. Myopia holds them back from experiencing their ultimate healing. Myopia, the overlooked diagnosis in our lives. The true solution to our myopic state is to give ourselves away in service to others. Serving others will absolutely take the focus off ourselves. We cannot exist in myopic state while giving selflessly to others.

In practice, let's catch ourselves as a team being myopic. Let's educate patients to help them overcome this condition. Let's ask patients this week to go beyond themselves and share their story as an encouragement to another patient. Ask them to come to a workshop with a friend or family member who needs desperately to hear the message. Going beyond ourselves in one act each day and asking our patients to do this will be a great service to them in their own lives and for their own purpose.

Monday June 27, 2011

2011-06-26T16:58:00.000-07:00

Fear not, believe only.

I need to continually claim that. Speaking truths out loud, repeatedly has power. Power that comes from above us. Power that will transform us if we allow it to. We are not called to be fearful or timid; we are called to believe. Believing even when the physical is not displaying itself in our lives. If we seek to believe only, what amazing power that has. We are not called to show the outcomes; we are called to believe only and let God be about the outcomes. Let us not underplay the power of belief.

This week in practice, inspire yourselves, your CAs, and your patients to believe. Put up signs and believe around your adjusting areas. Ask patients for this one week to take a believe sign off your wall home or to work with them and every time they are tempted to even think of a fear, stop look at the sign and focus on believing. Ask patients to come back and share their victories in the process and how God took over the outcomes when we focus on believing.

Monday, June 20 2011

2011-06-19T17:55:00.000-07:00

Plan for interruptions and they will no longer be interruptions

If we approach each day realizing that each day is not ours to follow our agenda, our agenda would mean that we are in control and we would no longer be flexible to what God's plans are for our lives. We need to live our lives realizing that the things we think are interruptions are actual opportunities for us to realize a great blessing. We get to stop our agenda and realize our lives are not about us. Our lives are about serving others and serving others when they need it, not when it is convenient to us.

This week, each morning in your G.A.S. drill, write, “I will greet each day with love in my heart. I will greet each day not with my own agenda and my own control of what needs to happen. I will greet each day with love, which means I will be flexible and ready for anything.” That could look like an interruption but actually that very “interruption” is the biggest gift and blessing you could receive and experience in that day.

Monday June 13, 2011

2011-06-12T17:41:00.000-07:00

Faith is rejoicing before there is evidence of the fulfillment.

This week's proposition is for you to express faith before you experience the reward. If you focus your attention on faith, then your focus moves away from the challenges, when your focus is where you get your results from. Most of us are most comfortable focusing on the challenges, not on focusing on the more intangible – faith.

Our request for you is to focus on faith. Do this as a team – help each other and when you are tempted to be negative about a challenge, say, “No, I will have faith and be thankful before experiencing the reward.”

Monday June 6, 2011

2011-06-07T11:52:00.001-07:00

“A man who is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else”

– Ben Franklin

How often do we make excuses for not doing something? Everyday we make one excuse or more. Excuses are justifications we make so we can feel better about not doing something. Why can't we just state that we did not do something? Somehow, we feel better when we speak an “excuse”. Excuses give us permission to feel better even when we have not taken the action.

In our practices, we need to recognize our comfort with making excuses – whatever we are comfortable with, we do not make changes. Let's work together as a team this week to reduce our excuses. With our patients, let's give them permission to speak the truth even when they know we will not like it. Let's let patients know we appreciate their honesty and we do want them to do more. Our proposition is for you to accept where people are at, acknowledge verbally with patients their commitments or lack of commitment or priority in their lives and ask each patient to do one thing more faithfully – like exercises daily, like attending spinal workshops, no more excuses. Agree together, no more excuses!