Most chiropractors pursue the profession to heal others and make their patients' lives better, but without economic success, you won't get the chance to improve many lives. And as financial pressures build, so does the stress.
However, you can manage your practice and your thoughts so that an upward, positive cycle dominates your practice. And that, in the end, will lead to financial strength and a stress-free practice that is a joy - and an absolute blast! By allowing inspiration to dominate your thoughts, you will emerge with a practice that is debt-free, growing and most importantly, stress-free.
There are many things that make for a successful chiropractic practice - purpose, promotion, technique and systems that track every aspect of your practice, to name a few. You also need methods of organization for collections, insurance and coding. However, the most important thing you need to be successful is inspiration.
| Trap-Door Excuses That Just Aren't True | |
| "I can't be successful because of the current insurance circumstances." | Really? Do you know how many chiropractors are thriving under the same insurance conditions you are? How could that be? There are specific do's and don'ts; if you follow them, you can still function at a high level within the current insurance environment. |
| "I can't succeed because of my location." | Are you sure? Do you know how many doctors have thrived in nearly identical locations? |
| "People just don't seem to value chiropractic care." | Well, they aren't born with a passion for it. But if you aren't inspired about chiropractic care, don't expect anyone else to be, either. The passion and inspiration - and education - about chiropractic need to begin with you. |
| "Big drug companies and mainstream medicine have too much power to overcome." | There are more people seeking wellness health care right now than ever in our history. More people are seeking to address the core of a symptom instead of just addressing the symptom. That is what chiropractic is all about. The wellness movement is growing at a fast pace, and chiropractors are the champions of wellness. |
| "I don't have the money to ..." | This is a common excuse - lack of money to do anything (advertise, etc.). It's a lie. For everyone who claims lack of money is holding them back, I can show you thousands of successful practices that had less money, more debt, etc., yet have still achieved greatness. |
I often encounter doctors who say things like, "We just need more patients" or "If we only had more new patients walking through the door." Well, that could be part of the solution, yes, but inevitably, it isn't the entire solution. Increasing the number of new patients is more often not the biggest problem area. It starts with inspiration, followed by systems, etc. But without inspiration, everything else will fall flat.
What Is It?
Don't be confused here: I am not talking about giving yourself "rah-rah" speeches. I am also not talking about attending "rah-rah" seminars where the enthusiasm wears off within a week. If you achieve true inspiration, with high energy, it doesn't feel like pushing a rock up a hill. It will not feel forced. It will feel natural, true and powerful. When you achieve it, every person you touch will not be able to avoid it rubbing off on them. You walk into your practice and it infects the entire staff, and the patients feel the energy. With this inspiration, you can accomplish so much that it literally might scare you.
The inspiration I am speaking of here might be hard to obtain if you were an accountant. However, we are chiropractors, making major differences in the lives of our community. We heal people. We give them a higher quality of life. We are offering an immense gift. That is inspiring. How can you feel down knowing that truth?
How Do I Get It?
Most would agree that we get what we put our mind to. Well, if you focus on all the reasons of why you can't achieve the practice you want then you won't. You can be assured of making a self-fulfilling prophecy. Eliminate your self-defeating excuses to start on the path of being inspired. There are 100 reasons you could list why your practice suffers. But if we are really honest with ourselves, we know they are trap doors.
You control you. Your thoughts will land you your net results. So, guess what? Your results will be a reflection of your focus. If you think about all the reasons that will stop you from achieving the stress-free, financially secure practice you want, you won't ever get there. But if you choose to be inspired, things will start to turn around. When you focus on what you can do and spend your energy on getting things done that can make a difference; well, then one by one, positive things are accomplished.
So, Can You Avoid Your Problems?
Of course you can't avoid all your problems. Problems and challenges will arise. But those operating with inspiration can overcome the hurdles. As a matter of fact, you will begin to enjoy facing your challenges, just like you enjoy the challenge of beating your buddy at golf or racquetball. Bemoaning the fact that challenges exist, and doing nothing about them, is a recipe for failure. Welcome your problems and obstacles, but do not focus on them. Focus on the positive steps you are making to achieve the practice you have always intended.
For example, when I point out to doctors that they have $50,000 or even $100,000 in AR over 90 days, I often get the response of, "I know. I know it's bad." They are uncomfortable with facing their old AR and don't know what to do about it, so they do nothing. I say face it and make progress. When you are inspired, it makes facing those problem areas much easier, less stressful and, yes, even fun. And just so you know, your first attempt at facing an area you suffer in will more than likely not be successful. Instead, you will likely stumble. Well, rejoice in it! It's part of the process. When you stumble, say to yourself, "Well, I knew that was coming. I'll just keep moving forward." After tackling area after area, your practice will gain momentum, and you will begin having fun. It's a beautiful cycle. And it all starts from being inspired, which leads to progress and financial strength, and the stress just falls away.
The point here is that being inspired, while not making changes and advances, will just lead to stress and burnout. How many of us have attended a seminar, learned what we needed to do, but never got around to making the adjustments in our practice? That sounds crazy, doesn't it? You mean you paid good money to identify exactly what you needed to change in order to be more successful, but when you got back home to your practice, you changed nothing. Is that sane?
Why Didn't Things Change?
Two words: systems and delegation. What you need to do is delegate some tasks and put in systems. The systems will lead to your practice eventually running stress-free with strong finances. Maybe promotion, patient education, coding, insurance and collections isn't what makes your motor run, but without systems to ensure all of those critical areas have checks and balances in place, you're going to spin your wheels.
Dr. Brent Detelich, former president of the Stem Cell Institute of America (www.americastem.com), is a 1993 graduate of Parker College and a second-generation chiropractor. During the past five years, he and his medical team helped to train more than 300 practices on medical integration for the purpose of offering safe, effective and compliant regenerative therapies.