The Pain & Pleasure of Practice
By: life coach
Welcome to another edition of the Chiropractic Excellence Newsletter. A newsletter committed to your PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL SUCCESS. The reason my work and this newsletter is dedicated to both personal and professional success is because I do not believe you can have one without the other. Great practices are not built, great practitioners are!! Therefore in this newsletter we will cover both but put the emphasis on the personal side of things as that always precludes success in practice. Let me tell you a story about a Mexican fisherman to illustrate the point I want to make in this newsletter. The young Mexican fisherman came back from a good mornings catch to find an American businessman standing on his dock. The businessman was on holidays and marvelled at the successful catch the young fisherman had that day. He started to ask questions about the number of boats he had and the number of employees he had. The fisherman informed him that it was only him and his brother on their lone boat but they made a good living and were always home by noon. He then had time to take a siesta with his lovely wife after lunch and then spend the afternoon playing with his children. He had the evenings free to enjoy his hobbies and socialize and he took several weeks of holidays in the "off" season. Well the businessman's eyes lit up and he proceeded to explain how if he could do this well with one boat than he could do even better with two boats. If he leveraged the equity in the first boat the bank would loan him enough money for a second boat and he could hire a crew to run it for him. He told him that if he worked really long and hard that soon he could buy another boat and another and soon he would have a whole fleet and his catch would be larger. After many years he could retire and enjoy his life. The young fisherman listened intently and then asked the businessman what he would do once he got to "enjoy" his life. The businessman told him he could spend time with this wife and children and take holidays and have time to enjoy his hobbies. "But you see" said the young Mexican fisherman "that is what I do now" and he quitely walked away. The story illustrates a common problem I have found in my many years of teaching and coaching in our profession. Many of the clients I coach want to increase the volume in their practice . They believe that by doing this all of the pain and problems in their life will be over. They believe that "there is better than here" and so they fight and scratch to get to the next level of practice volume. What they usually find out when they get to that level is that some of their earlier problems are in fact gone or greatly reduced. However what shocks most of these doctors is the number of new problems and pains associated with the new volume in practice that they didn't see coming. I had to learn this the hard way to be able to share it with you. I honestly believed that something magical and/or mystical was going to take place in my life and practice when I got to 300 office visits per week. Then I got there and realized that I still had problems and pains, they had just changed forms! Well, I reasoned, the magic must start at 400 visits per week and so I worked to get there. Once I got there I realized there were still lots of the old pains and some new ones I didn't anticipate. Well the magic must start at 500/week I thought to myself. WRONG !! Then lets take it to 600/week and change a team member and build a new building and ........................... FINALLY THE GONG WENT OFF IN MY HEAD !! THERE IS EQUAL PLEASURE AND PAIN IN ALL THINGS IN LIFE! Certainly at volumes of 500 and 600 visits per week (which I ran for many, many years) the financial concerns and pains were quite different than when I was early in practice and wondered if I was going to be able to make my car payment that month. Now the concerns shifted too "can I make my quarterly tax installment on time" and " I wonder who is going to come around asking me to borrow money this week!" I had to keep my focus on "lazer sharp" at all times and couldn't let my guard down for a minute ( I worked 7 hour shifts without a break) or I would run behind and have team members and practice members glaring at me and looking at their watches. I had to stay constantly creative marketing for new members and motivating the team. I had to keep up with the training and administration or things would start to "go to hell in a handbasket!" Heck this was no "promised land" I realized and I had to change something and change it fast ! I DECIDED THAT FROM THAT MOMENT ON I WAS GOING TO DO WHAT I "LOVED TO DO" AND NOT WHAT EVERYONE ELSE THOUGHT I SHOULD DO (PARTICULARLY THOSE PRACTICE MANAGEMENT GURU'S). I WAS GOING TO LISTEN TO THE "WEE SMALL VOICE WITHIN" AND GET CLEAR ABOUT MY PRIORITIES AND VALUE SYSTEMS AND DO WHAT I FELT CALLED TO DO BOTH PERSONALLY AND PROFESSIONALLY. I immediately slashed my hours by 33%, took a two week holiday and went to an all cash practice. I started to focus even more on quality care and not just quantity care and raised my fees accordingly. I booked 10 weeks of holidays that year and have been doing that every year for the past 9 years. I became a better chiropractor, a better father, a better husband, a better friend and a happier more fulfilled human being as a result of this realization and the changes I undertook as a result. That is not to say that I don't have pains and problems now, it is just that they are more tolerable and I adapt to them easier because I am consciously creating my life in my own ideal and realize that the pasture is not always greener over there!! I am more content and fulfilled with my life for it is truly now MY LIFE! So I challenge you dear reader, to look inside and listen to the "wee small voice within." Follow your heart and do what you love to do. Don't listen to what the world says you should do or what some practice management guru tells you you have to do to be successfu in practice. Remember, WHAT YOU WANT WANTS YOU!! Have the courage to go out and grab it and the discipline to hang onto it once you have it. Consciously creating my life in my ideal! In love of life and service ..... Dr. Tom Dr. Tom Preston Life coach
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