Is EVERYDAY for 10 days too much?
In my final year of college I went to observe a very successful chiropractor who was referred to as “the trouble maker” by my lecturers. This label made me even more intrigued to observe him. I intrinsically knew that more than likely an element of “sour grapes” was being displayed by the lecturers bad mouthing him.
Little did I know, that visit would go on to change my life! In fact still to this day I refer to him as my “first mentor”. Truth is I only met him once in person and kept in contact only via email after that visit.
My wife (also a Chiropractor) and I spent a morning observing him when he was in his late 70’s. He must have seen 80-100 visits in a morning, with one Chiropractic assistant.
An important side note is that this was in South Africa, a third world country with unemployment rates of between 20% and 30% for the last 20 years. Additionally the practice was located in as “blue collar” area as you get.
My mind was blown!.
Not once did the practice seem “busy”, In fact it was down right easy, boring and “slow”.
What I witnessed wasn’t even the same “profession” that I was exposed to in college. Certain college lecturers had made it seem as though the patients must be being held at gunpoint to agree to his care schedule and be patients of his for so many years. But that’s not what I witnessed.
I saw happy smiling patients that couldn’t sing his praises enough and that had been with him for literally 30 years in some cases. I saw miracle stories everywhere.
I saw a happy abundant chiropractor with a beautiful family!
Kinda everything I ever wanted. Who wouldn’t want that?
The Chicken Mayonnaise Sandwich That Changed My Life!
After the shift he took us for lunch. I remember feeling so grateful that he paid for the meal. Silly when I look back, it was just a sandwich and coffee, but shows how small things make a big impact.
During lunch I grilled him every which way…
Here was my single biggest lesson!
I asked him how often he saw his patients. Without missing a beat he said “everyday for 10 days”.
Again my mind was blown.
I asked, “everyone”?
He paused, cocked his head to the side, looked me directly in the eye and said; “Yes, EVERYONE”. No justification or explanation followed!
Be the doctor doctor!
Before the cavalry come out to “get me”, this is not a lesson on how many visits you should or should not be recommending. Nor am I advocating his particular recommendations, but it sure is a lesson in CONVICTION. Certainty is quite literally defined by most dictionaries as; “A firm conviction that something is the case”.
I know that there is someone (probably many) reading this that have both the evidence based reasons and clinical judgement to, for example, recommend that a patient come to see them everyday that week, but they lack the “conviction” to follow through with that recommendation.
Stop subordinating to what others think!
I was recently having dinner with John Demartini and he reminded me of a lesson I learnt from him many years ago. Nothing holds a person back more than their willingness to subordinate to what others think of us!. Dan Kennedy furthermore taught me that nothing holds a chiropractor back more than our fear of judgement from our peers, not patients or public, but our colleagues.
So I will leave you this. Are you ignoring the research and your clinical judgement to “bend the knee” to the naysayers, or peanut gallery that out of pure pain of “lack of success” will attack the thing they simply don’t understand. Guess who suffers. The patient!
And if you’re struggling with dealing with the “noise”, in the form of naysayers and losers telling you that you are “money grabbing” it’s time to get yourself in the right environment. Honestly, should you find yourself on the tip of your colleagues tongue, perhaps similarly to the way “they” spoke about my “first mentor”, then let me offer a slightly different perspective. Maybe you’re exactly on the right track. Remember, as Mahatma Gandhi once said ;
“First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and then you win!”
Take it as a compliment if you’re being laughed at, ripped off, spoken about … because you know what’s coming next 🙂
I’m rooting for ya.
Love and light
Ry
