AJCC 2003

October 2003

Practice Growth: Forced or Natural

by Dwight DeGeorge, DC

Thoughts on how to cultivate a successful life in practice

Just as certainly as the sun shines on the earth and brightens it when clouds are not in the sky, in practice as in life, people who associate with the doctor tend to reflect the energy he/she portrays. In this respect, patients, staff, family members, friends, and peers all interact in relation to the energy and attitude given off by the doctor as a person. Just as negative things in life inhibit growth, positive things promote it. It seems to be a human trait to focus on the negative more so than the positive. We must learn as individuals to focus more on the positive to overcome the influence of negative factors both in life and in our practice. With this important principle of growth in mind, it is necessary to keep other growth-related factors in check. Lasting practice growth will only be achieved when all pieces of the puzzle are in place.

The doctor can force growth and go beyond what they are ready to do in a short period of time, but not without consequence. Unfortunately, people don’t tend to recognize they are pushing too hard until afterwards when damage has already been done. The looming threat of debt, overhead, family financial pressures, and the expectations of those close to us often cause an urgency to achieve fast growth in practice. Growth becomes forced and will start to inhibit practice development and maintenance years down the road. Forced growth is like taking an adrenaline shot to feel good. It lasts a short time and then wears off.

An athlete bitten by The Worm of Ambition will push themselves and test their physical limitations with each and every workout, creating an accelerated level of physical development. With all the athlete does for nourishment, rest, and increased performance, the injuries they acquire as a result of pushing their body with an unbridled passion for success may sabotage any potential for future development. Praise of friends, peers and the public along with recognition, awards and publicity will only serve to make this athlete want to push harder. Over years of training, injuries start to add up. Scar tissue accumulated since early years of the athlete’s journey begin to inhibit their performance, dull their skill level and impede any further success. Time and repetition of training have afforded keen mental acuity for this athlete but scar tissue from their forced path will now limit the athlete’s physical prowess and stunt any further development.

The athlete who takes a slower and more natural approach toward growth will arrive at the same level of skill a short time later. Though the process might take them a little longer, their physical potential will not be hindered by so much scar tissue, allowing them to use their mental acuity to sharpen physical prowess and accelerate further development.

Insight and focus are key to nourishing a practice without compromising the doctor’s livelihood. When patients come into our office they have all kinds of pre-conceived notions of health, wellness, and what chiropractors do. We do our best to educate and motivate them so they can understand chiropractic principles and use them to release all the potential their body has to give. The way this is done is as important as what is said. At times, despite all my efforts and the efforts of the staff, people would choose frustratingly naive care patterns or end care before they could really have the chance to make significant spinal change. This used to tear me up inside because I didn’t understand how I could put in so much energy and still watch people leave our office. They just didn’t seem to get the big idea no matter how hard I tried.

Thinking back, I had certain friends who would cover their ears and talk to themselves when I started getting close to them. They were never hospitalized for mental illness but I had been so passionate about chiropractic that they got sick and tired of hearing me speak. To this day, they make fun of me for the times I assaulted them with my chiropractic philosophy. When I think about it, I begin to understand how they must have felt. I remember one student in my gross anatomy class who always seemed to think he knew more than the professor did. Every time he opened his mouth the class would groan in disgust at his arrogance. Later in practice I realized I was doing that same thing, but this time it was to my patients and some of them stopped care because of it. I started to see a pattern.

As a result of my passion for chiropractic, I found myself choosing care for the patients rather than allowing them to decide for themselves. I think I cared more about their problems than they did and it made some of them feel awkward. A lot of the time, I didn’t find this out until much later because the patients liked me and would leave the office because they didn’t want to disappoint me by telling me they were not as motivated to get chiropractic care as I was motivated for them. When they could not live up to my hopes, expectations or enthusiasm, it made them feel uncomfortable and they would slip away for some period of time. I realized that, to my patients, I had become arrogant and they couldn’t handle my attitude or what I said because it disgusted them. It was the same thing my friend in anatomy class did to me so many years ago. Something had to change. I realized I needed to accept their level of caring about their problem and not exceed or belittle it. When I started meeting them on their level, they became so much more enthused and willing to interact that I started having more and more opportunity to educate them without resistance! In addition, something else happened. We started having a lot of fun in our office! Over time, these same people, who once ran away after a short period of being adjusted, became more and more interested in continuing chiropractic care. They started to digest the concepts and worked them into life at their own pace instead of at my pace. As a result, the practice grew.

The way finances are managed can sometimes cause forced growth along with the related burden. Over the years, I have seen many colleagues run into this problem. One of them became convinced that to grow his practice, he needed a lot of new patients, and decided advertising was the way to achieve them. He chose to double his advertising exposure and in the process doubled his advertising expenses for the year. I remember the conversation we had at a Christmas party near the years’ end. In disgust and frustration, he explained how his advertising expenses went from $34,000 the prior year to $70,000 in the current year. He then said something that shocked and disturbed me. He spent so much on advertising he had no money left to buy holiday gifts! As a result of his additional advertising efforts, he saw only a grand total of seven more new patients than he had the year prior! When he spoke with me, he was ready to get out of practice and move on to another profession.

The very next week, I had the opportunity to meet another chiropractor at a seminar. He was very successful both financially and in his practice. He explained that he was determined to become debt free and accumulate a financial nest egg to avoid the stress of debt in the future. The year I spoke with him he had worked 2-3 times harder than the year before and paid nearly every penny he earned to abolish his debt and save for the future; he was very successful in achieving these goals. Amazingly enough, this man was as frustrated, stressed, and disgusted as my friend who spent all that extra money on advertising. He had forgotten one of the most important life lessons...

The journey is the true prize and not the conquest of the goal.

Each of these doctors, in different ways, experienced forced growth in their practice. Neither achieved their comprehensive goals. One of them burnt out before reaching his goal and the other burnt out pursuing the conquest of his goal.

We have all heard that the time to enjoy things in life is in the present... the here and the now. We cannot work in the future. We can only work in the present. We can only exist in the present. If we want to enjoy practice and enjoy life, we must do so in the present. This means we must learn how to enjoy the path of our journey into a successful future. This is the only way to ensure a fruitful life. This is the only way to mature naturally and professionally while minimizing the development of mental and physical scar tissue, maximizing our potential to develop and grow. There is a harmony between life and success, which can maintain an unyielding day to day excitement. This success involves more than merely the statistics of success. When the doctor learns how to enjoy the path, success and longevity become ensured and life will be enjoyed rather than muddled through each and every day.

The worm of ambition with the mental and physical scar tissue related to a stressful path would shade the doctors’ light but can be suppressed and quieted. This process begins with taking a more relaxed and specifically calculated approach to practice development. This approach includes implementing sound practice principles and constantly working to adhere to these principles. When done correctly, the doctor will loose track of how fast they meet and surpass their goals of success in practice. When the path, rather than the goal provides the juice of life, the doctor will shine like the sun and will be confident things are being done right.