Are you an AOR DC?

It’s 5:00 am and the alarm sounds. You roll over, groaning. With the kids being sick, lots of cancelled appointments and the now routine argument with your husband, your bed beckons even more strongly than usual. Right there, you’re faced with the instantaneous dreamlike decision; get out of bed and work out like you promised or hit the snooze button? You’re always lecturing your kids on accountability and keeping their word, but hey, that only applies to kids. Parents, we make up our own rules…or do we?

It’s now 6:30 am and the time for exercise has come and gone. Your spouse doesn’t say anything but that look says it all. The kids are up; you get them ready, fed, and off to the bus. The extra sleep wasn’t even that great, being filled with guilt and a vague sense of anxiety. The new exercise clothes and kicks you laid out so carefully are still where you left them. You place them hastily back in the closet for the umpteenth time and pinkie promise yourself you’ll actually work out tomorrow.

What is AOR?

For those people familiar with the scenario, but not the condition, it’s called acute onset retardation or AOR. In music, a retard means the slacking of the tempo. Similarly, the retardation meaning here absolutely is not making fun of developmentally delayed kids, rather it’s the extent something is held back or delayed. It’s when you clearly know the solution to a problem, but for the life of you, you can’t or won’t implement the solution.

In our society, so much emphasis is placed on more information, more research, more advanced science. But understanding disease will not help you be healthy. Understanding poverty will not help you become wealthy. When you really step back and look at the problem, more often than not, the solution is already known – the real problem is the paralysis to implement the already known solution.

Let’s explore some non-Chiropractic problems and you’ll see acute onset retardation in action. The problem is smoking, the solution is obviously to stop smoking. Why can’t the person implement the solution? AOR. You want to have a better physique. The answer is obviously working out and modifying what you eat. Why can’t the person implement the solution? AOR. Whenever faced with a problem that the solution is known, they still find themselves powerless to implement the solution. What’s going on here?

When a DC2B walks off the graduation platform with a newly minted diploma in their hands, they know they are in serious debt. They are afraid, often times unprepared…and suddenly the retardation strikes them. They accept a low paying associate job, settle for being an independent contractor, or try to get sporadic maternity coverage jobs. They know this is not a sustainable strategy and they do it anyway, all the while watching their debt levels grow. They know the solution is to get their own practice, and yet they won’t implement the solution. They also know, deep down in their knower, that they are going to have to go deeper in debt to get out of debt. Although counter-intuitive, it’s the solution. The most successful year one grads get guidance and always start their own practices…without exception. From a purely mathematical standpoint, they can make literally hundreds of thousand of dollars more as an owner, yet so many are afraid to embrace that solution.

So what IS the solution?

• You must be fearless. It takes thermal levels of courage not to succumb to acute onset retardation. You know the solution and yet we see DC after DC getting part time jobs working (I kid you not) at Cosco or as a preschool teacher instead of committing to having their own practice.
• You must be willing to do what others won’t do. You will feel real scared going against the grain of well meaning professors, parents, and colleagues. Asking for help through your AOR is never easy. You will not be able to be your best without having a special person to hold you accountable and challenge you.
• You must embrace and accept the difficult and complex. The solution to life’s problems require effort and guidance. Much like there are no shortcuts to a great physique, there are no shortcuts to having the practice of your dreams. Most DCs are always on the lookout for simple solutions to complex problems. By embracing the difficult and complex, you will have a permanent economic advantage over DCs who refuse to do so.

We have found with helping hundreds of DCs out of their AOR that the answer is guidance, accountability, and joining a community of like-minded DCs who love helping people. Still skeptical? Give it a try and find out.