The Cause of Chiropractic
I was going back in time re-reading my first Renaissance seminar notebook; you know, the kind with a single silver ring holding it together. It was written by my mentor, Dr. Joe Flesia, and he was talking about putting the “C” (cause) back in Chiropractic. His words burned deep in my soul and are as true today as ever, if not more so. I started to drift off to a lost time in Chiropractic and began to relive when being a tiger was a way of life for the proud members of Renaissance.
Blast from the past
When you were at Renaissance experiences, there were always strong, commanding personalities in the room: self-assured, independent, male DCs, powerful, high-intensity female DCs who didn’t ask for permission from their husbands, passionate men and women who loved being extraordinary and living great lifestyles. They weren’t trying to be different, they were different. They didn’t need to hide behind an anonymous username, they didn’t have an iPhone attached to them via an umbilical cord, they didn’t want a million Facebook likes or twitter followers to announce to the world they were unique. You could feel their presence from across the room.
Some modern day DCs reading this will think these big personalities were self-centered, narcissistic, and full of themselves. Nothing could be further from the truth. Simply put, they were larger than life. You had to be larger than life seeing 800, 1,200 or even 2,000 pv a week. They were humanitarian to the core. They led with their hearts, not their analytical frontal lobes. You could always tell who were the guests at these homecomings because they hadn’t earned their stripes yet. They stuck out like a Bob Dylan fan at a Jay Z concert. But there was more to them, so they learned to share this “moreness” with the world. After all, how much “moreness” does it take to share with a mere 100 pv a week? There was never talk about insurance issues, negativity, how bad the economy was, how Chiropractic let them down, no, it was all about the cause of creating a world of healthier people who would in turn create a healthier planet.
What’s your “cause”?
When your life is cause oriented, dedicated to a cause, and committed to a big vision of healthier people create a healthier planet, nothing stops you…nothing. Not “where or how do I get new patients?”, not dumb, rhetorical questions from patients, not insurance or ICD10 conversion hassles, not technique, politics, or who to hire, not anything. The survival, desperation talk that is so common today is large part due to DCs failing to embrace the cause in Chiropractic.
He went on to speak about Lee Iococca (think today, perhaps Sir Richard Branson or Bill Gates) and his unique, leadership inspired personality.
Do you think Bill Gates asked others how he should live his life? He probably got input from other sources and then did what he wanted to anyway. He is an achiever with an intense cause that formed the foundation of his life.
Do you think Sir Richard Branson bows his head submissively and accepts it when people tell him what can’t be done? He is a doer who knows who he is, where he is going, and how he is going to get there. He knows all of this, because he has a cause that is his destiny. He must make his way as close to the actualization of that cause as possible – against or with all odds. This is where solutions and the answer come from: they come from the internal passionate need to fulfill his cause.
Forsaking the bean counter
In this world, there are the creative people and the bean counters, the people who only have enough vision to put the right number in the right column. Both the number and the column were created by the creatives. And yet, the bean counters plug away, cornered in a lifetime of myopic insurance, billing software, and ICD10 bean counting. A bean reality.
We believe we have too many bean counters in our profession. Too many DCs don’t know any better than to do what they were trained to do. They please people, yield to what others expect them to do, play along with what’s socially right, and be a lamb rather than a lion. In other words, live an inauthentic life.
Well, that’s going to change. All you Bill Gates and Sir Richards are going to see a flowering of evolution, growth, and the cause going back to Chiropractic.
TNR is dedicated to the Branson, to the Gates, whether actualized or yet to flower – the intense people who rise to causes, the people who love the Chiropractic message, who thrive on accomplishment, adrenaline, and the euphoria of winning. Yes, TNR is ready for everyone, even though everyone is not ready for TNR.
Are you ready? Find out here.
