Who says goals don’t count.  All of Canada is glued to the television tonight to watch their team play a round robin match against their arch rivals.  Imagine when the games really count.

Goals are powerful measuring sticks for everyone wheteher you are Olympians, hockey fans or chiropractic patients.  So often we forget to use strings of goals to connect the patient with where they are to where they need and want to be.  Unlike a hockey game, there are more than 60 minutes of a game to play in health, wellness and life.  We have an oppportunity and a responsibility to inspire and direct our patients with attainable and far reaching goals.

I focus on developing an early understanding of stress and the functioning nervous system.  This is where my goals start with the patient.  Developing a new awareness for the habits that are taken for granted is a priority.  I relate the processing of stress with the reactions that I locate, measure and palpate within the spinal core.  My goal is touch and tell.  My goal for the patient is an ah-ha.  I use all the tools I have to get that ah-ha.  On a big goal basis I use the NSFI score to set a goal of neural spinal change and functional improvement .  I have xray images to talk about long standing and life altering changes.   I use the scans and the images to reinforce my message and to confirm my certainty.  My goal is to inform, inspire, and interrupt the subluxation patterns. 

I have a multitude of other goals for my patients and my community.   A primary goal in this category is referrals.  I believe that chiropractic is an authentic grass roots movement that is for the people.  It is a simple yet profound message that can easily be relayed from neighbor to neighbor, friend to friend and within the family.  Asking my patients to refer their closest people to me for chiropractic care  is an automatic in my office. My beliefs are represented by my goals.

Time mark…9:06 PM and the score is 3 goals for the USA and 2 goals for Canada.  Goals are everywhere and sometimes there arn’t enough of them when you want them. ( 20 minutes to go. Lets see if there are more Canadian goals in the near future)

Here are some thoughts about being a chiropractor and producing chiropractic that have filtered out from that quiet room.

Its all about the relationship.  No matter how we deliver the adjustment, the greatest change comes about from a change in perspective.  A shift is neccessary from being the doctor to be viewed as their”trusted advisor”.

We must streamline our thots and procedures to service thousands of new patients. Our systems are too cumbersome at present to take it to the people and get them to respond .  In this incredibly fast paced, technology based, communicative world its appropriate to ” call the question” early and service the patient with incredible and reliable service with identifiable outcomes.  

We should be willing to work in an abundant mindset and build businesses that reflect our creative expression of greatness RATHER than show up and dutifully put in the houtrs each day.

Chiropractic’s message is incredibly simple to understand, accept and promote.  Who doesn’t get that stress contained within the spinal core can disrupt  a spine, a body, a life and eventually a community.

Its a good time, if not the best time, to refresh our vision of commitment and our business practices.  If we are willing to risk our greatest assets:  time and reputation on a daily basis, then its appropriate to seek rewards of equal value.  What is it that drives you to be in the office daily?  If its the paycheck then its definately time to rejig. If you are focusing on your retirement options then your dream is busted and your demise is imminent.  Legacy should be replacing retirement thoughts.  

Chiropractors,like all other workers, are inherently lazy at their entrepenurship.  The creative side of life is not meant to be numbed by the repetiton of innane work.  There is a reason that we chose to eat what we kill.  Entrepeneurship keeps us hungry for success and success demands creativity.  As Dave Mager always reminds us,”  Game face on…everyday”

Well, that’s it from the easy chair.  Maybe the room needs to be a little less quiet as I come up with solutions.  Stay tuned as I share some useful practice and positioning thots.

I’m not going to comment on the selection process in the colleges but the results are evident when the majority of candidates are kinesiology grads with a biomechanical background.  The challenge that faces all DC’s is defining what makes them and their offerings of chiropractic unique. There is certainly nothing that warrants chiropractic uniqueness in a better approach to core training.  For God’s sake lets all get over the distinction between fixation and subluxation.  What makes the chiropractic approach unique is that the “lesion” that emerges as a consequence of altered neural tone and a limitation in the expression of innate is a subluxation.  A component of the subluxation process is a vertebral reaction that may or may not exhibit a fixation in the biomechanics of a segment or two.  We all endure fixations either episodically or chronically.  It’s part of living in a gravity and motion dependent existence.  Remember the original definition presented by Palmer via Stevenson in 1927.  There were three necessities to claim the existence of a subluxation: loss of position and inevitably motion of 2 contiguous vertebra; an alteration and eventual closure of the IVF and most of all an interruption in the expression of the Innately tuned mental impulse. Well, 1 and perhaps 2 are associated with fixation but there must be a shift in neural-dural tone to qualify as a subluxation. 

If you remember my model of subluxation for patient orientation using the three layers concept, then it is so easy to understand that layers one and two associate with fixation while a persistent disturbance interfering with the communication along the 3^rd layer of neural-dural tone means that the person is no longer suffering from the limited biomechanics of a fixation but rather, they are developing devastating health issues related to the loss of vital communication. Subluxations are identified and adjusted by chiropractors and so that is what our role is within the community of healers and health care providers.  We are also incredibly capable of coaching and advising how to optimize the results while under adjustive care and to share and care for people to limit the potential to become subluxated. There is a lifetime of work to do in our communities let alone within the world.

Back to my patient…  I identified that indeed he was subluxated in several regions of his spinal core.  We reviewed his neural efficiency patterns and looked at the destructive changes to his spine. He was definitely fixated in many regions including his lumbo-sacral region. Undoubtedly the tissues in this region were generating tremendous pain and restrictions.  Joints and soft tissues hurt like hell when they are damaged and stressed out.  We identified his limitations in lifestyle management and we laid out a care plan that addressed his immediate issues and offered to care for him through the reorganization time frame encompassing recovery, restoration and finally, wellness care.  He was told that this was to be a collaborative effort for him to achieve the best results BUT if he chose to just use adjustments as a therapeutic approach, that was OK as well.  This thing called an adjustment works whether the patient is totally compliant with lifestyle modification or not.    In my years of parenting and “spine-parenting” I have learned it is wise to be creative in inspiring people to achieve results.  Guess what?  He is feeling better and healing at the same time.    If we were to look at his MRI and biomechanical parameters he would still be in trouble but his neural scans are shifting and easing.  He describes many wellness improvements such as clearer thinking, less night pain and spasticity, improved digestion and more mobility in the spine and he is happy!  It’s probably all a placebo because his structural metrix are all abnormal still.  I agree whole heartedly with the young DC that manipulation of this man’s lower spine is risky and non productive.

 If managing the deteriorative fixation was the goal of care, I suppose all that I would be left with is the surface approach to soft tissue and mobilization with movement.  As a chiropractor my eyes are on the subluxation and if there is a chance to adjust it, and why wouldn’t there be, then this man will improve and heal.  That’s the law of nature that is embedded in the philosophy and the principles, all 33 of them, of the chiropractic doctrine.  Of course there is limitation of matter but so long as there is a life spark and enough time, there is an opportunity to heal on many levels.

It’s just right to be and act as a chiropractor if you are going to call yourself one.  It’s a glorious and noble profession that has spent too much of its time trying to fit its philosophy and practice into the square hole dictated by medicine and chiropractic licensing boards. Be the artist that you know you are and stop defining the care you do as a modified physio approach.  Find the subluxations and adjust them.  There will be much more healing going on at that table and it won’t be limited to the person lying on it.

Happy New Year to all of you who read and respond to this blog. 2010 is already becoming a powerhouse of change. We have filled up the two coaching spots that were available and so my amazing assistant, Linda, has bribed me to open up two more.  You are welcome to call in and see if my communication training and my methods of practice development are right for you.  If not, I get a chance to meet more cool people from around the globe!  Be well and Be Great!

Choosing to be a chiropractor allows us to be explorers and artists.  If we relegate our careers to being just a job and to being the means for providing an income, the days over the tables will be long and very tedious.  On the other hand, if we look at the world as an enormous playground and realize the devastating effects of subluxation on human health and potential, we can stand, awestruck and imagine how big our worlds are. I spoke with a DC in China last week and he reminded me that that there were only 5 DC’s in Beijing. That’s about one for every 3 million residents.   He told me that some crappy entrepreneur had gone to Taiwan and sold weekend courses to the public and the medics on the use of Activator Methods.  An amazing, 50,000 people had gone through the program.  The number is staggering and needs to be clarified but you can see the intent.  The DC whom I spoke with was a pioneer of a different breed.  He wants to keep the message of chiropractic pure and asked me to share some good language hooks to tell the right people the right message about us. It all comes down to intent and in the end that intent reflects our integrity.

Another artist that explores the far reaches of his given talent is Victor Wooten.  He’s a bass player and for a treat, catch this youtube video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR6t47pV8Qc and note how fast this guy’s hands can move on the bass.  He’s truly amazing and when others ask how he can do it he says that he does what he can with his talent but where others see perfection he sees opportunity to grow from his flaws.  He runs a bass camp for kids and when he was interviewed he made the comment that playing the music is the easy part but the real challenge is learning and becoming who you were meant to be through the use of your talents. 

Chiropractic adjusting and practice management are the easy parts.  What they do for you is the real question. You have been gifted the brains and the opportunity to share a very unique story.  What you do with it is why I want to be with you as we explore the next frontiers.  It’s time to get our houses in order and get on with the exploration through our art.  Become unconsciously competent at adjusting and running the practice so that you can awaken to the new reality of sharing this chiropractic story with millions of people.  It’s the hippest message around and the youthful DC’s that I work with confirm that the old is dead and the new is just beginning.  Let’s make 2010 the beginning of the end of narrow minded thinking.  Let’s be explorers like the Victorians and artists like the Renaissance masters.  Let’s put aside our egos and change the world together. 

That’s, at least, how I intend to use 2010.

Happy holidays everyone.  Wasn’t 2009 interesting?  I want you all to plan on being even greater in 2010.  A legacy project that I have been working on for the last 2 years will come to life in 2010.  It’s all about you, philanthropy and chiropractic.  Birthing greatness begins by believing in the scope of your influence on a worldwide scale.  Are you up to it?  Details in the New Year.

If we take this truism into the details of the practice then we need to ask ourselves the obvious questions: “What are we certain of ?”and “What and where are we fooling ourselves through inconsistencies and incongruencies? “  One question that I ask the attendees at my program is , “What is your product”.  Now of all the things that a business has to have nailed is the product along with the pricing and the delivery methods.  You wouldn’t believe what I hear.  I get health, vitality, change and wellness as answers.  This then narrows down to adjustments or care.  Generally the room goes very quiet as it becomes apparent that there is no consensus and the answers are asked rather than emphatically given.  The answer, as I see it, is none of the above.  With certainty, I can tell you that the product that a chiropractor sells is not an elusive or subjective  outcome.  Nor is it the adjustment alone.  It is the care plan.  This is the way health care and healing practices work. They create an avenue and a forum to develop a time-based relationship into which the doctor can add their extreme skills of  examining, analyzing adjusting, communicating, coaching, mentoring and being. 

Imagine how powerful and productive your practices could be if there was certainty in the communication of the care plan with every patient.  Imagine if every patient knew where they were going at all times in their care and were aware of their responsibilities.  The CA’s could be trained to be Care Plan specialists, dedicated to assisting the patient adhere to their plan rather than focusing on assisting the doctor.  Powerful practices run this way and the team gets paid at the level of the certainty that they project.

A case study in certainty can be found around the corner in any orthodontists office. These professionals are the very best at focusing on the outcomes  and having care plans that accomplish this.  Along the way they are certain that these results are going to be achieved and they get paid handsomely for this certainty. In fact, the client isn’t even told how often they need to be scheduled.  The intent is the successful outcome and the making of a new “smile”.  Damn, these guys are good!

Lets all take the next step in certainty development when it comes to the care plans.  Structure the care plan from exam to exam at the very least with goals that go as far as you are certain of the outcome you can achieve.  How cool would it be if the certainty of the outcome was based on the certainty of the value of clearing the scans. Imagine that the true goal was to observe neural clearing regardless how the patient felt and that the care plan reflected your expertise, like the orthodontist, on the momentum of the change.  Imagine that you could equate, without a doubt, that wellness was being acheived as the scans reflected the healing state and improved in their pattern. 

A solution to a lack of certainty is to dissect the care plan that you would love to deliver.  Write it out, step by step and fall in love with every bit of it.  Imagine and envision the scans and the healing  as the patient moves from a Release state to the Rebuilding phase.  How long and how frequent will you need to see the patient?  What are the outcomes you expect?  How will you communicate this each step of the way?  What media will you use?  What is the fee structure and the payment model?  How will you measure the success?  How does a patient grow into wellness?  How can they be trained?  Will they refer families and friends?  What do you do in the process?  Your staff’s role and duties?…These are the questions that develop certainty and I am certain that if you focus on removing the inconsistencies in your intent, actions and delivery, you will be repaid handsomely in so many ways.