There are two words we need to all memorize and never forget.  When we do, we become small minded about our business and, worse, our own potential.

Most of you know that I’m not quite the motivational speaker type (unless hitting you in the head with a shovel qualifies).  But this one fits the bill, so I’ll keep it short.

DREAM BIG!

Here’s why: you need to in order to thrive in practice!  None of us enter the chiropractic profession to be mediocre, but unfortunately, many of us begin exiting in that direction long before we’re retirement age.

We let the daily minutia of running our businesses begin to drag us down and slowly erode our dreams.  We settle for less with ourselves, with our patients and commonly, with our incomes.  In time, we derive less and less satisfaction from our chosen profession (no one forced you into this) and we begin to act more and more like we have a job.

Please stop.

You are not doing yourself or your patients or your family, friends or loved ones any favors with this type of behavior and lousy outlook.  Things can change but it primarily starts with the realization that you can change.

A second realization that you must have as a chiropractor is that the profession has changed and so has the marketplace.  It saddens me to see DC’s clinging to the old days and the old ways when there is still a bright future ahead.  But the only way that I can make such a statement (I’m notthat naive) is that I believe the bright future will look much different than our current landscape.

Case in Point: My Journey

Even just a few years ago, if you would have told me that a platform in which you write your thoughts and publish them online would change my business forever, I would have asked what you were trying to sell me.  Furthermore, if you would have told me that this “tool” would enable me to reach thousands of chiropractors all over the world — every week — without constant travel, I would have really wanted to hold my wallet tightly.

But what would have caused me to flat out laugh in your face would be the thought that this tool could not only do these things, but do them well.  In fact, so well that it’s impact is significant on my business.

And what would have been totally unimaginable is that the impact would also be recognizable outside the profession.

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But that’s exactly what happened (see the  award & read the press release about me from Constant Contact, my bulk email delivery provider). Some chiropractors, who still are asking SHOULD I get a website? The internet has changed things more than they are willing to admit and they are a looking more like dinosaurs than they are willing to admit for even questioning that fact.

But the internet is not the only thing that has impacted change.  Take a look around.  Many of the “hottest” chiropractic techniques and tools were not even in existence a decade or so ago and if they were they didn’t yet the radar. And yet, some of you use these things daily now and wouldn’t know how to practice without them.

Long story short — Dream Big! None of the chiropractic “greats” ever got that way by thinking small.  (In fact, you can apply that same logic to most success stories in any profession or industry.)

Get a website, get a blog and get the word of those big dreams out to your patients and to the community and do it repeatedly!  Invest in yourself, your technique, your skill-set by attending seminars (I’m partial to my chiropractic billing seminars but any will do!) or advanced course work.  Know that you can get yourself out of whatever rut you are in, primarily because you are capable of change and because you are likely the one that put yourself there!

That’s all the motivational talk I can stomach myself — but, in today’s economy, in our profession and in the current state affairs, I think that remembering to DREAM BIG is not just some mumbo-jumbo.  It’s the future of our success.