Hello AMC Family, Dr Beighle here coming to you for just a few minutes to talk about a very important topic. If I asked each one of you to just take a moment and answer this question to yourself: “What is the number one killer of dreams and goals?”
Everybody got it? The number one killer of dreams and goals is procrastination.
My definition of procrastination is the action of ruining your life for no apparent reason at all. Procrastination is a learned habit and habits can be good or habits can be bad. In this particular situation procrastination, I think we can all pretty much agree, is a bad habit. But procrastination can be unlearned. It can be changed. You can learn to become an action taker; you can learn to move towards the things that you want to do.
How to be a successful chiropractor
How many of us are guilty of going to a boot camp and getting all fired up about a topic or “I’m gonna go home and I’m gonna start doing a consult,” or, “I’m gonna start doing a [Patient Orientation Class],” and we stay fired up about that maybe until about Wednesday of the following week and then that notebook or all those notes or that binder gets pushed aside we never take any action on it.
That will absolutely put the fire out in everyone involved because you will not move forward towards your dreams and your goals. So a question that I would have for you is, why do you procrastinate or why do people not take action when they know that’s exactly what they need to do? I think there are three top reasons. The first one is fear. Fear is so alive and well in the spirits of most people: fear of failure, fear of looking silly, fear of being rejected, fear of falling on your face. So fear is one reason why we don’t take action.
Another reason why we don’t take action is maybe you don’t have all the tools you need. Maybe you need to tell your coach, “I need some more help on this,” or maybe you need a mentor or maybe you need to be in Toastmasters. It’s okay not to have all of the tools and that’s what holds you back but it’s not okay if you know you don’t have the tools and you don’t seek them out.
Okay the final reason i think a lot of people don’t take action is because they’re completely disorganized. Disorganization makes it very hard to take the first couple of steps forward to start implementing what you know needs to be done. There are many different styles of organization, there are many different day planners out there; computer apps, to do lists, whatever works best for you. The whole point is to get a system, get it put together so you’re not so disorganized and you can start taking the steps that you need.
Tips from a Chiropractic Coach
Let’s talk about the steps for a minute. How you spur action? You have to have action steps so you know what your dream is or you know what your goal is. Let’s just say I’m going to do a perfect consult, examination, and report. Okay great, but break that down into action steps. This week I’m going to listen to the consultation one time a day every day. I’m going to record it, I’m going to send it to my coach or I’m going to make a new patient packet. I’m going to get those all printed out ahead of time so that I am ready for the influx of new patients. Whatever it is that your heart desires that you want to do, break it down into steps that you can manage because that’s going to help you overcome inaction.
Grow a Chiropractic Business
Action creates enthusiasm. It’s not the other way around. Action also creates courage. The more action you take the more successes you have, the more courage you have to take bigger steps. Let’s talk finally here for just a moment about how can you create and manage a patient experience that’s positive for your office.
As we’re talking about action maybe you need to walk up to your front door look at your waiting room. What action steps do you possibly need to take so that that patient has a better experience? Maybe it’s plants and flowers, maybe it’s painting your building, maybe it’s clean your office. What about the person answering the phone and greeting your new patients?
Do you need to take the action steps so that they are properly trained either with Chiropractic Assistant coaching or coming to the boot camps so that patient is getting a very pleasant experience inside your office? I would encourage you not just to sit down and think about your dreams, think about your goals for your personal life for your business. Include your staff in that and start writing some small action steps down.
If you need help with those in any way reach out to your Chiropractic coach, reach out to a mentor, reach out to somebody that knows more in that area than you do and ask them to start giving you the tools or help you become better at that topic or whatever it is you want to do so that you are no longer frozen by fear and stuck in procrastination and not taking action on your life.
