HOW TO SOAR LIKE AN EAGLE WHILE SCRATCHING IN THE CHICKEN RUN!

Are you "fired up" to be in practice? Are you happy to be involved in Chiropractic? Are you excited to be a part of this great profession? Here’s an early morning exercise for you - Take a moment to think about how fired up, happy and excited you are - Now - notify your face!

Isn't it great how you leave some seminars and you are fired up: ready to challenge and change the world? Then comes Monday morning and you're back in your practice. Have you ever noticed that some of your patients aren't as fired up as you are? And by the end of the week you're not fired up either?

Perhaps some of us are inclined to think: "Well, that seminar obviously didn't work!" Kind of reminds me of that occasional patient who comes back after one adjustment saying, "I’m not fixed yet!"

You see when you were at that seminar you felt like you were soaring, reaching for the heavens. You could see for miles: Your visual acuity seemed sharper than it had ever been: You were riding high on the adrenaline air currents: You could see things you had never seen before: New horizons: Places you want to travel to on your chiropractic journey. You felt like the king of the health care birds: You were the Chiropractic Eagle!

Monday morning: You soared into the waiting run of Old McDonald’s Chiropractic Farm. And there they were waiting for you: “B-b-b-back, b-b-b-back”! Isn't it amazing how if you hang around in the Chicken Run long enough; first you start to scratch the ground a bit, then you start pecking at the ground, and before long you even start to look and sound like your patients, and the other health care birds: “B-b-b-back”! And when you're in the chicken run it becomes hard to see over the fence; so you start to focus on the things nearby: accounts owing, unresponsive patients, difficult staff, patient numbers.

This is where I used to be: On the practice rollercoaster: Ten new patients - I'm up. Three cancellations - I'm down. Patient tells me how wonderful I am - I'm up! Patient confronting me as to why they're not fixed after five adjustments - I'm down! Record patient week - I'm up! Quiet week - I'm down! New car - I'm really up! CAA membership bill - I'm down - “do I really have to be a member?”! This lead to the search - could it be a new technique? Maybe a new mentor? Another seminar? New potions and lotions? How can I keep that high?

There is a way to stop this regression from happening you know. You see as humans we have a God given ability that even the Eagles don't possess. That is, the ability to see things not present with our 'mind's eye', the skill of visualisation if you like. Remember, even though you may be working in a chicken run, you are a Chiropractic Eagle! Spend time each day visualising those things you saw while soaring at that seminar - what were those visions? - Clarify them, expand on them, work out the finer details. What are the views you will see and the stops you will make on your chiropractic journey towards those visions?..... Put them on paper! What are your estimated times of arrival at each destination..... write them down.

We don't physically have wings so what kind of vehicles will you need to get you there? A DG convertible? A Gonstead go-go-mobile? A Diversified dragster? An Activatorcopter? A Hinwood Harrier Jet? A Reikemann rocket? A Mertz Mercedes? A TRT tractor?

How do we use these visualisations? Read them, see them, FEEL them, EMOTIONALISE them: EVERY SINGLE DAY! Can you see all your patients healthy and happy in your mind’s eye? Can you smell the new carpet in your dream practice? Can you hear the laughter of children in your adjusting rooms? Can you taste the satisfaction of watching another miracle unfold in your practice?

How BIG can you visualise? Now I know that I’m the only one who used to think like this: I know you don’t say to yourself: “I just need enough to get by”, “enough for me and my family”. “I'm working towards a new car”. “I'm saving up for my next holiday”. “I want to see X number of patients”..... : THINK BIG!! You should see your practice so full with patients that you have to employ associates to cope, or at least refer them to the struggling DC down the road. You should pray for so much money that you have to give half of it away. Can you see every Australian consulting Chiropractors regularly? The demand for Chiropractic being so great that it takes the Tennis Centre or maybe even the MCG to house the DG Conference?

There is another important point to realise here. Those chickens in the run. Look at them a little closer: You see they too are Eagles! They started as eaglets when they were hatched (Isn't that just a Chiropractic belief - that we are all born with unlimited potential?). But then they were thrown into the chicken run of control, intervention, and modern sickness care thinking. They have been in the run so long they don't even know that they are eagles any more. In fact they look at you, standing tall and proud, flexing your enormous wing span and speaking a different language; and to be honest you look strange! You sound different to Dr Turkey..... “Gobble, gobble, gobble”! You look different to Pheasant Physio, who looks so good but does so very little. Is he just a chicken in fine clothes - a clever disguise?

But you have a quest; and I believe this is Chiropractic's ultimate potential. Your mission, should you choose to accept it. It is up to you to reawaken those Eagles within. No-one else can do it but another Eagle! If I may use Chiropractic terminology for a moment: Teach them about the incredible Universal and Innate powers they are blessed with. Release the universal and innate intelligence with your adjustments. Speak Chiropractic Eagle language. Show them the way by your Chiropractic Eagle example. Those Eagles within them will be inexorably drawn towards you and the life of an Eagle. And here's the other great news. They will bring all their eagle-apprentice friends along with them!

There is one important ingredient that we mustn't forget. To give the skill of visualisation POWER we require FAITH. If there's one thing I've learnt over the years, it's that you have to have faith in something. Maybe for you it is faith in science, perhaps faith in Chiropractic, maybe faith in God, maybe you only have faith in yourself, or perhaps your faith is reliant on the vision of someone else. Let's face it, there is more unknown in the universe than there is known; and you can only have either faith in your beliefs regarding things unknown, fear of the unknown, or ignorance. The bottom line to me is that you have to decide what YOU have faith in - a conscious decision of what you believe in: To quote a text I often refer to myself: "To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see." Ask yourself: What do you have faith in?

In closing: One warning! Should you choose not to visualise, reach and believe for the life of an Eagle and choose not to plant the visions of better health and a better life as an Eagle to your patients then prepare yourself for a life in the chicken run, with the “b-b-b-backs”, Dr Turkey and Pheasant Physio. Please..... come and soar with the rest of the Chiropractic Eagles!