“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” Sir Winston Churchill.
“Do something every day that you don’t want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.” Mark Twain
I’ve spoken to a lot of chiropractors on the subject of Purpose and when I bring up the idea that their purpose may be lacking they always look at me sideways and question my intelligence. It wasn’t until today that I realized they were absolutely correct. They do have Purpose! Purpose is the intention to act; it’s a thought, or state of mind. They have it firmly fixed in their mind that they do have purpose and I must agree with them. They have the purpose to help and heal as many people as they possibly can.
So, what is missing if a practice is not expanding? ACTION! Purpose + Action = Results. But shouldn’t purpose drive a man to action. No it apparently doesn’t because I know several people who have great purposes but no results. Purpose is a state of mind which requires no action. Acting out one’s purpose is the only way to achieve it.
Let’s take a chiropractor who has the purpose to help and heal as many people as possible but he won’t ask for referrals. His practice will shrink. What if he won’t call patients after their first visit to see how they are doing? His practice will stay small. What if he won’t go out and talk to people and bring up the subject of their health, he won’t expand his practice. What if he just likes to adjust and doesn’t do workshops? He will suffer from a shortage of new patients.
So what is it that I do as a consultant? First and foremost I get them to see how they blunted or stopped their own purpose! And how do I do that? I educate them on what a purpose actually is and then I have them write out their purpose in full. We go into great depth the ways in which they stop their own purpose from being achieved. Often times we trace these counter-ideas back to when they were in school. Imagine that their purpose was conceived before they went to school and was simply “I want to help other people regain their health, I’ll be a Chiropractor!” Then while in school they are told that it’s unprofessional to do screenings or they are taught that if you can’t get a patient well in 3 visits you have to refer them out or get sued. These are actual things I have uncovered in chiropractors who are failing in practice. They have adopted ideas or principles that counter their own purpose. Idea counter-idea and their success fails right there. So what if the counter-ideas are removed and all that you are left with are the positive ones? They go into action and get results.
Now we can work on what, how and when to implement.
The moral of the story: The only person who can hold you back is yourself, the only ideas that stop your forward progress are ideas that you have adopted as true that counter your own purpose.
Paul Turnbull (727) 643-8376
E-mail: purposeconsultant@gmail.com
Purpose Consultant 