As a coach for literally thousands of practices worldwide, one of the most powerful lessons I have ever given my clients is called the "belief-action gap (BAG)." By learning to narrow this gap, I have witnessed explosive growth several hundred times over.

The lesson begins by understanding the extreme danger of having a particular belief, but not having the congruent action to match. This is the root cause of burnout and frustration in practice. This gap between your beliefs and your actions is also the missing link to gigantic growth in practice.

Two things must happen to narrow your gap. First, you must turn your powerful beliefs into convictions. Then, you have to push through the fear or resistance to applying an equal amount of action to match your belief.

A simple example would be to ask yourself if you believe that chiropractic adjustments are beneficial to children. If your answer is "yes," but your practice is less than 25% children getting adjusted, you have a BAG in your practice.

This creates a values conflict because while in your heart you know more children need to be checked and adjusted for subluxation, the resistance to putting in the proper procedures (the appropriate action) overrides the belief you have with children and chiropractic. The result can only lead to unfulfillment and lack of success.

You may believe the entire family should receive a chiropractic examination, but lack the action necessary to achieve that result. Perhaps you believe in lifetime care philosophically, but lack the action steps that predictably lead your patients down that path.

You believe that patients who attend evening workshops are significantly better patients than those who don't, but the percentage of patients who actually attend a workshop is hit and miss. You believe that patients who pay in advance for care are more committed patients who consistently experience better results than any other patients, but only a small handful of patients are actually doing so because the required action necessary to make that a predictable result hasn't happened yet.

I could fill up this month's entire issue with BAGs that could potentially exist in your practice, although I think you get the big idea! The tragedy isn't found in the absence of actions for that which we don't believe, rather the absence of accumulative positive actions for that which we do!

Belief-action gaps leave gaping holes in your life and in your practice. The fear of how others may perceive your actions overpowers the vision you hold inside of the value those actions could bring to the world.

My clients see me as a "BAG hound" whose purpose is to sniff out and get rid of BAGs as soon as they're found. You must learn to become a BAG hound yourself and ask for assistance in getting rid of as many BAGs as fast as you possibly can!

Fortunately, as you begin the quest of eliminating belief-action gaps, you build momentum, which turns into a growing confidence to continue the process as your practice literally explodes.

The feeling of exhilaration is often described by those doctors who learn to lose the gaps and by those doctors who learn to lose the gaps and apply actions that match their beliefs in practice.

These are confusing times for all chiropractors, but I am most concerned for subluxation-based chiropractors who are losing their faith, confidence and belief in that style of practice. The principles are not failing them. Instead, a half-dozen BAGs are literally blocking the success of their practice.

So, the key to narrowing the gap to your success lies in identifying conflicts in your practice arising from a strong belief that somehow has been denied the proper set of actions. What you need to do is isolate the fear, stress or anxiety you have about assertively taking those actions.

Ask yourself what's the worst case that could result from taking those actions. Ironically, your conclusion the vast majority of the time will leave you feeling silly you hesitated so long in taking that action. The last step is to make sure your team has the same belief and a total agreement to begin taking this new set of actions. It's the only way you can bridge the gap, as a team.

Removing physical walls in your practice, going cash, x-raying every patient, post x-raying every patient, mandating workshop attendance, mandating spouses attend the report, checking every family for subluxation, reducing your adjustment time to under two minutes, is just a short list of actions that are connected to strong beliefs inside your practice.

Do you see any BAGs? If so, don't worry because you're not alone. Your community is suffering, however, at an unprecedented rate and desperately needs your help. So don't delay in your new found quest to find and eliminate belief-action gaps. It only means more lives will be saved through your ability to increase your loving service.

(Dr. C.J. Mertz is founder and head coach of the prestigious Waiting List Practice chiropractic training organization. If you would like more information on WLP services and products, call Mark at 877/TEAM-WLP.)