Most D.C.s will give a resounding "yes" when asked this seemingly simple question. However, the difference between wanting and getting is huge.

Men/women are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves. They therefore remain bound. -- James Allen, "As a Man Thinketh." Your beliefs about chiropractic and yourself must change before your practice will change. Yet, many doctors try to artificially increase their practice without changing their belief system.

Performing a new procedure, or memorizing a script without changing the beliefs of the person performing the procedure or memorizing the script is a recipe for frustration and lack of fulfillment. Even if you succeed temporarily in increasing your practice, something is missing. You ask yourself if that's all there is. This results in the typical roller coaster practice so prevalent in our profession.

It all comes down to how badly you want it and whether you're willing to do some work "under the hood."

The work under the hood is your belief systems. Most D.C.s are more interested in the car's paint job (how it looks) rather than the engine and drivetrain (the heart of performance). Your belief systems control everything in your life. You aren't even aware of most of your belief systems because they are hidden deep in your subconscious. Nevertheless, they absolutely control your behavior automatically without any conscious thought.

The problem with belief systems is they were programmed in our subconscious without us knowing. An example of this is our journey in chiropractic colleges.

Let's say you attended a college that emphasized musculoskeletal conditions and the relief of symptoms. You will necessarily have a belief system that sees you as a treater of symptoms. If you wanted to see large numbers of people and wellness, your beliefs will not let this happen. You can use all the procedures in the world, the best exams, the best marketing, and still be met by frustration and a lack of growth. This is because your belief systems didn't change, only your goals did.

Let's say you went to a chiropractic college that had a "holistic" or CAM (complimentary alternative medicine) approach. Holistic or CAM is anything that can help the patient feel "better." There is a vital presupposition at work here that the patient is already sick.

Health and wellness is a state, lack of wellness is an anti-state. Medicine is the study of disease. You can't achieve wellness by studying disease. Yet, this is where many truth seekers find themselves smashed on the shoals of a practice that lacks direction, purpose and financial reward. If you feel yourself getting worked up in a negative way, this is a red flag to your rejection of these ideas.

Now let's say you attended a chiropractic college that believes that VSC is the single most tragic event that can happen in one's life. Worse than cancer or any known disease. If it were your belief that everyone from birth to death should be adjusted on a family basis, what would your practice look like? That's right. Large numbers of families, large amounts of acute and well patients, and large amounts of income!

Many of you reading this will find yourself, or a mosaic of yourself, in one of these three examples. The wonderful fact about belief systems is that you can change them. The not so wonderful fact is that it takes homework in the form of new information, experiences, and being with people of "like mind" to create new beliefs that support your goal of wanting a bigger practice.

Think of how most people diet. They go from this diet to that. They lose weight and then they gain weight, sometimes even more than when they started. Until you change your belief systems about food and why you eat, you will continue to be on this roller coaster. It's time to get off the merry-go-round of wishing and hoping for a bigger practice. Build a bigger practice by changing your belief systems and you and your practice will soar!