The whole purpose of getting out of bed every morning is to turn your dreams into reality. Your practice is a place where you can make one dream after another come true, for yourself and the thousands you will help.

Some dreams just come to you and others make you chase them down. Not every dream comes true, but it's always better to be failing toward a dream, than surviving without one at all. Many times someone else's dream enables your own to come to life, which is why you want to inspire others to keep dreaming.

As chiropractic students, we dream of practicing, and as practicing chiropractors, we dream of success. Anytime you see a really successful chiropractor in practice, you're actually witnessing several dreams turned into reality. So you can't be afraid to dream or forget to dream, nor can you get caught up in so much 'busyness' that you don't have time to dream. In fact, you need to dream big -- and often!

I have helped thousands of chiropractors turn their dreams into reality, but they first had to have the dream. Unfortunately, many people make the mistake of dreaming from their circumstances rather than from their desires. If you're facing financial difficulty, challenged by a significant problem in practice, perhaps feeling insufficiently equipped or unorganized -- these situations will always limit or minimize your dreams. Train yourself to dream from abundance and possibility, and the resources and knowledge you need will come to you.

In 1992, I had a dream of franchising high quality, high volume, subluxation-based, cash-like family wellness practices. As much success as I have had in practice and in developing my chiropractic coaching program, I couldn't find the answers to building a successful franchise for the chiropractic profession. The more I studied and researched, the more questions I was left with as a result.

Yet, I never gave up on the dream or limited my dream, because I didn't have all the strategic answers. I kept improving on what I do best and allowed for new opportunities to learn more about franchising.

The result? My dream was answered. Two of the most successful franchise attorneys in North America made a commitment to build their biggest franchise project to date in the chiropractic profession. We're announcing the launch of Chiropractic USA, a chiropractic franchise venture with the goal of 5,000 practices in the U.S. For students graduating from chiropractic college, as well as doctors having difficulties in practice who really want to succeed, this could be the opportunity of a lifetime.

Maybe your dream is to see 300 patients per week, but your practice only averages 10 new patients per month. Maybe your dream is to earn $500,000 yearly, but your patient retention is just 20 adjustments per patient. Keep dreaming big and look for the skill and knowledge you need to turn your dreams into reality!

You must learn to put just the right amount of pressure on yourself to keep the dream alive. Have you ever really calculated just how many other people win as your dream comes true? I believe the answer to this question will become the strongest driving force toward your dream, once you figure it out.

Your chiropractic practice must become repeatable if it's ever going to make your dreams come true. Lots of people are willing to give you advice, but in the end your work must become highly predictable if it is going to succeed.

In every highly successful practice, "the system is the solution." If your system is not producing the kind of results you desire, then you must find a better system or become much more serious about mastering your current system. A world class system identifies the details and holds you and your team accountable to executing them. Dreams happen based upon success, and success is found in the details!

In a chiropractic practice, dreams don't happen by exceptions, they happen by rules. Now is the time to reassess your system and the rules that will allow success to flourish in your practice. Turning your dreams into reality will require things like more focus, more discipline, more energy, more planning and more training. But, isn't it great knowing that pursuing your dreams also brings out the best in you?

Take some time this week with a journal and allow yourself a quiet space whereby you can be uninterrupted, and write your dreams on paper. When possible, use transformational language, which means writing it as if it has already happened. If what you write can get even more detailed, keep writing the same thing over, adding greater detail until you have exhausted the details. These will be the most profitable few hours (probably six) that you will spend all year.

Remember, failing forward toward a dream is always better than simply surviving with no dream at all.