September 2004

Is your self‑image holding you back?

by Dr. Kevin Pallis and Dr. Ed Plentz

There you sit, watching, waiting and hoping for your next new patient "fix" to walk through the door. As you scour the mail for promotions and strategies, all the ads begin to look amazingly alike: "New patients while you sleep," "100 new patients in your office next week," "New patients chasing you and begging for appointments." You know in your heart these are the same tricks advertisers use in other areas of human concern, most notably weight loss, desperate singles and get rich quick schemes. So why do you keep reading them?

As you wonder aloud, you know there must be another factor at work. There must be one special ingredient you aren't aware of, that you're missing. After all, you didn't go to chiropractic college to become a salesperson. Why then, should you be stuck at your present practice level or, worse yet, on the decline? You're trapped and you know it.

For years, we asked ourselves the crucial question: How can one DC skyrocket when others, with the same training and materials, have no impact on their community or their practices? It all comes down to self‑image. Your self‑image is the culmination of all of your life experiences and is hidden in your subconscious. This subconscious mind can be visualized as a giant tape recorder with thousands of pre‑recorded tapes that guide you in all areas of your life, including your practice.

Your subconscious mind controls your life without you knowing about it on a conscious level. If you believe at a subconscious level that life is a struggle, then regardless of what situation you find yourself in, your subconscious mind will dictate that struggle is welcomed into your life, even though at a conscious level you don't want any more problems. Your self‑image will act as a governor, thereby invisibly restricting and limiting your success.

Much of your subconscious mind was pre‑recorded during childhood. What your parents, teachers and other authority figures thought about money, religion, health, etc., you are playing out today. You think you're making decisions today when, in reality, you're merely replaying old tapes.

At The New Renaissance, we've been playfully accused of "brainwashing" DCs to astounding levels of success ‑‑ and we plead guilty. The fact is, you can change your self‑image to anything you want, provided you realize that you not only develop your self‑image, but you also must work for it.

How else can you explain the fact that two DCs sitting next to each other at the same school with the same instructors have a huge disparity of outcome when they start a practice? Luck, location, or insurance just can't seem to explain that hidden ingredient known as self‑image. Self‑image is the kind of person your subconscious believes you to be. If it believes you to be successful then whatever you touch turns to gold. On the other hand, if you have a faulty self‑image, no matter what situation you place yourself in, there always seems to be another excuse as to why you weren't successful.

Unsuccessful people have many excuses to explain why they don't succeed, whereas DCs with great self‑image and a complete practice system in place can practice anywhere, under any circumstance. They offer no excuses, just successful outcomes.

As coaches to some of the finest practices in the world, we know that one characteristic about high self‑image DCs is that they know they must train. They know that there are no short cuts to excellence. They study, they have fun, and they have a vision and passion. They are alive!

Frustration, stress, and worry are all signs of a faulty self‑image. When you've programmed a successful self‑image into your subconscious, success seems to be almost automatic.

When you're successful from the inside out, you're not dependent on the creativity of others. You don't need a "guru" to attract new patients. You now attract your own high quality new patients who stay, get it, pay and refer like never before. Expensive low outcome advertisements, mall screenings, gimmicks and the like are things of the past, now relegated to DCs who don't believe in developing their self‑image.

When your self‑image is stronger it affects all areas of your life. You routinely begin and continue exercise programs, start taking more vacations, lose weight (and keep it off), and start to have more fun in your life. Your spouse and children are in heaven marveling at the "changes" that have taken place.

The choice is yours. Either you can become the person you've always wanted to become, or you can continue to run old recordings of yourself that were installed without your permission or knowledge. Chiropractic is fun ‑‑ now it's time to believe it!

(A complete system of practice based on science and philosophy working on the doctor from the inside out, The New Renaissance is the next generation of office procedures and patient education for today's chiropractor who wants to implement the chiropractic mindset of success. The new Mentor IV Practice Development Program takes 24 years of the pioneering experience of Renaissance procedures and combines it with the practical daily activities of doctors in the field. To learn more about The New Renaissance, contact The New Renaissance World Headquarters at 800‑525‑3879.)

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