December 2006

When solutions become the problem

by Dr. CJ Mertz

Every week, new clients join our program hoping to find the keys to get their practice "unstuck." When I ask how they rate themselves as problem solvers, they often say they're really pretty good. That's when I know how much more coaching they're going to need!

When it comes to building a practice, there are two dominant mindsets: problem solving and visioneering. The problem‑solving mindset currently plagues more than 80% of our profession. The problem, of course, is that focusing on problems only leads to more problems.

Typically, a chiropractor who "problem solves" awakens in the morning and, within minutes, has already filled his or her mind with problems and challenges. Even for relatively successful problem solvers, worry and anxiety always accompany this mindset. This blocks a person's natural ability to perform at his or best.

The "domino effect" continues because a drop in performance will always cause another set of problems. Furthermore, problem solvers add insult to injury by the way they react to the problems that may arise during the practice day. Then, to make matters worse, these DCs will tend to look around in search of a potential problem that may be accruing.

Practice building and problem solving often find themselves going in opposite directions. I'm not saying you should bury your head in the sand and avoid problems. Yet, I'm absolutely convinced that any chiropractor who has a problem‑solving mindset will find that he or she is eventually stuck, incapable of growth.

Amazingly, the visioneering mindset is the answer the vast majority of the time. This is because visioneering is centered in focusing on "perfect pictures." When you immerse yourself with pictures of right actions, your mind automatically begins correcting mistakes and solving problems. But, it's much bigger than that. Visioneering stimulates opportunities and optimizes your natural abilities to perform and take advantage of these opportunities.

Learning the right pictures and how to visualize them is priceless. It gives you the confidence needed to move away from a problem‑solving tendency and begin maximizing new opportunities. Perfect pictures are always accompanied with strong feelings, which will lead you to the most powerful actions possible.

What's the perfect picture to your ideal patient flow? To your new patient process? To your reporting process? To your evening workshop? To your team trainings? To your referral process? Without the right pictures and their associated feelings dominating your thoughts, problem solving just becomes your default mode. Visioneering starts early in the morning by awakening to thoughts of your purpose and continues into streaming pictures of perfect actions and perfect results of those actions for both your patients and your practice.

One DC was struggling at the beginning of this year, seeing just 21 patient adjustments per week. Admittedly, there were many problems that flooded his mind throughout the day. It was hard to trust visioneering, even though problem solving had clearly been failing in his practice. But by the end of September, the doctor had built his practice to more than 250 patient adjustments per week!

Hundreds of chiropractors are turning to visioneering every year and are excited about their newfound growth in practice.

Discipline is required to maintain present‑time consciousness of right actions while you're performing in practice. Otherwise, the actions themselves will lead to problem solving and the mind trap will start all over again. Doing right things right starts by maintaining perfect pictures in your mind and then having the faith, confidence and belief to take powerful action.

More calculated risks are taken, more service is produced, and more passion is expressed through the process of visioneering than could ever happen by problem solving.

It should be no surprise to you that more than 90% of all DCs who adjust 300+ adjustments per week have trusted the visioneering paradigm as their dominant mindset in practice. In addition, the vast majority of these chiropractors decided to ask for help. Imagine doubling your practice this year ‑‑ and influencing that many more lives through chiropractic. Together we can make it happen.

(Dr. CJ Mertz is founder and head coach of the prestigious Waiting List Practice [WLP] chiropractic training organization. See the WLP 300 patient per week opportunity on the back page of this issue. For information on WLP coaching services, call Tony Shinn at 877‑TEAM‑WLP.)