February 2007

What are we waitin' for?

by Dr. CJ Mertz

In the second "Rocky" movie, Balboa has all but given up on his dreams of a rematch with Apollo because his wife had fallen into a coma during the birth of their new baby. After spending several days not sleeping and in constant prayer, Rocky is there when Adrian finally awakens. Other close friends and family are also present as the two embrace. Then, Adrian looks her husband straight in the eye and says, "Do me a favor...win!"

Up until that point, all of Rocky's hard‑core training had come to a complete stop. However, when his trainer heard those words from Adrian, he yelled out right in the waiting room, "What are we waitin' for?!" The rest, as they say, is history.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the year 2007. It's time to wake up and see the possibility that's right in front of you. I'm asking you to do yourself a favor, to do chiropractic a favor... win! Some of you have been lured into a trance (coma?), thinking everything's okay. This can (and should) be the best year you've ever had in practice. It needs to be your best. A New Year's resolution to affirm this goal is a great start, but it's not enough by itself.

Isn't it strange how, for many people, their best moments often follow some of their worst? Decide today to snap out of it, that you're not going to let things slide any further. Whatever reason you had for putting things off has come and gone. You have to ask yourself if you've been called to be an average, ordinary, run‑of‑the‑mill DC out there to make a living, OR an on‑fire, on‑purpose highly passionate chiropractor who's blazing a new trail (of hope and healing) for the people of your community.

You can no longer use the excuse of being afraid of making a mistake. Take charge of your future ‑‑ now. Team WLP has coached more chiropractors to fulfill their dreams because they've learned the power of starting strong and finishing strong in practice. Your decisions, your actions, your intensity in the first quarter of 2007 will largely determine the degree of your success for the whole year!

One of the most important lessons I've learned in my own life is, "You don't have to be perfect to be great." Making new decisions and taking new actions (even imperfect actions) creates momentum. That's why the strategy of "fail forward fast" is awesome and leads to victory. It's what all chiropractors training to become champions have in common.

If two DCs traded places for six months ‑‑ one is seeing 100 adjustments per week and the other is seeing 500 adjustments per week ‑‑ what would you think would happen to those two practices? It's obvious, isn't it? You must choose to adopt the mindset of the more successful chiropractor and inject that back into your current practice. If someone else can change places with you and double your practice, then so can you!

A common fear chiropractors have about making new decisions and changes in their practice is that people will quit coming for care. I'm going to let you in on a secret. There are patients in your practice right now who are ready to leave if you don't change something. There's also another group of patients (both groups are very small, by the way) who'll leave over almost any change you intend to make in your practice. Why do you keep letting the fragile few discourage you from boldly serving the magnificent many?

You might be wondering, what exactly do you need to change? The answer is simple...EVERYTHING. Fortunately, you don't need to (and couldn't) change it all at once. Growth requires constant and never ending improvement, right?

Think about this. If you changed just eight percent of your practice per month, you would have changed virtually 100% of your practice within a year, which is the ultimate perpetual strategy. More importantly, you would've immediately created new momentum and come out of the gate at the start of 2007 headed for the winners' circle.

Don't think you need to re‑invent the wheel or go it alone. Our clients average a ten‑to‑one return on their coaching fees. While statistically just 5,000 chiropractors will have record‑breaking years in 2007, you could be one of them.

So, what are we waitin' for?

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