Chiropractic Time
Where did the time go? It’s the middle of June, your practice is still stagnant, and you’re asking yourself… “what have I done with my time?” What have I done to create new patient growth? What have I done to increase referrals from my current patients? What have I done to reactivate my previous patients? And the questions can go on and on.
Today I want to talk about the subject of time. It seems time is the only thing that we have a finite amount of here on earth. I will call this “Chiropractic Time”… but this certainly applies to every area of your life. There’s only so much time…
I want to share some truths about time that I heard over the weekend.
#1… Investing small amounts of time over time is cumulative. This can apply to your chiropractic marketing in a BIG way. Most chiropractors want to be able to spend an hour a month on their marketing and get a practice full of eager patients that “get it” and want to become lifetime wellness members. That’s simply not going to happen. But if you take small amounts of time each day to commit to your practice marketing… that time will have a cumulative affect. If you commit those small amounts of time… you can look back at the end of the year and see the fruit that comes from those efforts. Those small amounts of time build on each other. Just like one adjustment builds on another.
#2… Missing one installment doesn’t make a difference. I understand that “life” can get in the way. If you miss one of these small amounts of time that you should be building your practice… it’s not going to kill you. Don’t feel bad or guilty about it. Just get up the next day and commit the time to getting it done so that your practice will flourish.
#3… Neglect is cumulative as well. #2 doesn’t give you a free pass to not take the time. You can neglect your practice building for a day or two… a month or two… even a year or more. But the health of your practice will be directly proportionate to the amount of time you commit to growing it. If you neglect the important activities they will have a cumulative affect on your practice (aka no patients).
#4… “Random” has no cumulative affect. All the random things you may do instead of practice building don’t have a cumulative affect towards growing your practice (they may however have cumulative affects in getting you nowhere.) And I’m not talking about things that are a high priority to you… I’m talking about the random things you do instead. So ask yourself the question: “What did you do instead?” We are all guilty of wasting time and if you add up all those random things it doesn’t add up to much.
#5… In the areas that matter most, we can’t make up for lost time. When it comes to practice growth you can’t make up for all the hours you didn’t put in the time. You can’t just say “I haven’t worked ON my practice for the last 6 months so starting tomorrow I’m going to put in 4 hours a day for a month to make up for it.” It doesn’t have the same affect. You should know this because patients will neglect their nervous system for years and then want you to come in and fix it in a visit. You can’t just make up for lost time… it takes time.
I like to call this a priority management type of lesson. If it’s a priority to you then you will TAKE the time to make it happen. I’ve even gone so far in my own priorities to NOT put things on my “to do” list. I’ve found that small little things will go away on their own even if I don’t address them. I just put my top priorities on the list and make sure they get done.
