These posts are great! I have been enjoying them since they started, but haven't really contributed. Thanks for the awesome dialogues and insights. I always get something from them. Thanks again.
I had a wake up call (like a 2x4 smacking me across the forehead)from the last Smart Talk and am wondering if anyone has had a similar experience. Background: I am (or at least I thought I was) an eternal optimist. When Dr. Frank started speaking about how a positive attitude isn't everything, and how it actually plays a large role in self-sabotage I thought he was on crack. When he stated that idealism (over-extended optimism) is the polar opposite of reality I realized I am on crack - or at least have been (metaphorically, of course)!
When the office slows down, I find I stop DOing the things that got me here in the first place - like creating an exceptional chiropractic experience for patients. I find excuses not to do the work, but instead rely on a positive attitude to pull me through. Sometimes it works, but inevitably the numbers slip back to the previous standard. And here we go again. Each cycle returns to the previous starting point, but there's no growth. What a way to suck.
Another point he made was using positive energy is still, well, using up energy. Why waste it convincing yourself to feel good (because you don't) when you could use that same energy to DO SOMETHING!! I especially liked, and identified with, his explanation of the Stockdale Principle: the optimists didn't make it, the realists did.
I bring this all up becuase I was at a meeting on Monday with a group of "very principled" DCs. They are all great people and good docs, but idealists. The group mantra is "tell the story, tell the story." I agree with that, BUT the problem is ... then what? Are you really serving if you tell lots of people about chiropractic but then don't have a well-run business to provide them with the care they so desparately need? It was the first time I EVER realized that being an idealistic/over-extended optimistic person is futile in the long run. What a revelation!! Their optimism was blinding(excusing)them from doing the work required to serve more people. It was liberating, however, in the midst of my peers I found myself completely at odds with them!
Needless to say I have been FIRED UP since my epiphany!
There is a ton of other incredible perturbations in that call (as usual), however, I was just wondering if anyone else was moved as I was. Thanks.