Stress of Practice
Tuesday, July 17, 2012 at 11:07PM 
Randall Hammett, DC
Private Practice of Chiropractic
INTRODUCTION
After 33 years of practice and consulting with chiropractors around the country for approximately 20 years of this time, stress in everyday practice is normal. In fact, you need to depend upon having a stressful practice to a certain extent to be successful. I’ve seen through the years were chiropractic consultants purport the “stress less practice”. It’s been my observation that there is no such thing. The key is to balance the stress of everyday practice so that you can produce under stressful conditions and not be deterred by stress. There are basically two types of stress, the stress of loss and stress of gain. When your practice is doing well and growing exponentially you’ll find that there’s a certain type of stress involved in keeping the momentum and organization going. Conversely, when you practice is doing poorly there’s the stress of not being able to pay your bills or not living up to your expectations. Both of these stresses take their toll on your physical and mental well-being, so learning how to keep the stress in balance is paramount.
DISCUSSION
So, how do we handle the stresses from practice life? Although, I don’t have all the answers, Thirty three years in practice has rendered me some clarity on the subject. First and foremost, take care of your patient’s regardless of what’s going on in your personal or recreational life, inside the walls of your practice your patients are all and everything as well as your staff. As Dr. Gonstead said years ago, you only have one patient and that is the patient that is before you at the time you’re making your adjustment. Giving each patient total PTC allows you total freedom to go to the next patient knowing that you did the very best that you could each office visit. The key to balancing stress on a day-to-day basis is actually a simple formula that most fail to do, but is critical to living a simpler and more productive life.
First, have written goals, no more than five goals at a time is necessary. As you achieve each goal cross it off and add another. Each morning you should look at each of your goals and determine what’s necessary to achieve them. When you have a stressful event the goal should be near you to re-affirm what your plan and focus should be on. (We get what we focus on.) Without written goals you cannot achieve a balanced practice and personal life. It would also be a good idea for your staff and your family members to have goals also. Keep in mind that the goal should be short-term as in reachable within 12 to 18 months.
The next thing you need to do to minimize your stress is to get organized. Twice a year I go through my home and office and give away and/or donate any items I have not used in the prior year. I have found that the more items I have in my life the more the items begin to own me, instead of you owning them. Schedule time every six months for a cleanup and disposal day for yourself. Go through every drawer in your home and office and cleanup and throw out things you have not used in the last year. The next thing you need is a good calendar to remind you of events and to make plans. If you don’t have a smart phone I highly recommend that you get one with a good calendar. Everything should go on this calendar to help you get organized and get the excess crap out of your mind.
The third tool is to measure your progress towards your goals and this can be done by utilizing statistical analysis. Anything can be analyzed by numbers. It is important for you to be able to see the progress you are making from day-to- day and month to month basis. It is true that record keepers are record breakers and it amazes me how many chiropractors never keep statistical analysis of how well the practice is doing until tax time, which is a critical mistake.
SUMMARY
The last item is to not take anything too seriously. No one gets out of life alive and yes even chiropractors pass on to the great adjusting table in the sky. The goals you write should be both emotional and material with the idea that life is a very short ride and you should not waste time on things that aren’t directly under your control. The last thought you should keep in mind is this, that we are here on this planet to serve others and service to others is the ultimate life well spent.
Til next time,