Editor’s Pick

Like any chiropractor, you want to grow your practice. You want to not just sustain the practice you currently have, but take to the next level. There are any numbers of ways to accomplish this, depending on your goals. However, the stages you go through for your professional growth should also be reflected in similar stages of personal growth. By fully committing yourself to being a chiropractor who takes a holistic approach to wellness, your personal growth is closely intertwined with your professional growth. In essence, you won’t see stages of progress and growth in your professional life unless you see similar stages in your personal one.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, the average adult requires seven to nine hours of sleep per night. Though, realistically, anywhere between six and 11 hours may be more than enough says the foundation, the exact amount dependent on each person’s own individual needs. How do you know where you fall in this range, or specifically how many hours you should aim to sleep each night, at a minimum? Perhaps most importantly, how do you know whether the amount of sleep you’re currently getting is negatively impacting your life? Answering these questions requires a basic understanding of what happens when the body doesn’t get the sleep it needs.

As somebody who works in the helping profession, you know all too well the value of supporting your patients on their journey to wellness. This can often include recommending self-care techniques, such as meditation. However, you may find it difficult to take the advice you give your patients and incorporate these techniques into your own daily life.

Comfort zones are like double-edged swords. While they feel great when you are in them, partly because everything is a relative known and there is a sense of stability, if you don’t step out of them every once in a while, you’ll fail to grow. Consequently, you won’t reach your maximum potential or get the opportunity to experience the excitement that living outside “the zone” has to offer. For some, the idea of stepping beyond an area of comfortability is anathema.

As much as we may wish to avoid it, there will be certain times when we will be unable to avoid confrontation, particularly in the workplace. Whether it involves an employee who is not performing up to standard, another DC in your group wanting to make changes to the practice with which you disagree or an insurance company refusing to pay out on claims in a timely fashion, workplace confrontations are inevitable. For years, the standard workplace management philosophy was that any confrontation was bad.

As a DC, particularly if you are working for yourself, coping with failure can have consequences beyond just feeling sorry for yourself. If your practice fails to grow by attracting new patients or, worse yet, is unable to retain your current ones, it’s not just a business failure. It can feel like a personal one because you have poured so much of yourself into your practice, to the point where it can be difficult to separate your personal life from your professional one.

The months from October to December are invariably the most difficult for you and your patients to maintain a healthy diet. From that first mini Hershey bar that you sneak from Halloween candy bowl to that last glass of champagne to ring in the New Year, there are endless opportunities to overindulge in fattening foods and calorie-laden drinks. By the time the holidays are done, you are ready to start over with a clean slate and a bunch of New Year’s resolutions to get back on track with your healthy lifestyle.

We all have certain habits that we know are bad, but we aren’t sure how to change. Whether it’s that chocolate glazed donut that calls your name from the bakery box that your coworker left in the break room or continually hitting the snooze button on the alarm clock, you know you shouldn’t be indulging these habits, but you just can’t seem to help yourself. However, the key to swapping out bad habits for better ones is to keep the new habits small.

There are any number of books, websites, articles, and seminars that are all dedicated to helping you improve your practice. Such guides to helping you grow your practice include everything from marketing your services, to setting up your first practice, to expanding your menu of services or your client base, to bringing in complementary therapies such as massage therapy or acupuncture. Of course, each of these topics is vital for helping you not only have a chiropractic practice that is sustainable, but one that can actually thrive and grow.