***Purpose of Practice

Many people have espoused from the chiropractic platform that the purpose of our practice is just to serve others! I have heard axioms like "never let your service hand know what your business hand is doing," and "don't worry about fees just serve the people and the dollars will look after themselves." This tends to imply that the purpose of our practice is to ONLY serve others and forget about us! I DISAGREE! I contend that just as you can't truly love another until you can learn to love yourself ............ I don't believe you can serve another fully until you can learn to serve yourself! I contend that a fundamental component of the purpose of our practice is to learn to serve ourselves so that we can truly serve others in a WIN-WIN scenario! Therefore I contend that a fundamental component of the PURPOSE OF OUR PRACTICE IS ......... TO DESIGN AND MANIFEST OUR IDEAL PERSONAL LIFE! If this statement feels a little uncomfortable and a bit "selfish" that is perfectly understandable. The general worldview in our culture is that if you consider your needs and the needs of your family as equal to others that there must be something wrong with you! Yet I contend that if you truly understand the philosophy of service you will understand that your needs and desires are at least as important as the needs and desires of those you serve! Here is a way for you to consider this concept further. Picture yourself winning $100,000,000.00. How would your life and/or practice change? To date, every chiropractor I have asked that question gave me a similar answer. They would slow down in practice, not work so hard, take a long extended holiday or even get out of practice. Lets face the reality of life in our world today. ONE OF THE REASONS WE WORK IS TO GET PAID AND ENJOY THE "FRUITS OF OUR LABOURS both financially, personally, socially and with our families. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT!! That is not to say that we ALSO do not enjoy serving and giving of our own abundance, physically, mentally, emotionally and otherwise. That is just putting those things into perspective as PART OF THE REASON we practice this great art of chiropractic. One of the things I enjoy the most about the philosopher Ayn Rand's writings is her reference to "The Code of the Trader." This concept basically translates into enjoying the fruits of your labor guilt free and with great passion because you know you have ethically and purposefully created them with the power of your mind and the ability of your physical body. You don't need to lay awake at night worrying whether you have done enough to earn the gifts of your life .......... you know you have and can fully enjoy them because of that. I feel this concept really applies to our lives as chiropractors. I can't imagine a better gift to give someone than the gift of a more fulfilled life and better health via a properly functioning nervous/energy system and the improved connection that gives them to their Innate Intelligence. I can’t imagine a better way to enjoy the fruits of the labor of this great and meaningful service than to design and manifest my life in my ideal knowing full well I am in perfect exchange with the Universe with every dollar I earn.