Some friends of ours have a son who joined the Navy. After 14 months of training, he was given his “dream sheet” to fill out. This is the form by which the Navy gives sailors the opportunity to suggest where they would like to be stationed. It’s called a dream sheet because, like most dreams, it rarely happens.
In this case, his requests were more about where he didn’t want to be stationed. Nearly half the sailors in the class ahead of him were sent to Bahrain. His family was praying for somewhere else.
No one could believe his orders when he finally got them. Instead of the Middle East, he was ordered to Hawaii, his family’s favorite vacation spot as he was growing up. It couldn’t have been any better. The dream had actually come true.
He was in paradise ... literally. The weather was spectacular, the food was delicious and the off-base activities were abundant. There were so many opportunities and adventures to be had. Perhaps the hardest part was what to do first. Golfing and surfing quickly made their way up the long list of things to do.
But after several weeks, something unthinkable began to happen. As he got to know his peers, a significant number expressed their dissatisfaction at being stationed in Hawaii. He wondered how this could be possible.
Concerned the same fate might be in his future, he began exploring why they were complaining and if they had anything in common. To his surprise, the majority of complainers spent most of the time on base. They didn’t seem to even consider all they could be doing if they just made the effort. Almost every day ended with the same after-work routine: drinking beer, fixating on their phones and playing video games. They were somehow unmotivated to explore the entire island of possibilities just outside the gate.
Greater perspective is one of the few advantages of getting older. As I hear people complain about the high cost of gas, I’m reminded of the 1970s oil and energy crises, when we waited in lines sometimes extending for blocks in order to buy gas on our odd or even dates (depending on our license plate number). When people express their concern about Social Security going bankrupt in five years, I can’t help but recall the 1983 financial crisis when the Social Security Administration was literally weeks away from being unable to pay full benefits.
While these concerns are very real, most of them are not new. We made it through back then and we will make it through today.
Perspective is also important as you navigate your chiropractic career. Owning a business is never easy. Sometimes things go well ... other times they don’t. In the midst of it all, you may be tempted to take for granted the importance of your care to the health of your patients; especially as you battle overbearing managed care, contentious insurance reimbursement and our fickle economy. Don’t. What you do every day has a greater impact than you realize and it extends for generations.
Maybe it’s time to look back a little. Cleveland University President Dr. Carl Cleveland III has shared many accounts of what his father, Dr. Carl Cleveland, Jr., and his grandparents, Drs. Carl and Ruth Cleveland, endured when they were in chiropractic practice. Dr. Carl Jr. related that “My instructions were if I should come home from school and my parents would be in jail, I was to go next door, and a neighbor would take care of me.” As Dr. Carl Jr. grew a bit older, his parents would often send him to school with bail money pinned inside his clothes should the need arise.
The Clevelands were not the only ones. Prior to chiropractic achieving licensure in every state, nearly 700 DCs chose imprisonment rather than pleading guilty to a lesser charge of practicing medicine without a license. Their acts of courage demonstrated the truth that chiropractic was a separate and distinct healthcare profession, not a faction of medicine.
Our history may seem irrelevant to your current struggles, but these trials remind us that how well you navigate your current situation depends, in part, on the courage you meet your challenges with.
The end of the year is always a good time to reflect on your life and your career, particularly before the holidays leave you little time to do so:
- Are you doing the same routine and complaining about the same results?
- What opportunities aren’t you considering and therefore missing out on?
- What decisions can you make now that will put you on course for a much more exciting – and rewarding – 2027?
Change is a frightening unknown for most of us. But progressive change is a requirement for success. What do you need to do differently for your practice now to make 2027 (and beyond) even better?
