We all like to feel motivated. When we are surrounded by motivated people we tend to feel motivated ourselves. When we are surrounded by people lacking in motivation it can really be a slog! We are tribal animals and so it is in our nature to gravitate towards the group.
This morning I was set to talk to a group of docs. My plan was to take them through some fantastic content which I know can help them in their practice growth. I woke up extra early to get prepared and to make sure I was on point, ready to serve. I exercised, ate a healthy breakfast, drank a lot of water and meditated. I was ready and I was excited; you might say I was motivated.
Within 3 minutes of starting the call I discovered that almost everyone had not started the work they had agreed to in our last workshop. You can imagine how frustrated I felt. There was no way to deliver the content I had spent hours preparing if they hadn’t done the work. So my first thought was – “was I supposed to remind them to do it?” I decided not. And, with love, I left them to continue the call without me in the hope that they would each take responsibility for getting the job done.
Honestly I was deflated and wondering why they weren’t more determined. This is a group of Chiropractors who I love, respect and admire. I know they care deeply about doing a good job and I know they are willing to do the work. So I asked myself: “Why is this important process stalling and why is progress being halted?”
My answer: MOTIVATION.
I have written this for them but hope that anyone reading it can benefit.
Are we motivated or are we just hoping something will change?
As I reflect on why so people hadn’t gotten started with the work, I asked myself the question: “Are they motivated to do the work required to move up to the next level in their practices?”
We have all experienced this issue: Whether a loved one, a colleague or a family member – they say they want something but then they don’t seem to take the action required to actually get the job done! Has this ever been you? I know it has been me! If we are honest with ourselves about why we have failed in the past, we will admit that we know this:
The achievement of our goals is not down to luck or some external factor – it is down to whether or not we did the work that we knew needed to be done.
On wonderful but rare occasions there are people who break through and achieve awesome things in practice. They get the job done no matter what. Whatever it takes, they are relentless! Knock them down, put barriers in their way and they will simply get up, jump the barrier and carry on. They are unstoppable. I have often looked at people like this and wished I had their natural motivation.
But why is motivation such a challenge for chiropractors? DCs are paid more money for seeing more people and are doing work that they know to be purposeful and impactful. It is the most fulfilling job on the planet and the only one where miracles are an everyday occurrence. To any outsider it might seem strange that motivation is an issue. We have the perfect formula for motivation and success; one that would be the envy of anyone who understands what is possible within chiropractic.
The big motivation challenge happens when chiropractors reach a level of uncomfortable comfort.
Not happy with where they are but also not unhappy enough to be a relentless unstoppable force. They keep setting goals, they know what they need to do to get there; but life is just too full. Bills are just about paid, no one is dying of consumption and no one has put them in jail. So, they carry on as they were. If our habits and behaviours kept us alive yesterday then we want today to be somewhat similar – that way we can be fairly sure we will live to see another day.
This is called “hitting your headspace capacity” and there is an epidemic of it amongst Chiropractors.
Hitting Your Headspace Capacity
You have probably heard about the lecturer who puts a glass jar in front of his class. He fills it with sand, then gravel, then small stones and then he can’t fit the big stones in. He repeats the process, starting with the bigger stuff first and then….. its a miracle! It all fits.
When you are already seeing enough patients to keep the wolves from the door – your jar is full. Family, practice, current patients, life, sports, sleep etc etc. You want to grow but every time you put energy into growth it feels like a trade off. Something else has to be sacrificed. So, you end up with half hearted growth strategies and execution. “I will try out this new script but I am hesitant to put too much effort into it”. “What if it doesn’t work and I have given up my precious time”. We start to make excuses; “I will get
round to writing a new talk but not until the kids go back to school.”
In practice growth you must be willing to get out of your comfort zone, to push the boundaries and do things that you have not done before. A half hearted approach will never lead to behavioural and belief changes; so it will never lead to growth.
The problem is very rarely (very very very rarely) a time problem; although you might believe this to be true. Take a moment to look at your ‘screen time’ app on your phone – did you make time for any apps this week? Will any of those apps lead to you growing in practice, helping more people and providing a dramatically different quality of life for you and your loved ones? How many hours did you spend in front of a TV? Could you have set aside a few hours to work on yourself IF you made it a priority?
Even the busiest of people can make the time IF they really want to.
If your family was going without food and you were failing in practice, could you make the time?
If the answer is yes then the problem is not time but it is a lack of motivation.
As you get closer to ‘comfortable’ the motivation to change decreases and in turn, the motivation to stay the same actually increases.
You are designed to repeat the actions that did not lead to starvation or death; it is an evolutionary imperative. Unfortunately those same actions will not lead to growth, nor will they lead to the achievement of your goals or your dreams.
Wait for motivation to knock on your door; or try one of these 8 strategies:
If you are stuck in practice, want to grow, but are struggling with motivation; try one of these 8 proven ways that will help you to overcome a lack of motivation. We all want to do better. We all want to grow. We all want to have more impact, and we all want to succeed. But when our motivation is low, no amount of coaching, training, new patients, new systems or ideas from outside of ourselves will make the difference. Lets get started on seeding, nurturing and harvesting motivation today:
1) Connect to your why.
At Willow we have a simple purpose statement:
To have a meaningful and lasting impact on the health and quality of life of all our patients.
It’s a simple idea. But when we remember that this is what we really do it inspires in us. In that purpose we connect with something bigger than ourselves. This leads us to compassion and it tells us what is at stake. This helps us to hold ourselves to account. When you are working in chiropractic it is easy to forget the miracles and it is easy for the extraordinary to start to feel ordinary. In fact, the busier and more successful you are, the easier it is for life changing miracles to pass us by.
So how do you stay connected with your ‘why’ every day?
Make it personal and find a way to anchor to that ‘why’ to your daily routine. For me personally; a really strong motivator is to simply reflect on how chiropractic saved my brother’s life. I connect with all the people out there who are suffering and who haven’t yet been lucky enough to come into contact with chiropractic. How many people have bounced off of ineffective chiropractic practices and ended up turning to medications instead. How many families are dealing with medication overdoses, financial ruin or death because chiropractic isn’t available to them in the way that it was to my family. Boy does this keep me motivated! By reminding myself of how important and impactful this work is; I never have a problem making it a priority.
2) Schedule your motivation.
This might seem strange because motivation is an emotional state; so how can you schedule it?
“An object in motion will stay in motion”.
One of the easiest ways to combat a lack of motivation is to simply get started. Schedule time for the important work. The impactful (important not urgent) stuff that will make a difference and lead to your goals. Usually this is the stuff that you could put off until another day. Make sure that you stick to your plan. If you are lacking motivation then the best thing we can do is to simply begin. Just get started and ignore the voice that is telling you to start tomorrow. If you want to be a runner then put on your training shoes and leave the house. If you set a schedule for this and make a commitment to do it – you will make it happen.
3) Refresh of your daily routines and rituals.
Your routines and rituals will lead to habits. If you put in place habits that lead to the actions which motivate you; then you will get things done. If you want to learn to play the piano then put your toothbrush on the piano and don't brush your teeth until you have practiced for 10 minutes.
My friend Stew Bittman recently said:
“If you are not vibrating at a higher energy than your patients then perhaps it should be you going to see them, not the other way around”
Making time to get into the right energy and forming habits around this will make a massive difference in how you show up in practice. But if you are not motivated, or if your habits have lost their impact; shake things up. What activity could you do that would raise your motivation levels? Standing in a super hero pose, affirmations, listening to the right music... Find something that gets your motivational juices flowing and then make it a part of your morning routine, every morning.
Motivation comes from action. If you are waiting until you are motivated before you start building new habits then you have got it the wrong way around. Habits lead to action, action leads to motivation.
4) Visualise long-term outcomes.
We’re all capable of setting goals. Listing our hopes, dreams and wishes isn’t a hard exercise. But, it is not until we truly start to visualise our goals that our entire organism starts to organise around making those goals a reality. Until we can truly see ourselves in that preferred reality we are holding ourselves back. For example, if you set a practice goal of seeing 150 patients per week, but you don't believe it is possible, you will not get to that goal. No matter what coaching, how many new patients or how hard you work – your self-image will be the limit of you. When you truly embody that goal and see yourself practicing at that level you will be amazed at how quickly the barriers fall way and how easily you grow.
So, when you review your daily habits make sure you create a plan to spend time, every day, visualising the reality you are creating. Close your eyes and walk through your dream day – what does life and practice look like when you have already achieved that goal? The clearer your vision the more success you will see. It’s like your body remembers the vision and then you start to create that reality.
5) Set some smart short-term goals.
If your long-term goals feel too far away or don’t get you excited then break it down into something more manageable. Perhaps you have some important but boring goals? Personally I am not motivated by dull things such as saving for retirement or paying off a mortgage; I am much more interested in solving a problem or helping someone find their power. Rather than ignore important bigger goals you can simply make your short-term achievable goals line up with
the bigger stuff. Set smaller goals that really motivate you; set targets and decide on a personal reward in advance. “If I achieve result X by time Y then I will gift myself Z treat”. Don’t be vague. Don’t be unrealistic. Break it down, set some small goals where you can achieve something in a short period of time and feel good about it. Achieving those small goals will give you the motivational fuel you need to push through difficulties; helping you maintain the momentum you need to move towards your big
goals.
6) Kill distractions – ruthlessly (and make sure they really are dead).
When you want to learn, to grow, to shift your practice to a new level you have to see aside dedicated time. Multitasking does not work; human beings are not generally good at it but when we want to get out of our comfort zone it is a progress killer. If you are lacking motivation then procrastination is a bit like that ‘friend’ down the pub who says “just have another one, you deserve it”.
It is impossible to make solid progress when you’re interrupted, distracted or focused on something else. So you have to create periods of absolute focus and not let other stuff infect that time. Here is what I recommend:
Find a way in your schedule to set aside some absolute dedicated time. Better to have less time but be entirely focused than have more time that allows for distractions.
Work in blocks of 25 minutes where you are working on a single task. Your phone is off. People know not to disturb you and you are spending dedicated time.
Take a break before you go at it again; at least 10 minutes if you are doing back-to-back 25 minute sessions.
You’ll be amazed how setting aside truly dedicated time to work on yourself and work on your goals will have a dramatic impact on your practice.
7) Work with your body not against it.
In the same way that you need to schedule time for work and schedule time for working on your practice you also need to schedule time to decompress. I often see this issue with people who have families and children. They are the parent when they’re at home. They are the chiropractor when they’re at work. They have no time to look after themselves. Talk to your family. Talk to your partner. Make sure that you’re scheduling time to decompress, to have fun or to take care of your health. If you are not balanced in your personal life you will struggle to serve your family and you will struggle to serve your patients. An important part of growth is taking care of you, making time for you. For me personally I need time on my own, ideally in nature. Find what works for you. If time is an issue then take lots of 3 minute moments throughout the day to connect with whatever helps you reset and recharge. You cannot expect to stay motivated if you are always switched on.
8) Ensure that everything around you is lined up with you staying motivated and doing the work that leads to achievement of your goals.
It could be your friends, family or even your physical environment. Motivation can either be supported and encouraged or it can be eroded.
James Clear said it well:
“Imagine if your world, your home, your office, your gym, all of it was crafted in a way that made the good behaviours easier and the bad behaviours harder. How often would you make healthy and productive choices if they were simply your default response to your environment? How much easier would that be than trying to motivate yourself all the time?”
Remove clutter, remove distractions. Talk to your family. Talk to your colleagues, talk to your CAs. Put systems in place, such as a pre-shift meeting, to make sure you are always supporting your motivation levels. If you want to embrace a growth mindset then surround yourself with people who have an expansive energy. Make sure that if you’re setting the time aside time for deep practice.
If you seriously want to grow in practice, then motivation will be fuel that you need to make the journey – from where you are – to where you want to be.
Take time away from your everyday routine to work on your systems; to reflect on your practice. Spend short periods of focused time working on the important things. You know what they are already, you just have to get started.
Amazing things are possible in chiropractic and amazing things are possible in practice. If you let your ‘Uncomfortable comfort’ suck the motivation out of you, then you will not grow. Stop waiting for motivation to knock on your door – take an action from this list and commit to doing it today.
Imagine how you will feel when you are relentlessness in pursuit of your goals; it will be like you have already achieved the biggest win possible and the world will soon catch up with the ‘motivated’ you.
I am so excited for you and so excited to see what you create.
I hope you found this useful. Please share your success stories with me.
With love, through Chiropractic,
Matt