When do we start this principle? When do we start thinking of ourselves as successful? When do we start believing we will and can succeed? The honest answer would be – as soon as we are successful! Most people think: As soon as I get out of debt or once I get this bankruptcy behind me, then I’ll start thinking success. I just can’t do it right now. Once the practice starts making money… Once I get through this divorce I can clear my mind and think success. My kids are going through a bad time right now but as son as I get them past this…. My parents are in bad health right now but as soon as they are well I will start thinking successfully.
The problem is this: You don’t become successful and then think that way. You must think successful to become successful. You cannot wait until everything is going “right” before you stop thinking wrong. You cannot wait for the absence of problems to think successful. Thinking successful is the solution to your problems. You can’t think wrong and get right. I choose today to think right regardless of what may be wrong – so I can get right. I am going to think like a winner today even if I am staring a loss in the face. I choose to THINK successfully knowing that my thoughts are causes. If I think right I will get right. If I think success – I will get success because it will CAUSE me to do successful things. How do I think successfully?
The First Phase of Successful Thinking is Clean Thinking. Clean the slate in your mind of all resentment, bitterness, hatred and negative prejudice. I will make my decisions based on the fact that chiropractic is GREAT. My skills are GREAT! Just what I need. My community is good. My dream will WORK here. My staff is good and most importantly I am good. Your first thought right now is probably ”Yeah, but…” Don’t hang on to the bad and the losses. It is easy to think that the world is crazy and broke and against me. It is easy to think that it can’t be done in this community or with chiropractic – you need another type of health care or technique or idea to succeed. You need to think: This is not true! I have everything and everybody I need to WIN! It is easy to think that every form of health care is more successful than chiropractic. It is easy to think and believe that there are no new patients out there and the only way to succeed is to have all other chiropractors in the town to fail or leave. It is not true. There is enough of everything for all of us to win! I must think abundance! There are an abundance of new patients that I CAN lead into this clinic. There is an abundance of money. They WILL pay for chiropractic. They CAN afford it. They WILL come back once their insurance runs out. And I have all the time I need to ACCOMPLISH my God Given dream.
Clean Thinking includes honesty and integrity. I do not have to cheat to win. I do not need billing tricks. I do not need coding tricks. I do not need to over recommend or under recommend. I will recommend what the patient needs regardless of circumstance or wrong thoughts. I will bill fairly. I will charge what I know is a fair and reasonable fee – I don’t need 14 different payment arrangements or “deals” with patients because I am going to charge what is fair to everyone regardless of insurance or cash – broke or rich. What is fair is what is fair. I feel good about my service.
The Second Phase of Success Thinking is Purpose Thinking. I want to keep my mind limited to dream thoughts only. I cannot let my mind wander off on possible failures or cliff hangers which produce fear in my heart and cause me to make “chicken” decisions. I am a chiropractor and proud of it. My purpose is to heal the land – and do it naturally. Chiropractic can get the body well and keep the body well and that is what I am going to provide. I choose to stay on purpose and provide my community with the BEST in chiropractic care. I want 80% of my community getting regular chiropractic care. I cannot spend my time worried about or thinking about what other chiropractors are doing wrong. I cannot think about what other disciplines should be doing. I have got to keep my mind focused on my mission and what I must do. And then get it done. I cannot afford to allow my mind to think about little things that simply do not matter to the big picture. I will not “sweat the small stuff”. I don’t really need 24 hour news. I don’t want to think about what other people do wrong or solve other businesses problems. No – I must stay focused on MY dream and MY purpose and make sure I do what I am supposed to do. Everybody else will have to come up with how to succeed with their purpose and dream – mine is so big there is only room to concentrate on that. I will be a PURPOSE thinker and restrict that purpose to mine!
The Third Phase of Success Thinking is Possibility Thinking. In the past I have done lots of possibility thinking – I thought of every possible reason something wouldn’t work. I have thought of every possible thing that could go wrong. I have listed every reason I couldn’t do it and would fail. This is no longer part of my thought process. I want to THINK successful and that means I must fill my mind with all the possibilities of success. Every time I am faced with a problem – and I will ALWAYS be faced with a problem – every time I am faced with a problem I will fill my mind with a list of at least 10 things I can do to defeat the problem and win. If you are short on new patients… make a list of 10 things you can do to hit your goal. If you are falling short of your patient visit average,,, make a list of 10 things you can do to change it. If you have a huge credit card debt – make a list of 10 things you can do to pay it off. Don’t stop at 2 possibilities or 5 – I want TEN! Get focused on the solutions! I will focus on those 10 things. You always move toward your dominate thoughts and I want to move toward the solution. The possibilities of success will drown out the fears of failure.
The Final Phase of Successful Thinking is Results Thinking. Most of us are task thinkers. We are busy people and we feel guilty if we aren’t busy – but we were busy doing things that did not help the bottom line of our dream. At the end of the day we are tired but no closer to the dream! The famous Coach John Wooden said, “Don’t mistake activity for achievement.” Our day becomes filled with putting out fires. Fires that we are called upon to put out by other people. At the end of the day we have been busy and we are tired but we are no closer to our mission and dream than when we started. We must start thinking about the results of our actions. We don’t need to fill our day with more activities. We need to fill our day running ever closer to the dream. A race horse doesn’t just run – they run a specific course toward a finish line. The results thinker thinks: If I do this – will it take me closer to the dream? Am I on the right “track?” Or does this action produce no results at all? If it doesn’t produce the results I need – I don’t do it. To
accomplish the dream I need more new patients – will this action truly produce more new patients? Or is it just activity? We can spend a lot of time on the internet or on the web site and 2 hours later not have more new patients than when we started. How could we have spent our time differently to get the results we were wanting? It doesn’t matter to the results thinker if you are billing – it only matters if you are collecting. It doesn’t matter to the results thinker if someone answered the phone when it rang – it only matters that we scheduled them to come in. It doesn’t matter if we GOT the loan – it matters that we used the loan to make us a success. It doesn’t matter that we got the degree in chiropractic – it only matters that we used the degree to heal the land. If we don’t heal the land naturally – if we don’t get new patients – if we don’t keep new patients – we have the degree and loan for nothing.
Successful Thinking Means…
Today I will think successfully by using clean thinking. I will Live the Dream for a great profession and a great community and a great cause.
I will think successfully by focusing only on my mission – my purpose – my dream! Dream thoughts only. I am committed to getting 80% of my community under chiropractic care.
When faced with a problem, I will think successfully by thinking of at least 10 possible SOLUTIONS rather than possible failures. Possibility Thinking Works!
And I will think successfully by focusing on results so that I only run toward the goal instead of spending my life like everyone else… just running.
Regardless of what circumstances I find myself in today – I believe I can THINK my way to Success using this principle because my thoughts are causes!