COLUMN KEYS TO YOUR PRACTICE Energize your practice H Simple acts that will provide instant results BY ANGELO SANTIN change. A new wardrobe, new paint-ings for the office or new posters are all quick changes that can be done relatively easily. In my experience, bringing in grander things like scripts, systems and procedures, and new techniques produce the best results. Learning something new of this im-portance always brings excitement and newfound energy – something we need to get through a long and fulfill-ing career. Keep your practice vital. Resist stagnation by keeping organized and welcoming change. The solutions to this problem are neither costly nor time intensive. Keeping organized requires no more than setting the time aside and committing to do the work. Change and bringing in a new system or pro-cedure require only a change in mindset and a leap of faith. Faith that “we’ve always done it this way” is not necessarily the best mindset for growth. Boosting your energy in practice simply requires the right mindset, faith and then action. These are actions I am confident we are all capable of doing. After all, when it comes to a success-ful practice we need to work from the inside out. ow many times have you gone into work and felt tired and fatigued? It hap-pens to all of us at some point. In our profession, most of us find ourselves trapped in the same building, day in and day out, seeing the same staff, sitting in the same office and practicing in the same treatment rooms. This repeti-tion can be monotonous and, if we aren’t careful, can lead to practice fatigue. The good news is there are things that you can do to break routine, change the status quo and give your whole practice the boost it needs. Let’s take a closer look at how we can bring some much wanted energy into the chiropractic office for you and your staff. This prompted us to look at doing the same for the treatment rooms, giving them a good re-organization and fresh look. This action and feel-ing is not unique to our office; this same situation happens at home as well. When the small stuff builds up around you, it weighs you down with-out you knowing it. Rolling up your sleeves and decluttering any space is like weeding your mind’s garden. You need it to feel mentally fresh. There are a lot of pros to having structure and routine in the office. Too much repetition, however, can be tedious and dull our sense of aware-ness. It’s easy to lose focus when everything around us feels the same over a long period of time, which can lead to a sense of boredom. What can we change instantly to give us a feeling of vitality and fresh-ness? Simple things like a new coat of paint, moving furniture around – in-cluding the adjusting tables – and even rotating posters that are hung in the clinic, are just some of what we can do to “change it up.” Other ideas that don’t require too much labour might include: changing your routine in the treatment room – changing practices like your scripts, the order in which you perform tasks, and even your adjusting techniques will heighten your sense of awareness and help you deliver better care to your patients. Change Declutter Recently, our office switched to a paperless system. With new furniture and computer hardware coming, we had to clean up our treatment rooms and back office in order to accommo-date the installers. We took this as the perfect opportunity to do some good spring-cleaning. One look at my desk in my back office gave me a giant headache. I couldn’t believe the things that have piled up over the years and how clut-tered the space was. Nevertheless, we approached the task head on; we got rid of many items and reorganized the necessities. I can’t tell you how good it felt to have a neat and clean office once again. The first day back after the cleanup was great. I felt lighter, and had this newfound zip in my step that had been missing for some time. ACTION STEPS CHECKLIST Pick one space in your clinic and make a commitment to declutter and organize the area Change one part of your daily routine with patients, starting tomorrow Set a date to bring something new and fresh to your clinic Bring in something new We are all creatures of habit. Doing something new can be difficult, be-cause many of us are resistant to ANGELO SANTIN, DC, operates a busy subluxation-based family practice in Thunder Bay, Ont., and is president of the Thunder Bay Chiropractic Society. Dr. Santin is also a Carter Universal proficiency-rated chiropractic coach. He can be reached at [email protected] or 807-344-4606. 16 Canadian Chiropractor September 2014 www.canadianchiropractor.ca
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