FEATURE Performance is pretty straight-for-ward to understand. It is how you end up performing, playing or succeeding in what you do. Potential is your skills, talents, abil-ities. It is what you are capable of doing based on everything you have learned, practiced and acquired that relates to your capability to perform. We spend years taking our schooling, doing mentorships, continuing edu-cation, and business classes. Building our experience through years in prac-tice and all of the other things we do to “improve ourselves.” The part of the equation that we work on the most is to perform better. Interference is mostly the thought processes that we have that hold us back from being able to perform to our true potential – this is the area that people tend to struggle with the most yet spend the least amount of time addressing. It is no different when it comes to a chiropractor – the most common areas of interference center around how we think. One of the best places to start de-creasing interference is with the first concept of mental toughness. (Being focused.) We can all relate to how much better things go when we are dialled in and focused on the task at hand. How can we become more fo-cused in our practice? The first step to becoming more focused in practice is to set goals. Goal setting is like taking a road trip to an unfamiliar destination, a place we may have never been to before. Think of goal setting as your roadmap, or GPS, and your plan for how to get from where you are to where you want to get to, and what you want to accomplish along the way. Let’s use my drive from Regina to Denver as an example. Without the roadmap and plan, I would not know where I was going, what roads to take, and could have missed out on interesting tourist des-tinations, places or landmarks along the way. Had I not planned out the hotels, I may have had no place to stay the night. Worst of all, ended up in the middle of nowhere with no gas or cell service and not made my destination. You should have a main longer term goal, your destination, as well as sev-eral shorter term goals with the steps needed for how to achieve that short-www.canadianchiropractor.ca PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT Hard-headed Mental toughness and how it can help chiropractors in practice T BY KEN ANSELL POTENTIAL – INTERFERENCE = PERFORMANCE KEN ANSELL, RMT, D.Ac., has been a massage therapist in Regina for over 24 years, obtaining his educaton from the Western College of Remedial Massage Therapies. He is a member of MTAS, the Provincial Medical Acupuncture Association, and the Canadian Contemporary Acupuncture Association. 16 Canadian Chiropractor February 2020 TakakoWatanabe/iStock / Getty Images Plus/Getty Images. here has been a buz-zword floating around for a while that I am sure many people are familiar with but may not know what it means: mental toughness. When someone hears the phrase, an image of a highly trained soldier or marine with nerves of steel on the battlefield may come to mind. Per-haps elite athletes come to mind. Those atheltes can control their emo-tions in the heat of competition and power through to the win. But, how about an image of a chiropractor working towards retirement, or the one building their practice in a com-petitive market? Not the most com-mon thing to come to mind, but the concepts of mental toughness can be a massive part of their success as well. Mental toughness is the ability to perform as focused, confident, deter-mined and resilient, especially under pressure. These principles have been taught in the athlete world for many years. They can also translate per-fectly into business and everyday life. Let’s have a look at how the princi-ples of mental toughness can fit into your chiropractic practice. For those that may not have read any of my previous articles, you must know that I like math. When a con-cept is in the form of an equation, it becomes a lot easier to comprehend. The following simple equation is the foundation of the mental toughness program I teach to athletes and busi-ness people:
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