-
- April 2001
by
Mark Radermacher, D.C.
There is no technical relationship between subluxation
and the stock market, yet many chiropractors have inadvertently and
intimately entwined the two spawning frustration, trepidation and
inadequate performance in practice. The ensuing problem is caused by a
mix of three stages: perception confusion, dilution of focus and
emotional nonsense. Once firmly cemented, with this self-inflicted
problem, many chiropractors run the risk of reverting to a survival only
practice or worse yet even losing their practice entirely. A clear
understanding of the problem and specific steps toward a solution are
required before the abyss becomes irreparable.
The first detectable sign of a problem is in the area of
perception confusion. The stock market had enjoyed a long and powerful
upward growth. This growth was unnoticed by many in the profession for a
significant period of time. When many chiropractors were finally
awakened to the “bull run,” their perception of oblivion both
irritated and embarrassed them. The irritation was related to the fact
they had missed a golden opportunity to earn a tremendous amount of
money; the embarrassment was a feeling being thought of as nothing more
than a hoosier... worse yet, of all things, a chiropractic hoosier.
Unless an individual knowingly shares his/her financial status with
others, his/her aptitude for investing could never be considered much
less judged. Yet, many chiropractors felt the entire world was aware of
their investment inaptitude and perceived the need for an obligatory
movement toward the market. Movement is one thing, plunging is another.
The perception of having to compensate for lost time caused many
chiropractors to take a dangerous plunge in the market. This plunge
sometimes included taking money from savings and conservative
investments and, worse yet, sometimes included buying stocks on margin.
Leasing something is usually a sign of weakness and lack of financial
responsibility, whereas buying stocks on margin is downright
unconscionable.
Those who were driven by perception confusion and took the plunge
in the market continued their misguided momentum with additional
perception confusion by believing the market was only capable of an
upward direction. Logic tells us that what goes up must come down, the
market is no exception. The Nasdaq is currently 60% off its record high
of only twelve months ago. Losing money is rarely an enjoyable
experience. Losing margin money, money that isn’t even your money, is
even worse.
As the market plunged, the false perceptions of guaranteed
windfall profits, of financial independence and of quick retirement, all
began to vanish. This disappearing act left residual negative
implications. Personal savings, of some degree, was lost. Stock value,
through margin purchase, was also lost and the perception confusion
turned from positive to negative. What was once a sure thing turned into
a depressing albatross. This new found negative perception confusion had
concrete problems. Money was lost and had to be produced, collected and
saved once again. The chiropractor in this position found his/her
perception of confidence waxing and waning. Confidence is a state of
self-assurance and literally has nothing to do with perception. While
well-steeped in perception confusion confidence can, however, collapse.
Once confidence is lost, very little of any consequence can be
accomplished. Perception confusion has positive and negative components
and was the first stage to produce practice frustration, trepidation and
inadequate performance.
The second stage is the diluting of focus. Early during the
perception confusion stage focus becomes diluted; therefore, there is an
overlap in stages. Focus becomes diluted during perception confusion
whether a doctor is positive or negative. If a doctor feels positive yet
is in a state of confusion his/her practice could increase because of a
feeling. To run a practice on feeling, and not substance, is a sure way
to early burnout. While the stock market bubble was inflating, many
doctors were converting their substance or “system” practices to
feeling or “charisma” practices. The euphoria of seeing their stock
purchases increase in value was infectious, thus the practice was
temporarily advancing on charisma and energy. As the stock market became
more intriguing, many doctors took more and more energy and focus out of
practice and placed them in the market, instead. Once a doctor removes
focus from his/her practice, a subsequent decline is a guarantee. The
declining practice didn’t have the normal negative impact as long as
the market continued its eternal upward movement. Is practice
performance critically important when hordes of money is to be had in
the market? The answer is unequivocally yes! Practices are built one
patient at a time while using, among other traits, focus. As focus is
withdrawn, practices are disassembled one patient at a time.
Organization deteriorates, communication falters, patient needs and
practice purpose are replaced with day trades, stock quotes and “stock
jockey mentality.”
After the market crumbled, what was once positive focus soon
became negative focus. The level of focus intensity will not diminish
during negativity. Doctors became intensely negatively focused on their
practices. Frustration, trepidation and poor practice performance become
the norm when a doctor’s focus becomes negative. The thrill and
intrigue used to plunge in the market has disappeared for most doctors
and as they force themselves back toward practice the best they can
muster to replace thrill and intrigue is to use fear and need. When a
doctor fears the need to produce he/she isn’t using productive focus
he/she is forcing himself/herself to burnout.
Patients can perceive a doctors focus and determine whether
it’s present or not present, whether it’s positive or negative.
Fooling patients is no easier than fooling the market. In fact, neither
is very likely to occur. Perception confusion generating focus problems
are the first and second stages; the third and final stage is emotional
nonsense.
It would be easy to say that perception confusion is emotional
nonsense, it would also be easy to say that focus problems are emotional
nonsense but that won’t solve these problems. Consider emotional
nonsense for a moment. Emotion is a strong feeling, as is joy, sorrow or
hate; emotion is a state of mental agitation or disturbance. Nonsense is
foolish or absurd language or behavior; nonsense is of little matter or
no importance or use. A doctor who won a large sum of money in the
market would not consider his/her fortune having been made with
emotional nonsense. A doctor who watched his/her fortune grow then
deteriorate in the market (because he/she didn’t claim his/her
winnings before the market bubble burst) might admit to emotional
nonsense. Then we have the doctor who invested in the market too late;
he/she bought when the market was at or near its high. This doctor saw
his/her money (or margin money) disappear. he/she might also admit to
this fiasco as one of emotional nonsense.
Some doctors did win while playing the market, many lost. If
those who won are enjoying practice again, if they have returned from a
practice respite to once again teach and adjust subluxation, they still
have a task at hand. They must clear up any perception confusion, they
must refocus and they must make sure they will not attempt to run their
practice on emotional nonsense. For those doctors who lost the
opportunity to take their winnings out of the market before it crumbled,
more of a task is required. They must make sure they’re not bitter as
they return to teaching and adjusting subluxation. To return to practice
in a bitter frame of mind would be akin to practicing with emotional
nonsense, and might be interpreted by the patient as an expression of
misanthropy. Bitterness, unless enjoyed during degustation, will only
produce additional frustration, trepidation and inadequate performance.
For the unfortunate majority of doctors, those who lost their own money
(and the money of others through margin investing) the task of returning
and rebuilding practice will be particularly challenging. These doctors,
who were awakened to the “bull market” with a perception of oblivion
having both irritated and embarrassed them, bought into the market too
late. Instead of only harboring bitter feelings, they are also licking
significant financial wounds. These financial wounds might cost them
their practices and their homes. Some doctors fear these wounds are so
deep and painful they may never heal.
Chiropractic teaches us that healing takes place from the inside
out. Emotional nonsense cannot be allowed to rule, therefore, a dose of
common sense must be used. Regardless how much money may have been lost
in the stock market crumble, doctors must realize and remember that it
was their own potential and performance that took them to the success
levels they had achieved. If a doctor had a successful practice
(survival or better) he/she must remember that it was he/she who had
been running that successful practice and not someone else. A doctor
could make the mistake perceiving that he/she couldn’t recreate
practice. he/she could also make the mistake of thinking he/she was
incapable of focusing, both mistakes would be disastrous. A doctor who
was once successful never loses the potential to become successful
again. Mistakes can be made and although the talent to succeed can be
hidden and/or suppressed, it can never be completely eliminated.
Subluxation and the stock market certainly aren’t supposed to
be related. To be sure, money will be made in the stock market once
again but this isn’t the question or the concern. The important
question is whether or not chiropractors have turned their backs, their
focus and their talents on practicing chiropractic in lieu of something
more enticing, more interesting and potentially more profitable.
Chiropractors are supposed to know and practice chiropractic. If they
turn their focus and their talent toward teaching and adjusting
subluxation their potential to succeed will be heightened. If a
chiropractor was struggling with attempting to succeed in practice,
he/she should re-evaluate his/her approach. Instead of looking for
something new and exciting outside of chiropractic (e.g. the stock
market) he/she should change the fundamentals in his/her practice
organization and communication. When the same level of thrill and
intrigue that had been used to plunge into the market are used to change
the fundamentals in practice, a chiropractor raises from possible
success to probable success. There is neither need nor room for
perception confusion in chiropractic practice; there is no potential to
succeed with diluted focus and, there is absolutely no room for
emotional nonsense in a successful chiropractic practice. By eliminating
perception confusion, by refocusing on practice and by putting emotional
nonsense to rest, the all too common frustration and trepidation (most
have felt while playing the stock market) would be replaced by
productive and individually controlled success in private chiropractic
practice.
Back to CBP® OnLine
CONTENTS
1. Another CBP® Research Porject Accepted At Clinical Biomechanics
2. Cleveland Chiropractic College Kansas City Teaches CBP®
3. Holder / Harrison Settlement
5. Chiropractic Ethnic Cleansing Alive and Well in Saskachewan
6. Has CA Board overstepped Its Bounds?
7. Neuromechanical Research To Understand Chiropractic Adjustments
11. Chiropractic Tx of Calcific Tendonitis
12. Our 30th and 31st papers at JMPT accepted
13. Should we call it Medicare or No-Care?
14. Practice Building: Qauility Experience in the Quality of Care.
15. Correction of Lordotic/Kyphotic S-Curves Without Extension Traction
16. Subluxation and the Stock Market