there are plans, and then there is real life! Yes, I finished clinic requirements. However, then it was time to keep client/patient care going, deliver a baby, and be back at classes and X-ray Rotations within ten days of having the baby. Throughout this blur was the magical experience of having a child, and making vitalistic choices of natural child birth, choosing not to vaccinate based on my microbiology education, and watching and learning the power of the adjustment.
My son Rob became the first child that many in my class checked and adjusted. Thanks to so many in my class, who juggled Rob in the intern’s room and hallways, I was able to finish requirements and expectations. Rob was also such a natural lesson to so many of us of the power of the adjustment, and its significance in smoothly moving a child through the early months of life.
My last year of Chiropractic school was also a whirlwind. Within this year I had a baby, finished classes, got married, wrote board exams, and was ready to launch into the real world of practice. What the heck did that mean? I hadn’t even had a chance to catch my breath, let alone decide what I wanted to do. The one guiding Principle was that on some level I realized I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
Now the good news is that the one thing I did know was for Dave and I we could either have a practice together, or a marriage. Both would not mix! We are simply very different and distinct personalities. Many people we know, and I have since coached, can manage the collaboration of both roles. Luckily Dave and I knew and honored that this was not the case for us.
By ‘coincidence’ a favorable circumstance presented for me to cover a practice many miles away from where Dave was practicing. An amazing Chiropractor with a long and established practice and legacy had broken his wrist. The position was there for me to cover his practice for 4-6 weeks. Dave stepped-in and created the opportunity for me to leave and cover this practice, and gain incredible experience on the adjusting front. This opportunity enhanced my skills and most importantly my confidence.
Practice Reveals Life Lessons
During my time as a cover Doctor, two Chiropractic friends approached me with an invitation to join their growing and thriving practice. They were looking for an associate. Why not? Without another plan of where I wanted to live or what type of practice I wanted to establish, this was an opportunity with great people. Of course the driving distance and crazy hours never entered my thoughts.
I started in the most non-traditional format. Practicing hours that in hindsight are not ideal for building any type of practice. Yet I didn’t know at the time. As I mentioned, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I just knew I was destined for success, and that I loved this thing called Chiropractic. With vital energy as my fire I set out to accomplish what I knew at a core level.
Fortunate for me, within my first few months of practice the Doctors I practiced with, Steve and Annette, took me to a life-altering seminar. I spent a weekend with Dr. John Demartini and a group of highly successful Doctors and human beings. I look back now, and even then on some level realized it was a life changing experience for me. The seminar offered tangible knowledge and experience to a level of knowingness about Universal Principles and life at a deep and core level.
Dr. John, with his messages and knowledge, became my strongest mentor. The coaching and success Principles I was guided to with his mentorship launched my success to establish congruent and consistent actions to create a phenomenal practice.
Anyone that has heard me speak from stage knows I talk a lot about my blunders and challenges along the way. They are a part of life and a part of practice. I have probably done and said more things wrong than you could ever imagine. The distinction is that I was constantly in action. I was setting goals and targets, and appropriate action steps to create those goals. I was incredibly disciplined. Discipline determines your destiny!
Vital can be defined simply as being full of life, full of spirit. My connection to the vitalistic Principles of Chiropractic, as well as my passion for life and sharing the Chiropractic message blended to create a magnetic energy within my practice and life. I was succeeding in spite of myself.
Dr. John also taught me to think globally. Instead of just focusing on my practice, I thought how I could serve my community, the Chiropractic profession in my country, as well as Chiropractic worldwide. I hung an enormous poster of the World in my office, covering the entire wall, and began sticking pins in place of where people came from to be adjusted in my office. Obviously it started with a small number of pins. Yet, is it any ‘coincidence’ that suddenly people visiting family from Russia, Yugoslavia, and many other places in the world were suddenly on my clinic doorstep?
During this early stage of my career I stepped up and became involved in the political association for Chiropractors in my local area. The Universal Principles were also teaching me to have a voice in decisions that impact my ability to practice in the fashion I love. As I have mentioned, this was a stage in Chiropractic that held acceptance foremost in reverence. It was important to me, and I was passionate about honoring what was unique and distinct about Chiropractic. I left the traditional system, and became so involved in Chiropractic because of vitalism and the unique ability to address it within our scope of practice. Having a voice, and representing wellness and vitalism in the profession was critical to me.
Another vital element to my plan was to attract and groom a vital team. I knew I needed support in the clinic, and to have a well-trained team. It became imperative for me to introduce the members of my team to people and places of learning in Chiropractic. We travelled to seminars to enhance our knowledge, and rejuvenate our inspiration. Sharing these same Principles of life and Chiropractic with my first Chiropractic Assistant, Rhonda was critical in fine tuning her procedures, as well as shaping and developing our capacity within the clinic. Interesting is the large number of people we could serve, just one CA and I. We were fortunate to become connected with Dr. Guy Riekeman and his Quest seminar system. His seminar was instrumental in assisting us in developing the systems and the support team to be able to serve and help even more people.
Throughout the first five years of my practice, I was so fortunate to be around great people that shared with me incredible Principles, methods, procedures and more.
Ask and you shall receive. On several occasions, I quieted my mind through meditation and prayer, and asked for guidance. Without delay, the next teacher or opportunity presented. One such example is Dr. Peter Amlinger handing me my first copies of the Green Books. I’d obviously lived in a shell until then, because I didn’t’ know such recorded writings existed! He handed me two books at a political meeting, and now I simply smile at the juxtaposition of ‘philosophical’ writings handed to me at a political meeting.
It’s so important for me to thank and honor each person that came into my life along this early path of my career. I realize my success has been totally related to the quality of the people around me, and the books that I’ve read. And most of those books were presented or shared with me by the people around me, an example of vitalism in action.
The patients in this early phase of my career taught me more than I could ever even possibly put into words. When I opened up to the bigness of Chiropractic, and when anyone does, the floodgates are lifted. I was presented with cases and examples of every type of condition and disorder. The more I focused on the uniqueness of Chiropractic, and on being a nervous system specialist, the more the results spoke for themselves. The vitalistic Principles at work created even more passion and commitment for me to helping more and more people.
Stepping Into Uniqueness
I was so fortunate to share this path and time in life with my husband Dave. Vitality is truly put to the test when you run a large and growing practice, and also then try to figure out how to juggle and run a full and vital family. Without my husband Dave I’m not sure this would
