SUCCESS ROUTINE

Maya Angelou only wrote in small hotel rooms. Jack Kerouac made sure to touch the ground nine times before sitting down to write. Think about your days. How are they structured? What triggers your creative (and productive) mind? Are you consciously structuring your days with this trigger in mind?

Whether it’s waking up early, working in a specific location, or hitting the weights first thing in the morning, you need to find a trigger that gets you into rhythm – your rhythm. When you design a healthy daily routine that starts automatically every morning, you save lots of mental energy for the creative thinking that comes naturally when you find yourself in your rhythm. Through this personalized routine you will bring out your most intuitive work
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Of course, your routine will change occasionally due to evolving circumstances. The idea is that you make the necessary adjustments and maintain a routine that works – one that maintains the necessary triggers and rituals to develop and nurture your creative mind, and to ultimately do the work necessary to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

Remember, it’s always better to be at the bottom of the ladder you want to climb than the top of the one you don’t.. Let go of putting things off for one more day. – Stop procrastinating.  Stop wishing for it and start working for it.  Do what you have to do today so you can do what you truly want to do, and be where you want to be, tomorrow. ITS A NEW YEAR!  :)

Keep going.  True purpose has no time limit.  True purpose has no deadline.  Don’t stress and overwhelm yourself.  Just do what you can right now.

“Don’t aim at success.  The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it.  Success cannot be pursued, it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of your personal dedication to a cause greater than one’s self.”  So think bigger.  Be a part of something greater than yourself.  This engagement brings happiness, success, and meaning to your life. The byproduct will be success.

Most of us spend way too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.  In other words, productivity is not just about getting things done, it’s about getting the right things done.  At the end of each day, look at how you have spent your time, and adjust the allocation as necessary for tomorrow.  Do your best to get rid of your schedule’s complexities so you can spend more time on the things that matter.  This means fine-tuning and eliminating all but the essential tasks, so you are left with only the ones that add value to your life.  And above all, know when to set aside the important things for the vital things, like family.

"My mistakes today prove that I am a failure.” – This mindset will drive you and everyone around you crazy.  Finish each day and be done with it.  You have done the best you could.  Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forgive and forget them as soon as you can. Remember, your failure does not define you, your determination does.  Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, smarter than before.  Tomorrow is a new day.  You shall begin it peacefully and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with old nonsense.

Many of your greatest accomplishments in life will come when you are able to bless someone else while you are going through your own storm.  So regardless of what’s going on in your life, be gentle and kind.  Think before you speak and act.  Always remember that the words and actions you choose can only be forgiven, not forgotten.  You were made to make a difference, so embrace every opportunity to do so.  No act of your kindness, no matter how tiny, will ever be wasted.

Those who complain the most, accomplish the least.  It’s always better to attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.  It’s not over if you’ve lost; it’s over when you do nothing but complain about it.  If you believe in something, keep trying.  Don’t let the shadows of the past darken the doorstep of your future.  Spending today complaining about yesterday won’t make tomorrow any brighter.  Take action instead.

PATIENT EDUCATION

Please copy this article to your office stationary, print them and hand these to your patients this week. The more connected you are to your patients, the more connected they will be to you. Which translates into referrals, payment and less missed appointments.

Music legend Ian McLagan has died of complications related to a stroke. He was discovered in his home in Manor last night after he failed to show up for a band rehearsal. He was 69. McLagan was rushed to University Medical Center Brackenridge and placed on life support. He passed away this afternoon at 2:39. "He was a beloved friend to so many people and a true rock n roll spirit," McLagan's manager Ken Kushnick said in an e-mail. "His persona and gift of song impacted the music across oceans and generations."

Though the British Invasion may have led the way, the Small Faces weren’t far behind in the 1960s, with a pounding pub rock driven by McLagan’s keyboard. McLagan’s Hammond B3 swirl would also drive the sound of Rod Stewart and Faces in the 70’s. In later years, McLagan made his home in Central Texas, rekindling his career both as a solo artist and a sought-after sideman recording with the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan, among many others.

In recent years, McLagan had undergone a series of treatments for debilitating migraines. "I've been on about five, six medications over the period of the last 9, 10 years," he told KUT in 2010. "I was starting to feel suicidal." 

"I walked on the stage of the Lucky Lounge one Thursday night and didn't know what the hell I was doing. I started one song about four, five times. I made a joke out of it, but I knew it was the medication and I decided I was going to stop it," McLagan said. "I never took it again, and I actually should have [instead] slowed it down." "I've taken all kinds of medications. Nothing really does it, frankly. Honestly, I think pot is the only that's a real distraction for me and I wish they'd make it legal," he said.  McLagan was set to begin a tour with veteran rocker Nick Lowe in Minneapolis. 

Being busy is often a form of mental laziness – lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.”  This is a way of saying “work smarter, not harder,” which happens to be one of the most prevalent modern day personal development clichés.  But like most clichés, there’s a great deal of truth to it, and few people actually adhere to it.Just take a quick look around.  The busy outnumber the productive by a wide margin.

Busy people are rushing all over the place, and running late half of the time.  They’re heading to work, conferences, meetings, social engagements, etc.  They barely have enough free time for family get-togethers and they rarely get enough sleep.  Yet, business emails are shooting out of their smart phones like machine gun bullets, and their daily planner is jammed to the brim with obligations.

Their busy schedule gives them an elevated sense of importance.  But it’s all an illusion.  They’re like hamsters running on a wheel. The solution:  Slow down.  Breathe.  Review your commitments and goals.  Put first things first.  Do one thing at a time.  Start now.  Take a short break in two hours.  Repeat. And always remember, results are more important than the time it takes to achieve them.

Sadly, very few Chiropractors ever live to become the success story they dream about.  And there’s one simple reason why: They never take action!

The acquisition of knowledge doesn’t mean you’re growing.  Growing happens when what you know changes how you practice.   So many people simply ‘get by’ because they never take the necessary action to make things happen.

It doesn’t matter if you have a genius IQ and a PhD in Quantum Physics, you can’t change anything or make any sort of real-world progress without taking action.  There’s a huge difference between knowing how to do something and actually doing it.  Knowledge and intelligence are both useless without action.  It’s as simple as that.

Success hinges on the simple act of making a decision – to absorb yourself in the process of going after your dreams and goals.  So make that decision.  And take action.

Have you ever met a happy person who regularly avoids responsibility, blames and points fingers and makes lots of excuses for their unsatisfying life?  Me either.  Happy people accept responsibility for how their lives unfold.  They believe their own happiness is a byproduct of their own thinking, beliefs, attitudes, character and behavior.

You’ve really got to stop worrying so much about what others think. Shut out all the judgmental and well-meaning voices, and listen to yourself only for a while.  And don’t worry if your definition of happiness seems incomplete – embracing happiness is an ongoing process.

Successful people are objective.  They have realistic targets in mind.  They know what they are looking for and why they are fighting for it.  Successful people create and pursue S.M.A.R.T. goals.

S.M.A.R.T. goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.  Let’s briefly review each:

◾Specific – A specific goal has a far greater chance of being accomplished because it has defined parameters and constraints.

◾Measurable – There must be a logical system for measuring the progress of a goal.  When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued efforts required to reach your goal.

◾Attainable – To be attainable, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work.  In other words, the goal must be realistic.  The big question here is:  How can the goal be accomplished?

◾Relevant – Relevance stresses the importance of choosing goals that matter.

◾Timely – A goal must be grounded within a time frame, giving the goal a target date.  A commitment to a deadline helps you focus your efforts on the completion of the goal on or before the due date.

When you identify S.M.A.R.T. goals that are truly important to you, you become motivated to figure out ways to attain them.  You develop the necessary attitude, abilities, and skills.  You can achieve almost any goal you set if you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps.  Goals that once seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable, not because your goals shrink, but because you grow and expand to match them.