Are You Building Momentum?
As soon as I saw the yellow figure in the distance it was go time!
I put my head down and pedaled furiously! My lungs were pumping, and legs were burning but I didn’t care, I was so focused on where I was heading it wasn’t an option to stop!
You may well be wondering what race I was involved in?!
Well this was actually me on my road bike, out for a regular ride over the weekend! Yep, Me vs Me. I try to push myself when I’m out but sometimes when you are on your own it is easy to slow down and go at a steady pace. But this time I saw another cyclist in the distance wearing his high vis yellow jacket. I could tell he was going at a reasonable pace, but I couldn’t be sure how fast.
I could have just acknowledged that there was another cyclist out enjoying the sunshine and got back to my own thoughts, but there is something within me that just won’t allow it! A switch turns on inside me which says ‘game on’, and my aim is to try and catch the person! This is not to try and get past the cyclist to gloat how fast I am and slow they are, it is something deeper that I want to prove to myself that I can push myself, catch up with them, and that I have the physical and mental ability to do so.
I was pedaling furiously for 5 minutes and the distance between the cyclist and I was reducing, but then my time had come. I had to turn right onto a different lane, and he carried on!
Did I feel sad that I hadn’t sped past him? No! I felt alive because I had pushed my body beyond its norm and I knew in my mind that if I had a few minutes longer, I would have caught up with him. But that’s by the by.
The momentum I had gained from pushing myself continued for the rest of the ride. I actually completed the ride in the quickest time I had done to date and felt great for it!
This simple ride became a bit of an ‘ah ha’ moment as it is so relevant for other areas of life, which is why I wanted to share it with you in the hope it may be helpful for you.
Whether you own a practice, are an associate, or a chiropractic assistant within it, it is likely you have either set yourself or have been set some targets to reach. For example, aiming for ‘x’ amount of adjustment visits a week or booking ‘x’ number of new patients in the diary. If you haven’t, then stop at this point. Take time individually and as a team to discuss what you are aiming for and make it specific and measurable. For example, how many people do you want to serve a week? What is your average adjustment fee? How many people are starting care following your report and what number are you aiming for? There are so many things that can be measured, and this is key because if you don’t know your numbers, how do you know where you are heading or what area you should be focusing on and trying to improve?
The targets you are aiming for are similar to the cyclist in the distance on my ride. It provides us a focus and creates that urgency and drive within us to help us accelerate forward.
But what happens when you reach the target? Well, there are two options. You can either sit back and celebrate that you have reached your target and go back to a steady pace, or option two, you can acknowledge that you did a great job of getting there and continue to accelerate forward, using the momentum you have created. Like I did on the ride, I continued to push myself for the whole ride, and achieved more than I expected!
If you take option one, sit back and celebrate and then go back to where you were, you will start to yoyo. You will hit some targets or goals and then return back to square one. You may then set another target a few months later, reach it, and then go back to square one. It’s a bit like starting a new diet. You may lose the weight, feel great, and then two months later you are back to where you were originally because you have returned to the same unhealthy habits. This way of working can feel hard work, it’s like running through mud, it just slows you down.
The second option is how we win in life. It enables you to push yourself and release that competitive nature. Whatever it is you want to achieve in practice, and in life for that matter, create that urgency, and use that momentum to help move you forward. Once you have reached your target, set yourself a new one and then the process continues.
What if you don’t reach your target? Then use that as an opportunity to evaluate by asking yourself a few questions:
1. Have you allowed yourself enough time to achieve it? Sometimes we want results yesterday. Unfortunately this is not the way it works. Like patients who want to get out of pain, it takes time and repetition to create the change. It is no different for results we want to see in practice.
2. Was it a realistic target? For example, if you are currently booking in 2 new patients a week but want 8 a week, have you got the capacity in your diary for this? Are you promoting yourself to let people know you are there? Are you providing value to your community to build trust so they actually want to visit? And so on.
3. Is there something else you could be doing, or doing differently to help you get there? Following on from the above, it may be that you have just been promoting on Facebook but what about reaching out to local community groups and events? And so on.
It can be easy going from day to day just going through the motions, hoping that things will improve. But unless we know where we are heading and are intentional with our actions it is unlikely we will get there!
Know what you are aiming for, take action and accelerate to get there! Reevaluate by asking the above questions along the way if needed and keep moving forward.
Whatever it is that you are aiming for this week, go chase it and enjoy the process!
With love,
Sarah