Unified Practice

Some people go to horror movies for a good fright — and that feeling of happy catharsis when the lights go up and everything is fine. Others are more extreme and like jumping out of airplanes or riding enormous waves. Me? Well, I like to conquer my fears by occasionally trying to make a quiche lorraine, which is very easy to burn and turn into a charred mess (trust me, I know).

Call me a dare-devil.

But not everybody is always so eager to stand up and confront the things that frighten them. A more frequent response is to run away — or at least avoid the challenge until it needs to be dealt with tomorrow, next week, or next year.

What’s more, fears don’t have to be inspired by anything as dramatic as flesh-eating zombies or jumping from great heights (or burning a quiche). Sometimes serious apprehension can be inspired by nagging little obstacles like completing a tax return, arranging a doctor’s check-up, or asking somebody for help. These apparently easily achievable tasks are sometimes symbolic of our deeper fears, have the ability to tap into our feelings of inadequacy, and lead us to worry about more serious consequences.

In running any sort of business, fear can be inhibiting and restrict your potential for achieving your best. And that is certainly true if you operate a TCM clinic.

Fear of change

You may remember Heraclitus’s old adage You cannot step into the same river twice. Although we can trick ourselves into believing that we’re operating within a fixed and permanent set of circumstances, that’s not the way things really happen. Things change around us all the time. Running a TCM clinic based on the illusion of a static industry might wind up costing you plenty.

Overcoming your fear of change will allow you to adapt better to the transformations in the marketplace and discover unseen opportunities.

And to return to the river metaphor — we all know what happens to water when it is not renewed by new currents. It turns stagnant.

Fear of expanding your operations

Is bigger necessarily better? I hear that question a lot from TCM professionals. Because a small operation has its advantages, right? Adding that extra room to the clinic, incorporating additional treatments, expanding the patient roster…. aren’t such plans just asking for more stress? Isn’t life complicated enough?

But maybe at the root of this stance isn’t mere contentment with a moderately successful small TCM clinic. Instead it could be a fear that putting in the time and money to expand your operations won’t be worth it. Nobody likes to contemplate great exertion and no pay off.

Well, that fear can undermine your development as a professional and your discovery of new potentialities — and, of course, the chance to run a more profitable business. Practitioners need to remember that expansion doesn’t necessarily have to mean a proportionately increased workload. More and more healers are discovering the exciting and efficient ways acupuncture practice management software integrates the myriad tasks of running a clinic.

Fear of new partnerships

Maybe you’re an individualist and feel that going it alone is the best way forward. More power to you. But often we resist forging new professional partnerships in acupuncture practice management because we fear the loss of power that comes with collaboration. Or perhaps we fear the personality conflicts that may arise. Perhaps we are simply afraid of making the initial approach to work with somebody new.

But some of the greatest experiences come from working with a partner — especially when you can each bring complementary skills to the collaboration. That can lead to a practice that is much more than the sum of its parts. In short, this is a fear worth conquering.

Guest blog post by Matt Leask