The Smallest Action is Better than the Greatest Intention
by Sid Mouk, D.C.
Dr. Jim Parker often told the story about a DC who had attended many, many of the Parker Seminars over a 25 year period. At each of these seminars, top speakers and teachers from throughout the Chiropractic profession offered numerous ideas on how to build and maintain a strong practice. Dr. Jim was always pleased to be constantly hearing testimony from DC’s about how well they were doing in practice by applying the principles taught at the seminars. So he went over to talk with this doctor, whom he had known for years, and asked him how things were going (fully expecting to hear that his practice was doing very well). But he was surprised to hear him say, “My practice is OK Jim, but I’ve never seen more than 10 or 15 patients in a day in all these years.” Now, Dr. Jim knew that many other DC’s were seeing a hundred or more patients a day utilizing the success principles taught at the seminars so he asked him how he was applying these basic principles. He found that this man had not taken action and applied even one of the principles that were working so well for other DC’s… even after 25 years of being exposed to these teachings. Dr. Jim often said, as a result of this, that “Knowing the way is not going the way.” Leo Buscaglia often quoted one of his Buddhist teachers who said “To know and not to do is not to know.”
Eileen Caddy says, “This is a life of action, a life of change. See where you need to change and then take the action necessary to bring about that change. If the change is uncomfortable, the more quickly it takes place the easier it is. It is far less painful to pull a bandage off quickly than to do it slowly. Therefore, do what you know has to be done without wasting any time thinking about it. Take that leap into the new without hesitation, and simply know that it will be far more wonderful than what you have left behind in the old. With change comes life, a full and glorious life.”
Those of us who have had the good fortune to read the “Rhinoceros” books know that the entire theme of these books is one of taking action now. The Rhino is used as a symbol because, having very poor eyesight, if something appears in front of it, it immediately takes action and charges without waiting to find out more about the situation. One of the stories told in the books is about a 30 year old millionaire who had very little going for him in the way of formal education or talent, except that, whenever a promising situation came up, he immediately took action on it and worked out a plan as he went. It resulted in his acquiring a small fortune at a very young age.
An article appeared in a success journal recently that stated “every decision is the right decision.” It went on to explain that the only wrong decision we can make is no decision (which most people tend to do). Simply making a decision and taking immediate action on that decision automatically makes it the “right” one. If it’s the best decision for us, we’ll get feedback to let us know this and we can continue with the action we’re taking. If it turns out to be a decision that is not the best for us, we’ll also get feedback that will let us know this and we can then change it. However, if we make no decision we get no feedback and so we just wallow around in the puddles of indecision, sometimes forever. The decision-making abilities of top executives in several major companies were studied by a group of psychologists and they discovered these people didn’t make any more right decisions than the average person does. What they did do though, was to actually make decisions and take action on them (and they were then able to get the feedback they needed to make a “course correction” if it was called for).
We on this planet are justifiably proud of our accomplishments in space exploration. We see space probes heading for Jupiter and the other planets and arriving there precisely where they were aimed. What we may not realize is that these probes are not aimed precisely, they are sent out into space and the computers on board constantly get feedback on their location and make changes in course so the probe will arrive at the target area. So the scientists involved take the action of sending out the probe knowing that its not going exactly where they want it to go, but also knowing that its course can be corrected as it travels through space.Action and then feedback. The only way the probe can fail is if it stays on Earth and never ventures out into the solar system.
Dr. Greg Cheatwood, a DC who taught excellent NLP Seminars, constantly reminded us that the key to great achievement is the taking of “massive action” in our lives. This is also the major theme of the nationally popular Anthony Robbins Seminars. No matter what else we do, no matter how much education and training we have, no matter how many seminars we attend, no matter how much of an expert we become in our adjusting techniques and in the techniques of Healing, we have to take action for them to be of any value to us or to our patients or to this planet.
Taking ACTION is truly the answer to every problem (challenge) in our personal future and in the future of this profession. We have the powerful Healing philosophy; we have the totally effective, clinically tested and proven adjusting techniques; we have the right people in this profession at the right time in the history of Chiropractic (and we are all Healers who were “chosen” to be here at this time). All we need to add to this mix is ACTION! And then we can truly tell the sick and suffering of this world, “Hang on, We’re Coming.” We’re here and we’ve come to serve this planet.
planetc1.com-news @ 6:55 am | Article ID: 1001944530
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