Drifting aimlessly through life being subject to varying winds, currents, circumstances, opinions, events, people, situations is not a very useful way to live. The chances of being in the right place at the right time to partake in the magic of life is severely limited if you don’t have an outcome.
Many chiropractors are not clear on their outcomes. There is little attention paid to the direction that they want to go with their practice, let alone their life, finances or profession.
Likewise, dogmatically forcing oneself through life, ‘making’ things happen, being fixated on a goal, swimming ‘upstream’ and sacrificing the moment for a future thing or event is likewise a very limited way to invest your life. Sure, there are times when hard work and pain is required but labouring to achieve the ‘goal’ regardless, without considering purpose and outcomes is a path fraught with danger, frustration and often despair. I regularly counsel chiropractors after they have ‘burned out’. After many years of hard work, sacrifice and focussed goal seeking they discover that the massive practice, the house on the hill or the fast car in the garage which were their all-consuming goals (often at the expense of family and friends) don’t spin their crank and make them happy and fulfilled after all.
Both of the above states you may have noticed or experienced at some stage in your life. Both are extremes and there is a ‘middle road’ which is a very useful path to follow.
I suggest that going after goals as the primary source of satisfaction and a measurement of success can be setting oneself up for disappointment. It’s valuable to always reference your purpose before considering moving in any direction. Then, what comes next? The Goal or the Outcome?
Outcomes are the next logical step. An Outcome is not a goal, it’s a direction. It tells you which way to go. Your Outcome is not a measurable place, time or event. The Outcome is a never ending process guided by your intent and your overall position on a given topic.
The question then is, “Where are you headed – what is your outcome? Your outcome will guide your thoughts, decisions and actions along the way. When you reference your outcomes on a regular basis you may change your goals and vary your direction to suit the current situations. For me, every new born baby I see is a future chiropractor or at least is a person who will live the chiropractic lifestyle. I live my life by this outcome and its simply amazing how life presents the places, times, events and circumstances that enable this outcome to manifest with well over 100 people (and counting) becoming chiropractors through our practice.
Do you have clear outcomes established for your practice members? Do you have a lifetime outcome for yourself and those people whom you influence along the way?
To chunk this down then so that you can get the relationship between purpose, outcomes and goals consider this example: Your PURPOSE may be to bring the joy in your heart to the hearts of humanity and so you then decide that your OUTCOME is to bring your heartfelt message to the influencers of the world. Based on this outcome you may then make a GOAL of an audience with the Queen of England. In this example if you do everything you can to get into Buckingham Palace and you don’t make your goal you have not failed because you will have influenced the influencers of the world along the way and more than that, by living your purpose every moment you will have had a joyous ride every day of the journey.
So, if you want to be in the right place at the right time to partake in the magic of life then make sure that your outcome is clear, concise and consistent with your purpose.
Mark
