Lately, I’ve been wrestling with a question that’s both deeply personal and professionally relevant: can you be insignificant and still successful?
If I’m being transparent, this is something I have thought about my entire adult life. If you were to ever ask me, “What’s your biggest fear?” My answer is that I’m afraid of being insignificant. I’m afraid that I’m going to get down to the end of my life and none of it mattered.
Now I don’t exactly know where success ends and significance begins or visa versa. In my brain, they are very closely tied together. I suppose it depends on how you define each of those things for yourself, and that’s part of the problem.
What is Success?
We can bust out the Webster’s dictionary and find out a technical definitions for both success and significance. But the practical definition of each word changes based on who you are talking to and what area of life you are talking about.
For me, something like money is more of a measuring stick of success rather than a indicator of significance. For others, money IS the measuring stick of success AND significance. If they have money, they are successful and significant (no matter how they got it).
I don’t feel that way about money. Money isn’t the only way to measure success, but it’s an indicator of success for sure…especially from a business standpoint. But as soon as you take things out of the business world, money seems to be the less obvious measuring stick for success.
For instance, as a parent, maybe success means your kids are well-adjusted adults who don’t break the law. As a Christian parent, maybe success means your kids have a heart for God, and they desire to live a life pleasing to Him.
As a spouse, success could be that your partner still likes you and admires you after 15-20 years. As a student, I felt like being a successful chiropractor meant seeing 100+ patients per week. Around the time I graduated, I met a few Max Living chiropractors (Max Living used to be Body by God) and my definition of success as a chiropractor changed to 300+ patient visits per week.
What is Significance?
Significance is even harder to define because of how much it’s based on personal perception. Some people think they are significant because of their money. Others think they are significant because of their family name. Some people think they are significant because of their accomplishments. Others think they are significant because of their children.
Significance is so subjective. In my brain, I connect significance more closely to irreplaceability than I do success. The people and things in my life that are most significant to me are the people and things in my life that can’t easily be replaced.
When my dad passed away about 10 years ago, I learned a lot about what it means to be significant. He left a gaping hole in our family that can’t be replaced no matter how much time passes. The average person wouldn’t think my dad was successful. But to us, he was very significant.
Everyone Wants To Be The Hero
For most people, it’s easier for them to see themselves as the main character or one of the main characters of the world they live in. No one watches Star Wars and pictures themself as a random fighter in the background who gets unceremoniously killed by a Stormtrooper. We see ourselves as one of the heroes.
We do this in sports, too. I grew up watching Michel Jordan and the 90’s Bulls. No one in my neighborhood aspired to be Luke Longley or BJ Armstrong. We wanted to sell everything we had to buy a pair of Jordans. We wanted to wear #23 on our basketball teams. We wanted to be like Mike. We wanted to be the hero.
And there’s nothing wrong with aspiring to be great, but not everyone can be the hero. No matter how hard you try, you may never be in the GOAT discussion. And I don’t want to be Debbie Downer…but statistically, you are unlikely to be the hero of the story.
Does that mean you don’t matter?
Best Chiropractor EVER
When I got out of chiropractic college in 2004, in the back of my mind I knew I was going to be one of the greats. I couldn’t have told you what that meant exactly, but I knew that some chiropractors were a big deal and other weren’t. I was going to be one of the ones who was a big deal.
I don’t know where that came from. No one told me I was going to be one of the great chiropractors. I didn’t grow up in a house where my parents told me “You can be anything you want to be.” In fact, my dad used to tell me, “Just have a backup plan.” anytime I told him one of my pie-in-the-sky ideas. He knew that being the greatest of all time wasn’t as easy as I thought it was.
Turns out, I wasn’t one of the greatest chiropractors of all time when I was in practice. I’m not even sure if I was one of the greatest chiropractors in my town. Don’t get me wrong…I made money, and I was good at what I did.
But I don’t think there was ever a time when I was in practice where my office would have been one of the first ones mentioned when people started talking about local chiropractors. I wasn’t ever popular like that. I wasn’t ever a big deal.
The same things can be said about the stuff I do now. I started my chiropractic podcast over 10 years ago. I’m over 500 episodes in at this point, and guess what? I’m still not a bid deal. When chiropractors start talking about chiropractic podcasts, mine rarely gets mentioned. When people make “Top Chiropractic Podcasts” lists, I’m rarely on them.
I don’t get invited to speak at chiropractic events. I rarely get invited on someone else’s podcast. And in spite of having helped hundreds (maybe thousands if you count my podcasts listeners) of chiropractors at this point, that’s just a drop in the bucket considering the number of chiropractors who are around the world. In the chiropractic space, I’m a nobody.
Does that mean I’m unsuccessful? Does that mean I shouldn’t bother podcasting? If I can’t be the greatest chiropractic podcaster of all time, is it even worth doing?
Enough about YOU…what about ME?
Ok…I get it. Let’s talk about what this means for you.
Throughout the entire history of chiropractic, and still today, most chiropractors are average Janes and Joes. They aren’t famous. They don’t have a huge following on social media. They aren’t local celebrities. They aren’t a big deal.
If that sounds like you, does that mean you are a failure? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
But if your standard is that you have to be one of the chiropractic greats, you have to be a legend, you are probably going to feel like a failure for most of your career. In fact, you may have a wildly successful chiropractic practice and still feel like a failure because wildly successful and legendary aren’t the same thing.
As I have taught about this more and more, I wanted to share a few nuggets of wisdom that may be helpful for chiropractors dealing with the topic of success and significance. In no particular order…
Better vs Legend:
I wouldn’t recommend setting your success bar at chiropractic legend. Don’t get me wrong…you may be one some day. But a better goal is improvement. Be better next year than you are today. Be the best version of yourself.
More Is NOT a Healthy Goal:
People who just want more are never happy or content. People who just want more don’t enjoy getting more because they still want more.
When you set goals, be specific. Undefined goals lead to misery.
Big Goals Little Goals:
It’s often easy for chiropractors to close their eyes and visualize the practice of their dreams. However, it’s often difficult for chiropractors to figure out what to do next.
When you set goals for you career, also set goals for your year. When you set goals for your year, also set goals for this month. Set small obtainable goals that take you in the direction of your bigger goals.
Enough is enough:
How much is enough? Have you ever sat down and figured that out? How many patients do you want to see? How much money do you want to make? How much money do you need? How much time do you want to spend working? What are you working for?
The answer is going to be different for everyone. Some people are content with very little. Others have a taste for the finer things in life, so they are going to need more money. Some people value time over money. Some people just like working and they don’t care about the time.
I’m not telling you what is right or wrong. I am telling you that you should sit down and figure out what you need/want and what you don’t. It’s easy to work your life away and never feel like you have accomplished anything if you’ve never bothered to defining what’s enough.
Significance is Small:
Significance happens on a small scale. Your potential for significance is greatest with the people closest to you. If you think about a target, the bullseye for significance is your parents, siblings, spouse, and kids. Those are the people to whom you should be the most irreplaceable.
If you move out from there, you get to people like close friends and extended family. Then maybe neighbors or perhaps people you work with. Patients are on there somewhere, but you aren’t ever going to be more significant to patients than you are to your family. If you are, you’ve probably messed up something with your family.
And that’s the whole point. If you understand what real significance is, you won’t feel unsuccessful about not being a big deal on social media. Or you won’t feel like a failure because you aren’t the most popular chiropractor in your area.
Be irreplaceable to the people who are most irreplaceable to you. Find your significance there. Avoid tying your self worth to people and things that aren’t going to miss you when you are gone. People who mess this up have a lot of regrets at the end of their life.
Be irreplaceable to the people who are most irreplaceable to you. Find your significance there.
Riches in the Niches:
If you want to be a successful chiropractor without being the most popular chiropractor in your area, it will help if you know who you are and who you aren’t. Chiropractors who think they are the best chiropractor for everyone often end up being the best chiropractor for no one.
One of the first things I tell my NEXT Step members to do is to go through our Know Your Purpose trainings. The reason I have chiropractors do that is because I want them to get a clear picture about who they are, who their ideal patient is, and how they help them.
Chiropractors who have clarity about what they do best and who they help most put themselves in the best position to be successful regardless of whether they are a legend amongst other chiropractors. Some of the most successful chiropractors are virtually unknown, yet they’re highly respected within a small circle for doing one specific thing exceptionally well.
Can You Be Insignificant and Still Be a Successful Chiropractor?
The short answer is, YES. But I don’t really think most chiropractors are insignificant…at least not in the areas that matter.
I do think that most chiropractors are unpopular if we are looking at the big picture of popularity. Unfortunately, that lack of popularity often makes chiropractors feel insignificant. But feeling insignificant and being insignificant are two different things.
The real question is can chiropractors be unknown and still successful? Of course. Now it’s impossible to be successful as a chiropractor if NOBODY knows who you are. You do have to have patients. But most successful chiropractors are relatively unknown within their community. It’s OK not to be a BIG DEAL. Most chiropractors aren’t.
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