Every chiropractor who wants to make an impact in his community (and as a result, in the world) is frustrated with the difficulty of educating his practice members and the public at large. Some practice members get it and those are the ones who make practicing a joy. However, most people do not and they fail to follow through with lifetime care or only come when they have a symptom or a problem. How do we change that? How do we educate them? The more I see this problem in my own practice and in the practice of chiropractors I talk to, I have come to realize some people are simply not educable. At first, that may seem to be downright rude or incorrect or just a copout. After all, chiropractic is such a simple idea that even a child could understand it, but there is a difference between intellectually understanding chiropractic and truly embracing the idea. That is why some people coming in the office grasp the big idea right away and become lifetime practice members while others never get it despite hours of your best efforts to educate. They may come back every now and again when they have an ache or pain, but that is not your goal or objective.
So what is the difference between these two groups? I would suggest that it is a matter of world and life viewpoint, what B.J. has described as an ADIO viewpoint versus an outside-in viewpoint. Interestingly, the ADIO viewpoint probably represents the majority of people in the world. If you are not familiar with the characteristics of a person who embraces an ADIO viewpoint then read some of my writings on the subject. People with an ADIO viewpoint get the chiropractic philosophy quickly and easily. However, at least from my experience, the majority of people do not embrace our philosophy despite the fact that most have an ADIO viewpoint. This may be due to any number of reasons. For example, some people with an ADIO viewpoint do not have congruency in their life. They do not apply their ADIO viewpoint to their health and life viewpoint. Education may work well for these people. They just need to be made aware that our approach to chiropractic is congruent with the world viewpoint that they already hold. However, that may not be as easy as it seems since they may have many incongruencies in their life not just health and life. They may have social, religious, and political incongruencies also.
On the other hand, people with an outside-in viewpoint rarely get the big idea of chiropractic. They may use chiropractic as an aspirin, for some musculoskeletal condition or because they find that it benefits them symptomatically but they simply won’t adopt the notion of ongoing care. They use chiropractic as you would medicine, as a therapeutic measure. That is because medicine is outside-in and they merely make chiropractic fit their outside-in world viewpoint. They do not come for lifetime maintenance care, they do not bring in their families and they do not refer others unless they have a similar condition. For anyone in this group to make a significant change, you must cause a transformation in their thinking, a 180-degree shift in how they look at life. That is unusual. It is the equivalent of a lifetime atheist somehow coming to believe in God. I would suggest that these types of changes are very rare.
I think our best bet is to try to reach those who already have an ADIO viewpoint but who have yet to understand the full benefits of chiropractic. Those who are living their lives in contrast to or inconsistent with their stated world and life view. They are the people who need a transformation in their thinking or just a new understanding so that they will grasp and hold onto the chiropractic philosophy. In future issues we will outline some areas of transformation which will prepare people to get the big idea.