My parents have always instilled in me that half the battle in life is just showing up.  When I was in undergrad at UNK, we did attendance checks so there was no real significant chance of me missing class.  While at National, I hardly ever missed a class.  The very first test that I ever took at National, I epically failed.  I started to question myself and if I was cut out for this profession, but little did I know I was not alone in my feelings.

I remember calling my parents and Kristina, both were a sense of calm for me at the time.  The one thing that my dad has always told me and he told me at that time, is that if you show up to class, you will at least get a C.  While this is not necessarily true, the principle holds true.

The last couple weeks the weather has been up and down in central Nebraska and the daily schedule can get a little crazy due to travel conditions and people not wanting to get out in the weather.  The one constant with our offices is that we have not missed a day and patients always seem to reward you for that decision.

On Friday, Minden Public Schools ended up canceling school due to icy conditions.  I drove to Minden from Kearney at 6:15 in the morning and was ready to see patients by 7.  It ended up being a crazy busy day.  A snow storm was coming into central Nebraska overnight and I had almost zero anticipation that I would make the trek to Arnold the next morning based on the forecasts.  I woke up at 5 AM to look out the window to see that the forecasts were largely wrong.  I checked the road conditions and it was doable, so I made the 80 mile trip.

My patient bases have largely rewarded me for this, if you are present and consistent, people will start to take notice and reward you for the travels.  Arnold weather over the last month has not been all that great, but I was able to make the trek and patients always manage to make their way into the office.  It’s funny when they walk in and while they have been surprised that I am there, they are greatly appreciative that I am.

If I closed the office every time I didn’t feel well, the office would be closed quite a bit.  As the years go, I have noticed, the days that you don’t feel the best will almost always be the busiest days and the days that you feel like you could conquer the world are the days the phone stagnates.

It is always interesting to me when you speak to patients that come from towns that have numerous chiropractors in the town that they live in and one of the main things that I hear from them is that they know when I am available and when I am in the office, it is fairly easy to make an appointment work in their schedule. 

I have started to think about some of the intricacies of practice and this is a major theme that I feel gets overlooked, just showing up when you say that you will be there and be consistent with it.  People know what to expect and when to expect it.  The office will try to accommodate just about anything within reason but most requests are not crazy because the hours and services are basically known before the person even asks.

The moral of this rant is, maybe my parents weren’t all that crazy when they said half the battle in life is just showing up.  If you are consistent, show up and work hard when you are present, the rewards will be vast.  Whether you are a college student, graduate student, new business owner or working for the man just show up, continue to show up.  People will notice and good things will happen, it may take awhile but it will be noticed.

Karma is a great thing and being present can help the rewards come your way.