The world is a wild place anymore.  Every day we walk into our jobs and try to find some sort of enjoyment out of it. I really do like and enjoy my job and the business but this topic has come up a few times in the past couple of weeks in our house. Your job does not identify who you are as a person.

Outside of the office, I would like to think that I have a family life with my wife and boys and attempt to have a social life by playing a little golf and potentially getting involved in other organizations within my interest level.  The office is a lot of who I am as a person and I get to run it the way I want to run it but as my boys get older, I’m going to make a conscious effort to make sure that it does not deter me from being a part of things that are larger than the office.

One of the main reasons that I went into the profession, is that I knew I would be able to call my own shots.  If I need to be out of the office for one reason or another, I don’t really have to explain myself to anyone.  Most of the time, things are not so urgent around the office that life has to stop and the office needs to own my time.

We don’t wait around for walk-ins at the end of the day or around lunch for that matter.  If we have nothing scheduled I have told myself that my life goes on outside of the office and if nothing is scheduled at the end of the day, I’m going to get out of the office if I can.

I went to school with plenty of people that are no longer in the profession for whatever reason and for that matter it doesn’t matter.  Lots of people go into student loan debt and get degrees and use them for a few years and then figure out that this career is not for them (I would argue that chiropractic is a terrible return on your investment in regards to student loans) but this does not necessarily ring true for everyone.  If you are not happy or at least content with your situation, odds are there is probably a better situation out there.

Just because you went to nursing school does not mean you have to be a nurse, law school does not mean you have to be a lawyer and becoming an engineer is not a lifetime sentence if you don’t want it to be. There are always alternative options in nearly every profession so if you are unhappy with your situation; make something happen and start asking around because odds are you can change your scenario.

I’m adding a few more services to the office in the coming weeks not because I don’t like what I do but because I feel that we can add more value for people that walk through our doors.  Is it an exit plan, I don’t think so but if things go how I hope it does the prospect of more people and more services with the ability to give me more flexibility and freedom is a possibility.

In ending, the fact of the matter is, is that if you are not content with where you are in life or your profession, look around and start asking.  If you went into chiropractic and don’t like adjusting people, there are very profitable avenues to use your degree that don’t involve the traditional chiropractic practice. Just because you spent the money to go to school does not lock you into the profession in the traditional sense.  Lawyers run non-profits, chiropractors can work for insurance companies and medical school graduates can work in finance. It’s possible and realistic that the world changes quickly and you are more than welcome to change with it or stay stuck in the past, the future is up to you.