The Rainy Day File

Some days don’t go as planned. The stresses and challenges of trying to run a business, take care of family, and maintain personal time can lead to days that don’t run as smoothly as you had envisioned. These days can leave us feeling frustrated and they tend to affect us on multiple levels…

This is where the Rainy Day File comes in. The concept of the Rainy Day File is to have a place to house items that represent good times when someone paid you a compliment. These can be simple notes from patients, thank you cards, or tokens of appreciation.

Research in neuroscience shows that for every negative encounter you have you must experience five positive ones to offset the negativity. This is especially important to remember in the chiropractic profession. As chiropractors, we get hired and fired every day by patients. New patients come in and choose to hire you while other patients drop out of care, essentially firing you. Patients that leave may be critical about you and even ridicule you.

We’re all people and can’t always be perfect. That doesn’t mean we don’t strive to be perfect, but we need to understand that we won’t make everyone happy.

Start saving positive notes from patients. Be careful not to review your Rainy Day File every day or it will become entitled and give you a false sense of self-esteem.

Start taking time to celebrate wins and reflect on the good times when you’re down. It’s a simple exercise that will do wonders in helping pull you back when you’re down in the dumps.

Dr. Douglas Sea