My empathy goes to those 3rd year studes that have now surfaced after their final exams; I well remember the “NOW WHAT …” feeling.
For what it’s worth, and based on experiences in a previous life, I have four principles (other than all the ethical ones) for running a business – sad though it is, they are on the wall above my PC as I write. They are:
Quick Wins
Constant Marketing
Measurable Improvements
and
DON’T TAKE IT PERSONAL……
Measurable Improvements and Marketing:
In running a business the adage that “if you can’t measure it, then you can’t manage it” is, unfortunately, very true. Equally, few people will beat a path to your particular door – the minimum you should do is let people know often that you’re there and what benefit they might achieve from visiting you.
Don’t take it Personal …..
Peter Deadmen in his speech made at the first graduation ceremony of the NCoA (see JCM no. 37 Sep 91) said:
“I used to feel from the moment I first took on a patient, that since I considered all the different facets of their condition, I was somehow responsible for them all. In other words, after I had inserted my first needle, whatever happened to them - any changes for the better or worse - were my doing and my responsibility - for which I took either the praise or the blame. It took me some years to realise that however wonderful acupuncture was, it was only one part of what was happening to my patients and their ups and downs could be due to many reasons other than my ministrations. This realization helped me to keep a healthy distance between myself and my patients’ fate.”
So my advice is to follow the Buddhist view: “Connect, don’t attach”.
Quick Wins
Einstein opined: “Everything should be as simple as possible … and no simpler”; many of you will have heard Don’s “If you hear hoof-beats, think horses, not zebras”. Maybe it’s a reflection of my own simple mental processes, but stay focussed on the straightforward things; a sore knee is a sore knee, not a Kidney deficiency unless there is evidence for it.
KISS
(Keep it Simple, Stupid)
700 year-old Occam’s Razor tells us: “it is vain to do with more what can be done with fewer” (ie. the fewest possible assumptions should be made in explaining a thing). Recently I was cupping a farmer for sciatic pains – he would use the heat lamp, usually used to bring on weaker lambs, strung across his kitchen as self-help for his own lower back problems. As he saw no problem in using what was good for the animals on himself, and presumably vice versa, when he asked “would this work as well on my calf?” I naturally had visions of cow-houses etc. “I imagine so” I replied “but you might have to shave some hair off first”. “Good”, he said, “because I’ve been getting cramp in there lately…….”.
DON’T ASSUME!
All of that said, my advice is to have faith in the Tao – it will look after you, if you let it. Take it easy – it’ll happen when it’s meant to.
Metta