Pearls of Wisdom - Pure & Powerful. Dr. Liz Anderson Peacock
my ability to practice in the fashion I love. As I have mentioned, this was a stage in Chiropractic that held acceptance foremost in reverence. It was important to me, and I was passionate about honoring what was unique and distinct about Chiropractic. I left the traditional system, and became so involved in Chiropractic because of vitalism and the unique ability to address it within our scope of practice. Having a voice, and representing wellness and vitalism in the profession was critical to me.
Another vital element to my plan was to attract and groom a vital team. I knew I needed support in the clinic, and to have a well-trained team. It became imperative for me to introduce the members of my team to people and places of learning in Chiropractic. We travelled to seminars to enhance our knowledge, and rejuvenate our inspiration. Sharing these same Principles of life and Chiropractic with my first Chiropractic Assistant, Rhonda was critical in fine tuning her procedures, as well as shaping and developing our capacity within the clinic. Interesting is the large number of people we could serve, just one CA and I. We were fortunate to become connected with Dr. Guy Riekeman and his Quest seminar system. His seminar was instrumental in assisting us in developing the systems and the support team to be able to serve and help even more people.
Throughout the first five years of my practice, I was so fortunate to be around great people that shared with me incredible Principles, methods, procedures and more.
Ask and you shall receive. On several occasions, I quieted my mind through meditation and prayer, and asked for guidance. Without delay, the next teacher or opportunity presented. One such example is Dr. Peter Amlinger handing me my first copies of the Green Books. I’d obviously lived in a shell until then, because I didn’t’ know such recorded writings existed! He handed me two books at a political meeting, and now I simply smile at the juxtaposition of ‘philosophical’ writings handed to me at a political meeting.
It’s so important for me to thank and honor each person that came into my life along this early path of my career. I realize my success has been totally related to the quality of the people around me, and the books that I’ve read. And most of those books were presented or shared with me by the people around me, an example of vitalism in action.
The patients in this early phase of my career taught me more than I could ever even possibly put into words. When I opened up to the bigness of Chiropractic, and when anyone does, the floodgates are lifted. I was presented with cases and examples of every type of condition and disorder. The more I focused on the uniqueness of Chiropractic, and on being a nervous system specialist, the more the results spoke for themselves. The vitalistic Principles at work created even more passion and commitment for me to helping more and more people.
Stepping Into Uniqueness
I was so fortunate to share this path and time in life with my husband Dave. Vitality is truly put to the test when you run a large and growing practice, and also then try to figure out how to juggle and run a full and vital family. Without my husband Dave I’m not sure this would have been feasible. Dave and my son Rob played such a vital role in supporting my growth as a person. The same Universal Principles that applied to my practice, applied to my life. The discipline to create the time and present-time focus and consciousness on my family life was critical.
The ability to create flow in life and practice for many women in Chiropractic presents challenges distinct to females. There are physical differences between men and women in practice, yet I feel those pale in comparison to the psychological and relationship differences. It’s not like one path is easier than another, just different and unique. I found myself in territory that was different from even the women around me. Some of the women Chiropractors I knew, and women in various business models, were focusing more on family while their children were younger. Practicing part time or staying home with my sons just simply didn’t fit my personality style.
I had my middle and youngest sons while I was practicing full time in a large and vital practice. At this point in my career, I had not yet addressed an associate based practice model. The buck stopped with me. There were some interesting times and challenges in making decisions on how to manage the practice while pregnant, and more importantly manage my time out of the office once the babies were born.
As anyone reading this might realize, not everyone in our profession focuses on vitalism. When creating a vital, and on some days crazy, style of practice, not many people can simply cover that type of office. Many people that visited or heard about my office would profess to want this type of model. Yet in reality there were very few people willing to do the things that it takes to create it, on both the physical and mental level.
Fortunate for me, trust and faith in a bigger picture allowed me to attract great-fitting cover doctors for my practice. And no coincidence, one doctor who covered my practice is a contributing author to this book! Having coverage for my maternity leaves was obviously critical. Yet it took the right people to be able to keep my crazy practice alive and well.
On a deep level I find women doctors have the capacity to touch and connect with the vitalistic life force within others. The women doctors that covered for me, as well as the many female students I have work with, mentored or coached have all shown me their intuitive and creative ability to grasp the essence of vitalism. No coincidence that one online dictionary site describes an example of vitalism as “a dynamic full of life woman." Within each woman, there is a unique blend of empathy, intuition, love and caring.
Going from one child to three over a short period of time can only be described as a team on a sports field going from man-to-man coverage to zone coverage. My husband Dave and I were quickly out-numbered. Welcome to a new level of life and craziness at our household. My personal winning strategy during my pregnancy with my middle son Jackson was to hire a professional coach. Coaching Principles, along with the systems of education I learned through Dr. Riekeman and his mentoring were instrumental in shifting my practice into a stronger business model.
After my youngest son, Kobi, was born, my coach helped me to streamline my office hours and systems, and assisted me in becoming open to the help and support I needed for success in the office and at home. Becoming a stronger leader in my office, versus just doing all of the work, was imperative. Planning and organizing at home was even more essential. Coaching enabled me to pull out of myself the model and systems that felt authentic to me, and that created an even deeper expression of vitalism in my life and practice.
What Next?
Facilitated by coaches in my life asking me deeper and more inner driven questions, the time came for me to open up to my dreams and aspirations for the future. In some ways I was already living my purpose, based on the purpose and vision statements I created within the first year of my practice. “What is next?” The question kept running through my mind.
When we begin to ask questions, it is really a signal for a transitional phase in our life and career. Luckily for me, with great coaching and mentorship, I didn’t just jump or run into the next pursuit and/or project. Hastiness can be a trap. I had great guidance with building-in personal time and dreamtime. I began tapping into the ‘what is next.’
While our younger two boys were little, I made the decision not to travel as much to seminars, or to remain as heavily involved with politics. Instead, I didn’t want to be doing things that were not high on my list of values. In learning to prioritize, I realized some elements within the roles I took-on had become tolerations. It was necessary for me to recognize it was of my own doing. My longing to be involved and have a voice had filled my plate entirely. It was okay to learn to give myself permission to step back, and focus completely on the top priorities in my life.
Prioritizing served as valuable instruction for me to listen to my inner voice, and act in accordance with my own inner values. My destiny wasn’t about what other people said or thought. I’d created these roles, and it would have been easier to keep doing them (particularly at the level I had begun to be involved in the politics and some other aspects of my career) than to step down. Yet it was time to learn to find the language to explain, and switch my focus and direct my energy to the areas that truly mattered the most to me. Then muster the courage to do it!
The more I learned about powerful decision