Dr. Ben Adkins’ Health Blog

Laugh So You Don’t Cry

// June 24th, 2009 // Comments // Misc.

Its a little strange how God points us in certain directions.

The past month has been a little bit of a rollercoaster as far as life events go. If this is the way you find out and you wish that I had called you….I apologize… This is just one of those things that is easier for me to write than say “out loud”.

With that being said, I had a very happy bit of new that turned into some very unhappy news. We found out a few weeks ago that we were going to have a baby. Armed with that piece of information I made the decision that it was time to move on from my current job. I have been working at an office run by another Chiropractor for the past year and its become apparent that I don’t need to put my fate (as well as my family’s fate) in the hands of another individual. I won’t say that the “baby news” was the only reason for my decision to leave…but it really made the decision much easier.

We started looking for possible locations, filling out the necessary paperwork, and getting all of the needed equipment for the new office.

Everything has been falling into place alot better than I expected until we got some terrible news. About a week back we found out that we were going to lose the baby. Everything stopped as we tried frantically to figure out what was wrong as well as make sure that we were taking care of my wife. Considering that we’ve been trying to have a child for around a year now, we were very upset. Right now we’re just trying to figure things out.

Even though things haven’t worked out like we’d hoped, we’re moving forward with opening the new office. I will be putting in my last days at Create Wellness in Poplar Bluff this week and we will be opening Adkins Chiropractic within the next few weeks. Its a scary thing, but I believe that its the right time.

As far as the “baby” goes… I don’t know…. I’m just trying to figure things out. I’m not one to sit around a wallow though. We’re going to continue to move forward and try to follow God’s plan.

Right now I believe that God’s plan is to get the office open so we can help more people get well.

Thanks for reading and please keep Kelli and I in your prayers.

Dr. Ben Adkins

The Anatomy of Failure

// May 21st, 2009 // Comments // General Health, Mind

When you look back on your life so far, what are the things that you remember?

Personally, I can divide my memories into two major categories. There are the “triumphs” and there are the “failures”. Have you ever noticed how easy it is to think about and talk about all the good things that have happened in your life? Have you ever noticed how easy it is to revel in something good that you accomplished?

Have you ever noticed how hard it is to look at a “failure”?

It’s hard to look at something in your life where you didn’t “quite make it”. It’s even harder when you “didn’t quite make it” and it was in public

It seems to me that this is a flaw in some people. Whenever there is a failure in their life, whether it was in their control or not, most people have a really tough time taking a step back and examining the “anatomy” or make-up of their failure. While people need to always strive to succeed, it’s important that you learn how to manage and deconstruct failure when you do find yourself there.

So, when you fall into a situation that you consider a “failure” there are a few things that you need to do.

The Anatomy of (Successfully Navigating) Failure

A really smart guy (Zig Ziglar) once said, “Failure is an event, never a person; an attitude, not an outcome.”

That one statement pretty much sums up everything you need to understand about navigating failure, but let me break it down a little further for you.

“Failure is an event, Never a Person”

As a society we tend to put labels on people. We say, “John is such a Failure. He can’t do anything right”, or “John is such a success, everything he touches turns to Gold”. Thinking in such a manner makes absolutely no sense. Every person’s successes and failures are a culmination of a series of events. Those events may lead you to fortune or they may lead you to failure.

The moment you start seeing your day as a collection of events/opportunities that can build a success or failure, you start seeing a clearer picture of the way the world works.

Right now is the point when a few of you will start citing the fact that uncontrolled circumstances can play a part in our lives. And right now is the point when I start pointing out people like Helen Keller or any of the folks in the video below. (They didn’t exactly have a charmed life.)

When you look at a failure in your life, you have to do one thing. Break it down and learn from it. The only true failure is when you mess something up and don’t learn from it. If you have never had a “failure” in your life then you are essentially an un-complete person. Part of the “Human Experience” is falling down. Success is being able to use every failure in your life to achieve a success.

Let’s take a look at the second half of Mr. Ziglar’s Quote:

“Failure is an attitude, not an outcome.”

The second part of Zig’s quote is something that I think people have a really tough time with. The key to really overcoming failure is to see it as a temporary inconvenience. When “failure” really starts effecting our lives is when we lose the ability to let go of it. Failure is never an outcome….unless we make it that.

The point here is that unless a “failure” results in the life being taken from our bodies…then it doesn’t really exist…except for in our minds. If it does exist in our minds, however, then it can seem very real and even impact our “everyday”.

4 Steps to Dealing with Failure (Hint: all mental)

1. Realize that its only as real as we make it.
2. Failure is an event, not a person.
3. Failure is an attitude, not an outcome.
4. There is no lasting Success without Failure of some kind.

So, what was the biggest failure in your life so far?

How did it make you better?

If you haven’t seen the “light on the other side”…what are some possible outcomes that you can see?

St. Louis Chiropractors

// May 13th, 2009 // Comments // Misc.

If you follow my blog or are a Facebook friend you know that besides being a Doctor of Chiropractic, I also have a stake in several other companies (one being a marketing business).

A few months back I started talking about a project that I (with a few associates) was working on to help some fellow Chiropractors out with their marketing efforts. Our goal from the beginning is to help potential patients find AMAZING Chiropractors.

We decided that we were going to open up our new service to a few doctors in the St. Louis area. We started advertising our service (rather ambiguously…we didn’t tell them what we were going to do to help them) on facebook and twitter and the response was pretty amazing. Within a few days we had a mailbox full of messages from St. Louis based Doctors that wanted to learn more about what we were doing.

We sent out information packets to all our potential clients and waited for them to come back in. We had a pretty nice pile of applications to go through. We decided to settle on rolling out the project in phases. We picked our top candidates (Doctors who we know that are really good at what they do) and then picked the doctor who we would begin our service for the soonest.

On a side not: This is What my New Company Does.

We Use the power of the Internet to get the word out about amazing doctors. We do marketing on Google, MSN, Yahoo, Facebook, Myspace, and a few other places to accomplish one goal. “We get people who need Chiropractic care to Great Chiropractors”. We call our company ChiroLeverage and you can learn more about it at the following link (Learn More about our unique brand of Chiropractic Marketing)

You can learn more about our first Doctor and his practice at the following link (Learn More about one of our favorite St. Louis Chiropractors).

Dr. Ryan beat out a tough list of great Doctors to become our first client and we can’t wait to help him grow his practice. (Because that means that patients are being put in great hands).

If you live in the St. Louis area, be sure to check out Dr. Ryan’s new site at www.stlchiro.com and make sure to take advantage of our coupon code, which will get you a free tour of his office and consultation ($300 value) (Click Here for the Coupon).

For more information on ChiroLeverage visit us at http://www.chiroleverage.com.

-Dr. Ben

Cheerios Gets an FDA Slap

// May 13th, 2009 // Comments // Misc.

I was skimming the news over lunch today and saw this. The FDA recently sent out a warning to the makers of Cheerios (General Mills) citing that the claims made on each and every Cheerios Box were essentially misleading. (see below)

The FDA has sent a warning to General Mills about the wording on the box and Cheerios has said that it is in talks to remedy the situation.

You can Read the Full Article Here in the Baltimore Sun.

I just have one question… Doesn’t the FDA have more important things on it’s plate besides attacking Cheerios?

What do you think?