A Moment of Personal Reflection,

How to manage your most important asset… Your Health

by Scott S. Hardman

Reverse Logistics Magazine, Edition 14

I was introduced to the Reverse logistics field about three years ago and at first glance didn’t think it applied much to my industry. I understood that many companies seek to cut costs and improve their bottom line by limiting lost revenue in the reverse supply model. Many times it is a last “ditch effort” to regain all that has been lost from years of neglect, only to realize the enormous benefit it has and could have been over the past years. To the savvy individual, reverse logistics is all about prevention, not cure. Prevention from losing efficiency, production, and revenue that, once has been lost, is just about impossible to regain. The phrase “a penny saved is a penny earned” is all too true in today’s fast changing economic market place, but it doesn’t stop there. I realize that this form of thinking exists outside of the business world and extends to the very core of humanity. There is a concept that is very import to remember. It is “the limitation of matter.” That is, that once something is gone, there is no way to get it back, just like your lost time, energy or finances.

I know all you who are smart enough to read this magazine are the top percent of your business field, but are you the top percent of taking care of the most priceless asset you possess? Your health! On any given week you would have the foresight to make sure your company was staying as far away from pitfalls, real or potential, as possible. You spend hours in planning so that your business may experience longevity, but will you be there to see it all come to fruition? My hope for you would be yes. I imagine you would be asking yourself, “Well, If my health is not based on symptoms (aches and pains) then how am I to know when and where to get checked? Go see a Chiropractor. My business is people and health, and just as reverse logistics is all about prevention, so is Chiropractic. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

In other words, health and symptom-free are not equal. Just like you don’t wait until you are bankrupt (symptom) to start looking for ways to cut costs, you shouldn’t wait until you are lying on your deathbed to start thinking about lowering your cholesterol. The obvious example is the heart attack victim that exhibited no outward symptoms. If asked hours before the attack if they felt they were “healthy”, the most common answer would be “yes”, but as time would show, they definitely did not fit the definition. The answer is very simple… Just like you frequent the dentist office every 6 months to get your teeth checked (symptoms or not), or visit the optometrist to verify the need or not for glasses, a Chiropractor should have a specific piece in your health care team. The difference is that Chiropractors are trained in health and as we have already discussed health is not simply

“I don’t have any pain, therefore I am healthy.” But, rather, each of us has an optimum- optimum mental and physical health. A Chiropractor is the only health care professional that is trained on a health model not a sickness model.

Now before we get too far, let me say that by no means am I trying to convey that Chiropractic can cure everything, but the limit on how healthy a person can be is often not discovered. So the time is now to discover just how healthy you can be, discover your potential. And just like the time or revenue we mentioned earlier, after a certain point there is the limitation of matter and more invasive measures will have to be pursued if they are even an option. My urge would be to get checked as soon as possible. If I told you, you are losing money from inefficiency in your reverse supply chain you would say"How do I fix it?" and your actions would be swift and precise. So now when I tell you your quality of life or health may be adversely affected by(very common example) poor posture. I would assume your answer would be an echo of the first. You know the importance of a reverse logistics operation on your business team, and now you should begin to have an idea of how important it is to keep your watchful eye on your “personal asset” just as much- if not more than on your business assets. Remember, the only thing you cannot recycle is wasted time, the goal of Chiropractic is to add years to life AND life to years.

Everyone should have a personal health team that is comprised of the following:

• A Dentist for teeth
• An Optometrist for eyes
• A Podiatrist for feet
• A Medical doctor for sickness
• A Chiropractor for health
• and the Reverse Logistics Association for best business practices.

Scott S. Hardman is a Chiropractor practicing in Auburn California and is the President of Hardman C h i r o p r a c t i c Corporation. Dr. Hardman is a graduate of Life Chiropractic College West in Hayward California. He specializes in structural rehabilitation of the spine as the primary focus of his practice. For more information please visit www.drscotthardman.com