By: Healthline Chiropractic Clinic

What's missing from one of chiropractic's most famous charts?

Many chiropractors have a great chart, that shows a graph of "health" over time.  And it depicts two lines, of two different possibilities.  One being a steadily ascending line going upwards as the chart progresses to the right (albeit, with ups and downs on the way up).

The other line hugs the bottom of the graph, bumping upwards and downwards along the bottom of the x-axis.

You may have seen it - it is a powerful image, with strong coloring of reds and greens and yellows.

And the chart depicts a choice.  Move towards your health potential over time…

…or live a lifestyle where you leave your health - and its ultimate direction towards or away from its potential - up to chance.

Drifting along but ultimately going nowhere - other than experiencing the ups and downs involved with being totally static.

And it is a powerful graphic, that speaks to possibility - what you can achieve with the right focus and effective choices - like choosing great chiropractic care.

What's missing however is another part of reality.

The part where your potential unfortunately starts to go downwards in short order.  Unless you happen to be a teenager reading this, or a recent college grad - the reality is your ultimate health potential starts to slip a little lower every day that goes by.

One of the lessons we all learn going through life as we age and grow is that life changes. And that after our youth there isn't any free rides any longer.

That to get closer to your potential takes more work - and that, no matter how optimistic we are - there is always another unforeseen challenge over the horizon.

While this "chiropractic-famous" graphic is a great one, and imparts a valuable lesson about what can be accomplished with the right focus - it also says as much by what it doesn't say.

That the urge to reach towards your potential actually gets more powerful as some of that potential starts to slip away - and that we don't go continually up in life in all areas, no matter how much we work.

But where we can go up is where we are relative to your potential. That is something that can always go up.

Another thing that goes up, is the need to reach up for it.  Because potential doesn't come down to meet you.  If you don't reach for it, you end up dropping below it faster than it comes down to you.

So the next time you see a red and green and yellow roller coaster graphic, you can take a sharpie out of your pocket (like a teenager in a public restroom) and write your initials with "this is a more important lesson than yesterday."