Hey friend,

The losses.
The moments when things didn’t go the way I wanted.
And yet, when I look back, those are some of the experiences that shaped me.
Not because hardship itself is somehow good.
But because of what can happen through it.
You learn to keep going.
You learn to trust.
You learn to lead.
You learn to follow.
You learn what you’re capable of.
And maybe most importantly…
you learn who is willing to walk through the hard things with you.
I’ve learned the same thing in marriage.
Marriage is one of the greatest gifts of my life.
But anyone who has been married long enough knows that loving someone isn’t the same thing as never struggling with them.
There are hard conversations.
Misunderstandings.
Seasons of exhaustion.
Times when one person is carrying more than the other.
Times when life pulls both of you in ten different directions.
And then you add kids. 🙂
My wife and I have experienced four different pregnancies.
Four uniquely different deliveries.
Four VERY different kids.
We’ve had beautiful seasons.
And we’ve had really hard ones.
Sleepless nights.
A baby with colic.
Exhaustion.
Frustration.
Moments when neither one of us was showing up as the best version of ourselves.
There have been days when doing the right thing didn’t feel easy.
It felt hard.
But there’s something incredibly meaningful about looking at another person and knowing:
We’re going to do this together.
Not perfectly.
Not without disagreements.
Not without mistakes.
But together.

And when I think about some of the deepest connection in my life, it wasn’t created because everything was easy.
It was created because something was hard…
and somebody I loved was still there.
I think that’s part of what makes relationships so powerful.
It’s not simply finding people who share your values.
Or your mission.
Or your hope for the future.
Those things matter.
But there’s another piece that matters deeply to me:
Genuine love.
People who actually want good for you.
People who celebrate when you win.
People who hurt when you hurt.
People who tell you the truth when you need to hear it.
People who don’t disappear when things get uncomfortable.
People who don’t need to fix everything for you.
They just keep walking alongside you.
And sometimes…
that’s exactly what we need.
There’s a passage in Romans that I’ve come back to many times in my life.
Romans 5 talks about suffering producing perseverance…
perseverance producing character…
and character producing hope.
I love that progression.
Not because I enjoy suffering.
I don’t.
And I don’t believe we need to go looking for hardship just so we can grow.
Life is pretty good at providing enough of that on its own.
But I’ve learned that when adversity comes, it doesn’t have to be wasted.
Something can be built through it.
Perseverance.
Character.
Hope.
And I would add something from my own experience:
relationship.
Because when you walk through something difficult with somebody who genuinely loves you…
something happens between you.
You know them differently.
They know you differently.
Trust gets tested.
Love becomes more than something you say.
It becomes something you do.
I think that’s where some of our core memories are created.
Not necessarily on the perfect vacation.
Not when everything goes according to plan.
Sometimes it’s sitting exhausted beside your spouse at 2:00 in the morning with a baby who WILL NOT sleep.
Sometimes it’s standing beside a teammate after a loss.
Sometimes it’s having a conversation you really didn’t want to have.
Sometimes it’s watching your child struggle with something and wanting desperately to take it away…
but knowing they need you to walk beside them while they do the hard thing.
Sometimes it’s somebody doing that for you.
Those moments refine us.
They develop character.
They deepen relationships.

And somehow, right in the middle of something difficult…
there can still be joy.
Maybe not happiness about the circumstance.
That’s different.
But joy in knowing:
I’m not alone.
This matters.
We’re growing.
We’re still here.
We’re doing this together.
That’s part of why these last several emails matter so much to me.
We’ve talked about having enough capacity to participate in your life.
We’ve talked about understanding what your mind and body may be communicating instead of immediately treating them like the enemy.
We’ve talked about taking ownership of your story.
We’ve talked about having guides.
We’ve talked about calming, organizing, and building.
But none of that is ultimately about creating a life where nothing hard ever happens.
That’s not LIFE.
I don’t want that for myself.
And honestly…
I don’t want that for my kids.
I don’t want to remove every obstacle from their path.
I don’t want them to believe discomfort means something has gone terribly wrong.
I don’t want them to grow up thinking someone else is always supposed to come rescue them.
I want to give them the capacity to experience life.
To try.
To struggle.
To lose.
To learn.
To recover.
To persevere.
To love people.
To ask for help.
To help somebody else.
To develop character.
To hope.
And when something hard comes…
to know who is walking beside them.
That’s what I want for you too.
Not hardship.
Not suffering.
Not difficulty for difficulty’s sake.
Capacity.
Capacity to live.
Capacity to love.
Capacity to serve.
Capacity to work.
Capacity to play.
Capacity to dream.
Capacity to experience adversity without allowing adversity to become the entire story.
And people around you who genuinely love you while you do it.
That’s why I keep coming back to this:
This is bigger than chiropractic.
It has to be.
An adjustment may be something that happens inside these walls.

But Live Better has to mean something when you walk back outside of them.
It has to show up in the way we love our spouses.
The way we raise our kids.
The way we treat people.
The way we respond when things don’t go according to plan.
The way we care for ourselves.
The way we show up for someone who’s struggling.
The way we celebrate with somebody who’s winning.
The way we keep going when something matters.
And maybe that’s why I’m so grateful you’re here.
Because Live Better Chiropractic isn’t the building.
It’s not the equipment.
It’s not a logo.
And it’s certainly not just me.
It’s people.
People who are willing to take ownership.
People who are learning to listen.
People who are willing to grow.
People who do hard things.
People who ask for help.
People who offer help.
People who genuinely love.
People who walk alongside one another.
People like YOU.
I don’t have all of this figured out.
I’m still learning.
I’m still growing.
I’m still having hard days.
I’m still learning how to be a better husband.
A better dad.
A better doctor.
A better friend.
A better leader.
And I’m grateful that I get to do that alongside people who care about the same things.
That’s why we’re glad you’re here.
Whether today was your first day at Live Better or you’ve been walking through our doors for more than a decade…
you’re part of this.
And I hope when you walk out those doors, you carry something with you that’s bigger than chiropractic.
Because the way we choose to live doesn’t stop with us.
Our kids are watching.
And they’re learning something from the way we walk through all of it.
That’s where I want to go with you next.

Dr. Joe

LIVE BETTER.