Dr. Kenney’s Friday 5 Spot
On Fridays I like to share experiences I’ve had during the week with patients and in my personal life that I’ve found significant. I share these in the hope that you might find value in them and have something that resonates with you in your life.
A great reminder. My oldest son is a senior in high school and told me that he was awarded a raise at his part time job. The owner of the business told him it was because he always stays busy, pitches in with anything he can, and puts forth the same high level of effort for the entirety of his shifts. His boss also mentioned that his work ethic shines even more when compared to his peers who are often distracted with phones, etc. When I congratulated my son, I told him that more importantly than the extra money he receives, the reason the raise was given was more important.
We all have things about which we are enthusiastic about and giving our max efforts to those endeavors is typically easy. However, when we have a desire to give our best to something of less interest simply because it speaks to our character and our name is on it, we can become special. The world is full of people who do the bare minimum to just get by. Thus, I believe being the type of person who takes pride in performing even the smallest tasks to the best of our abilities is a form of training to succeed. I’ve always taught my children how they’ll do anything is how they’ll do everything, and it made me proud to see one of them embodying this lesson.
Something I’ve learned. I won’t bore you with details, but I’ve had a consistent string of bad luck and unfortunate circumstances this year. Nothing that can’t be dealt with, but a streak I’d have liked to avoid. When something like this occurs, I usually find I can take one of two paths. The first is the “path of emotions and woe.” Here, I feel sorry for myself for whatever is transpiring and tend to make it worse by adding on unrelated things such as looking older or regretting some past decision. Thankfully, in the instances where I pursue this option, I get sick of my behavior quickly and head toward option two.
The second avenue is the “prove it path.” I talk and write often about having faith, being resilient, and being tough enough to trudge on regardless of circumstances. As unfortunate as troubled times may be, they are an opportunity for me to prove that I indeed do possess the qualities I like to think I have. It is my chance to face hardship, overcome it, and become a better version of who I am in the process. When you hit a rough patch in life, remember that you’ll have an opportunity to head down one of these paths, I recommend choosing wisely.
Something that meant a lot to me. This spring I am coaching flag football for my two youngest children and have a team of players ages four through seven. At that age, I’m as much of a preschool teacher as I am a football coach, but I love it. One of my players is brand new to football and in our first game I taught him a couple of things, encouraged him, and then he ended up having an amazing play and winning one of our MVP awards for the week. On Monday, his father sent me a nice email telling me what an impression I’d already made on his son and asked if I would be coaching past this season, and if so, would I continue to coach his boy.
I’ve been fortunate to coach for a long time and receive many wonderful compliments like these. I’ve coached well over one hundred games in my career and have left none of them feeling as if I couldn’t have done better. However, when a player or their parents let me know that I’ve done even the smallest thing to help them gain confidence in themselves, it makes me proud, and I know I’ve done something right. My selfish hope is that of the hundreds of players I have coached/will coach, at least one will think of me as someone that helped them take a step toward utilizing more of their potential than they’d once imagined they had.
Something I believe. On my Google photos this week I received a “similar shots” montage of photos where my daughter was in a jogging stroller. She was anywhere from an infant to three years old in the pictures and there were sunrises and mountains in the background of many. The pictures made me smile and reinforced something I feel is important to remember. There will never be a time in life that is perfect but there will always be wonderful times and memories even in your toughest of seasons.
In the photos I mentioned, many were taken during times when I’m sure I had a lot on my mind but seeing my daughter’s smiling face, I know I didn’t care in those moments. It also reminded me of how quickly times can fade. I don’t even own a jogging stroller any longer, so those special times training for races, pushing her, and enjoying her company are gone and onto a different phase. My point with all this is to remind you to always appreciate the small, enjoyable moments given to you. These will always occur regardless of where life may have you and you should cherish them because they may be gone before you know it, and you will miss them.
Some quotes I Love.
“Sometimes it needs to get a little messy before it gets where it needs to go.” – Dr. Matt Kenney (I said this to a friend and they told me to put it on here)
“Never half-ass two things, whole-ass one thing.” – Ron Swanson, Parks and Recreation
“Never assume that loud is strong and quiet is weak.”