Dr. Kenney’s Friday 5 Spot
On Fridays, I like to share experiences from my week—both with patients and in my personal life—that have left a meaningful impact. My hope is that these reflections offer you something of value, a bit of insight or encouragement that resonates with your own journey and inspires you in some way.
A good reminder. My family had a garage sale this weekend, which anyone who knows me would tell you is one of my least favorite things on the planet. Ironically though, I love the result. There is something satisfying about getting rid of things that are no longer useful, needed, or worth the space they occupy. I think the same principle applies to our personal lives. Just as clutter can accumulate in a garage or home, outdated habits, thought patterns, and behaviors can build up in us without us realizing it.
Have you ever caught yourself behaving or speaking the same way you did when you were younger and didn’t know better? I have, and I take those moments as signs that some personal garbage needs to go. Any habit, attitude, or behavior that doesn’t make me a better father, husband, or man deserves to be examined and, when necessary, removed. These changes are not always easy, but recognizing what needs to go is the first step. Take inventory of your life, identify what no longer serves you, and get rid of it. You can’t make space for better things while continuing to store what you no longer need.
Something to try. As parents, we teach our children that keeping promises matters because it demonstrates integrity, builds respect, and creates trust. Yet as adults, we often break promises to the person who matters most: ourselves. Every time we say we’re going to do something and then don’t, we weaken our confidence in our own word. Conversely, following through even when we don’t feel like it builds self-respect and proves that our actions can match our intentions.
A simple way to practice this is to make four promises for the upcoming week. Choose a consistent bedtime, establish a wake-up time without hitting snooze, add one positive habit, and remove one negative habit. Then keep those promises for seven days regardless of your mood or circumstances. You’ll be pleased with the immediate results, but the bigger reward is learning that you can trust yourself to follow through. Keep enough promises to yourself, and eventually you become someone you know you can count on.
An important question. As a chiropractor, health enthusiast, and businessman, I regularly talk with people frustrated by their lack of progress. Often, they are making an effort but it’s a modest one. While any effort is better than none, meaningful results rarely come from a maintenance-level approach. You can’t expect to reverse years of neglect, overcome a significant deficit, or achieve an ambitious goal without eventually matching the effort to the outcome you want.
Think about being behind in a race, you would never expect to catch up by going slow. Life works the same way. If the goal truly matters to you, it will require effort, sacrifice, and consistency. When I find myself discouraged that I haven’t reached something I want, I ask myself a simple question: “Are my current actions capable of getting me there?” If the answer is no, the solution isn’t to start getting frustrated and complaining, it’s adjusting. More often than not, the next step is simply to turn up the intensity.
Something important about leadership. I spoke with someone this week who recently started a new job and, despite loving the position, is struggling with one co-worker who is incredibly difficult to deal with. This person provides little training or guidance, talks down to others, and angrily corrects mistakes that a new employee would have had no way of knowing to avoid. Unfortunately, this is a common example of what poor leadership looks like. Knowledge and experience are valuable, but they mean very little if you’re unwilling or unable to use them to help others grow.
I have tremendous respect for people who are knowledgeable, especially those willing to teach me, correct me, and give me honest feedback. What I don’t respect is someone who becomes angry or insulting when others don’t understand things they haven’t even learned yet. If you want to be a great leader, remember that your job isn’t to make people feel inferior for what they don’t know, it’s to help them grow and become better. Share your knowledge, give honest feedback, control your emotions, and never forget everyone was once a beginner.
Some quotes I Love.
“Be dangerous to the adversity that attempts to hold you back.”
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” – John C. Maxwell
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