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 recent experience. A few weeks ago, I was at the park with my 7-year-old son. While we were playing a game, he took off running and told me to chase him. I tried to sprint but am embarrassed to say that I was unable to do so. I looked and felt like the tin man and could only jog. Years of ultra-running and crazy races may have taken a toll but not being able to quickly run after my son was demoralizing to me. I vowed to make a change.
Starting the next day, I began doing sprint workouts in my back yard. Muscles I hadn’t used in years began to wake up and I progressed daily. This week, my little boy happened to be in the backyard as I began my sprints and asked to join me. As we ran together, he kept commenting on how fast I’d gotten, and it made me proud. Sometimes in life, we have things that may not seem significant to others but are important to us. In this case, regaining the ability to take off and sprint again became an important goal for me. Identifying this, training to meet that challenge, and seeing results has been rewarding.
Something I enjoyed. As a gift to my oldest son, who is about to begin college, I wrote a book for him. It is comprised of all the advice I want my sons to have to grow into exceptional men, husbands, fathers, and more. Some of the nuggets of guidance are humorous while others are incredibly serious, but all are meaningful to me. The book is entitled, “A Manifesto for Manhood: Things I’ve learned that I want you to know as you grow.” I added and edited the book for months, right up until the second it went off to the printer to be bound.
What made this project so fun was that it caused me to reflect in detail on my own life. I’ve had tragedies, failures, successes, triumphs, humor, embarrassment, and everything else. It occurred to me how great a life I’ve lived and how grateful I am for it. Furthermore, it’s interesting to look back through our past and realize what has come to make us who we are. It is a blessing to pass along wisdom I’ve attained during the trial and error of my life, much of it the latter. My belief is that every person must have a personal code that guides them. It was an honor and pleasure to be able to put mine into a book and pass it on.
Something I loved. As I listened to a motivational video this week I heard the phrase, “uphill hopes with downhill habits.” To someone that ran ultra-marathons for over a decade, this hits home because uphill is where you are challenged most. Your legs burn, you struggle to get enough oxygen, and mentally you worry you won’t make it to the top and want to quit constantly. Downhills are much easier, require far less exertion, and still you’ll be moving relatively quickly without feeling it. There are important lessons to be learned here.
If you have a goal in mind, you must understand it will require an enormous effort to attain it. You will stress, struggle, and it will be ugly at times, but you cannot be deterred. You must keep going so that eventually, you get to the top of that mountain. This is always the most effective mindset to possess. Conversely, you cannot expect the mountain to come down to you. Applying little effort, being inconsistent, and complaining are all examples of downhill habits that won’t get you closer to a goal. Climbing the mountain of success is not easy for anyone. Thus, if you want it bad enough, be prepared to do what it takes and earn your way to the top.
A great reminder. This week while out for a walk with my wife, she asked why I was limping. I explained that I wasn’t, she insisted I was and then took a video to prove it. As it turns out, she was completely correct, and I was walking with my right foot pointed outward with all my pressure falling to the outside. About a year ago, I suffered an injury to my right medial collateral ligament and as it healed, I likely adopted this posture to take pressure away from it. Over time, this must have just begun to feel normal, and I inadvertently kept it going which led to more problems. This ended up reminding me of two important points.
First, a simple problem that goes unaddressed inevitably ends up becoming a larger issue later. My knee injury was healed within 6 weeks but the gait I adopted to protect it kept problems festering for an additional 10-12 months. Second, sometimes the best solution is the simplest. For a year, I’ve rested, done ice baths, painful deep tissue muscle work, stretching, etc. trying to feel normal as I walked and ran. I gained some improvement from these things though not much. My wife’s observation led me to simply start correcting my gait by placing more pressure onto the inside portion of my foot. This led to more improvement in two days than I’d gotten in over a year and I’ve been able to cut 1-2 minutes per mile off my run times and bound upstairs two at a time again. Dealing with the true cause of something beginning with the most basic approach is an excellent course of action.
Some quotes I Love.
“Accept people as they are but place them where they belong.”
“You become unstoppable when you work on things people can’t take away from you. Things like your mindset, character, and personality.”