Dr. Kenney’s Friday 5 Spot – July 26th

Dr. Kenney’s Friday 5 Spot – July 26th

Dr. Kenney’s Friday 5 Spot – July 26th 718 960 Matt Kenney

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 like to share them in hopes that you might find value in them and have something resonate with you in your life.

Something I have learned.  The longest races I have done require me to run up to 100-miles and/or exert myself on no sleep for anywhere from 12 to 32 hours straight.  Though these are athletic competitions, I also need to eat, go to the bathroom, and the like.  As a slower runner, I do not have the luxury of wasting time if I want to make the cutoff times, stay in the race, and finish.  As a result, I tell myself repeatedly to “move with purpose, keep moving with purpose.”  In other words, treat things with a sense of urgency, don’t panic, keep a sustainable pace, and don’t blow all my energy at once.

This same principle is valuable in daily life.  Before you start your days, you should have your goals in mind.  These can involve business, family, exercise, nutrition, projects at home, and more.  Once you know what you want to get accomplished, you should be constantly pursuing action to achieve it.  You’ll know this is the case if you don’t have large chunks of downtime, are not feeling frazzled (a little bit is ok) and feel accomplished at the end of your day.  The benefit of moving with purpose in a race or life is that you avoid falling behind, trying to make up for lost time, or abandoning your goal as a lost cause.  Once things are completed, enjoy a bit of rest but otherwise, keep moving with purpose.

Something I’m grateful for.  From 2012 to 2014 I went through a crazy time.  I moved across country, got divorced, went broke, became a single dad, started over from scratch in my career, and began rebuilding my life from the ground up.  I do not say this for sympathy, I do so because I loved it.  That period reset who I was and the trajectory of my life.  I went from a housecat to a lion because I no longer had any safety net to fall back on.  As a result, I became hungrier to succeed, bolder, more creative, a better father, happier, and so much more.  Though it didn’t happen overnight, the successes started occurring with greater frequency than I’d imagined they could or would.

What I discovered is that the person I was when I became desperate was a better version of myself.  I had more purpose and drive and there wasn’t a single area of my life that didn’t benefit. For that reason, I do things regularly to make myself uncomfortable so that I stay connected to that side of me.  The races I compete in, grueling exercise, exposure to cold, running in difficult elements, seeking new endeavors, and exploring areas of my life that may be challenging all accomplish this.  When things start getting easy, I don’t sabotage them, but I do make sure I keep challenging myself in other areas.   My goal is to never become so civilized or complacent that I forget what it’s like to be hungry. I always want to push myself in striving to get better.

An important concept.  There is a line in a movie that I love, “I stood up for you for a lot of years because I thought you were a little crazy.  But you’re not crazy, you’re mean.”  I find this line important because many of us have a friend, family member, or acquaintance that would fall in this category.  This is the type of person that though we care about them, they have the same bad behavior today as they did decades ago.  There is no evolution to their character or behavior, they’ve learned no lessons, and will never forget a single mistake you’ve made while not acknowledging any of their own.  These people are exhausting and dangerous.

People such as this are like hand grenades, they’ll blow up and take you out with them if you handle them wrong.  I’ve had people like this in my life and found nothing that has helped dissipate their anger and vitriol whether directed at me or others.  Therefore, the best thing you can do is simply rid these people from your life or at least minimize your interaction with them.  This is not an act of disloyalty or judgement.  Rather, this is a form of protecting yourself and those around you from someone that does not desire to change for the better.  Some people are just mean, and you don’t want them poisoning your life.

A great reminder.  Over the last week, I have had noteworthy interactions with two separate businesses.  Both have great people working there, offer a great service, and have a desire to help people.  That said, both are highly disorganized and thus take something that could be amazing and make it less so.  This is extremely common in businesses and even in our personal lives.

When we become disorganized, there is usually a cascade of negative side effects.  We lose focus on our priorities, the quality of output decreases, details are missed, anxiety is heightened, and more.  It’s not that we want this to be the case, it’s just that we’ve distracted ourselves, so it becomes so.  Owning a business has always taught me the importance of remaining organized through processes, systems, and routines.  When these are followed, everything runs smoother and rarely becomes overwhelming.  Whether business or life, you will always benefit from being more organized.

Some quotes I Love.

“The right doors won’t open for you until you become the version of yourself that’s supposed to walk through them.” – Rick Somers

“Don’t be afraid of being outnumbered.  Eagles fly alone, pigeons flock together.”

“Believe in your potential, not your past.” – Hal Elrod

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