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 liked. I’ve seen a commercial for a financial company several times recently that resonated with me. It shows older versions of younger people dealing with the poor financial decisions they made in their youth. I found this premise to be accurate and applicable to more than just finances.
All the short-term decisions we make in our lives will cumulatively impact us in the long term. What we eat, how we care for our bodies, the quality of our relationships, finances, attitude, habits, and so much more all influence how we’ll end up later. Since we only get one body and this life, it’s crucial to consider how our most common behaviors, habits, and actions will impact our futures. We should do our best to lead a life where our older selves won’t be frustrated and angry with the choices we’ve made in the past.
Something I heard and loved. This week I heard someone make an excellent point by comparing sit down meals to drive-thru windows. He began by saying that when we meet a friend or business connection for lunch, we usually carve out about 60-90 minutes, take our time eating, visiting, and paying attention to each other. Conversely, we never tell anyone to meet us at a drive-thru, visit for 2 minutes, then drive off. Though technically both are examples of “meetings,” they would each produce far different results.
In our society, we often devote drive-thru time but expect sit down results. We offer up the bare minimum of our effort to something we say we care about and then become frustrated when it doesn’t work out the way we’d like. This can happen in relationships, health, fitness, athletics, work, finances, and so forth. Understand that if you truly desire a great result, you must commit time, energy, and exertion towards it. Anything that you are “too busy” to devote attention to, is unlikely to ever flourish.
An analogy I think works. After two years of living with a terrible dishwasher, I finally broke down and bought a new one this week. It wasn’t until I used the new one that I realized how awful the old unit was, and all the issues I’d simply gotten used to. After one cycle of the new machine, there is no way I’d be able to go back to the old one. This is analogous to how things can work in life as well.
As humans, we can get used to things whether good or bad. As our health, fitness, relationships, happiness, energy, etc. slowly dwindle or suffer, we often excuse this as “normal” even though it isn’t. This is common and detrimental. On the other hand, when those areas are blossoming, the reverse happens. We begin to associate things going well as “normal,” our standards elevate, and we refuse to tolerate poor results. Always remember, you control the standards you set for yourself. If you are content with things not going well, then poor outcomes should be expected. However, if you want to thrive, do not ever allow that to become your mindset.
Something that inspires me. When I volunteer at my church there is an old woman I see each week that comes with her family. She uses a walker and one of her legs is badly rotated so that her lower leg is at a 45-degree angle sideways. Her movement is as slow as you’d expect, yet she never misses a week. She has explained to me that she doesn’t want to be in anyone’s way, so she arrives early and leaves late. However, it means everything for her to be there in person, so each week she fights through great pain and discomfort to attend. I love this spirit.
When you have a goal that is profoundly important and you know why it matters to you, nothing can prevent you from coming through. Excuses become irrelevant and you’re willing to endure pain, inconvenience, embarrassment, or whatever necessary to fulfill what you must. To me, this is one of the most special things there is. That woman at church inspires me because she reminds me that with an indomitable will and mindset, you can battle through anything and still succeed.
Some quotes I Love.
“Stop stewing and start doing.” – Denis Waitley
“People will summarize your life in one sentence, pick it now.” – John C. Maxwell
“The difference between humans and animals. Animals would never allow the dumbest of the herd to lead them.”