Dr. Kenney’s Friday 5 Spot
On Fridays I like to share some of the experiences I’ve had during the week with patients and in my personal life that I’ve found significant in some way. 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 believe in. In football, we coach players to “play to the whistle.” Meaning you give a maximum effort until a whistle blows and signals the end of play. I believe this is useful advice for everyday life as well. It is easy to leave things for later, procrastinate or come up with excuses not to do things in a timely manner. This can lead to stress and a poor outcome.
Rather than wait, I like to “play to the whistle.” In other words, if I can fit 10 more minutes of work in today, that’s 10 less I need to do tomorrow and can get ahead on something else. I don’t always get everything done in a single block of time, but I do make sure I take full advantage of every second I have and do all I can with the time I have. Play to the whistle in everything you do, it will make a difference!
Should I take a multivitamin? I believe everyone should be taking a multivitamin. It is certainly possible to get all the nutrients from food but nearly impossible to get everything in the correct amounts each day. Therefore, to cover your bases I recommend a good, whole-food multivitamin. This means the vitamin is derived from actual food (fruits and veggies) and not synthetic vitamins.
A vitamin like Centrum will be cheap but because it is comprised of synthetic vitamins, your body will not absorb much, and it will do little. Conversely, if you are using a whole food vitamin (such as Juice Plus for example) you will notice your hair and nails grow very quickly which is a sign your body is retaining and utilizing nutrients.
A piece of advice I mentioned recently. I gave a talk recently and during it, I mentioned a conversation I’d had not too long ago. I was asked by a runner training for a 10K (just over 6 miles) if I had any advice on how to get better at this distance, as he was really struggling between miles 4.5 and 6.
I told him I did have some advice and he looked at me no doubt expecting something to do with nutrition, VO2 max or something scientific. Instead, what I told him was to have his wife drop him off 12 miles from his house and to run home. He looked at me like I was crazy. What I explained to him was that our minds deal with what we give them. So, to his mind, 6 miles was a giant task. I suggested the 12-mile run to “reset his normal.” If you’re worried about miles 4 to 6 and you throw a 12-mile run in, do you think the next time you run 6 miles your body will find it as difficult? No chance. In fact, it’ll be thankful you’re only doing 6 miles. Sometimes you need to throw a large task at yourself to reset what you think is possible or comfortable.
A great question to ask yourself. Are you easy to root for? In sports, there are people we simply love to cheer for people based on their character, performance, perseverance, redemptive story, you name it. Conversely, there are people we’d prefer to root against. Life works in a similar fashion.
I believe in general people that are honest, positive, kind, loyal, loving, humble, hardworking, energetic, passionate, and unique (among other qualities) are easy to root for. They contribute to those around them and in turn, people want to see them do well. On the other side are people that are negative, arrogant, self-centered, untruthful, lazy, complainers, low energy and more. These people tend to drain those around them, so people don’t want to elevate them, they tend to want to get away from them. If you are the type of person that people want to cheer for and see do well, it’s likely that you are doing a lot of things right. If not, you may need to consider making some changes.
Some quotes I love.
“If you leave your children a world where you never stood up, they’ll inherit one where they can’t.” – Robert J. O’Neill
“Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will.” – W. Clement Stone
“I would like to be measured by what the people who learned from me taught other people.” – Seth Godin
“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” – Dale Carnegie
“It doesn’t matter how slowly you go as long as you don’t stop.” – Confucious
Want more?
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