“I want you thick with muscle!” 💪🏼
Those were the marching orders from my orthopedic doctor. You’ve heard the expression “He says jump, you say how high?” Well, that’s me with Dr. W. At least, it is now. When we first met I had my doubts.
That was about a year ago, when I went limping and popping into his office. Limping on my left side because, according to my previous surgeon who was now 3000 miles away, it was time for knee replacement surgery. The two prior reconstructive surgeries (needed after encountering a gopher hole upon a skydive landing 😳) had worn out. And popping on the right side from a torn ACL, that sadly doesn’t even have an exciting story to go with it. 🙄
I was sitting in his office anxiously awaiting to meet him. I figured we’d embark on a strategy session involving more MRI’s, a couple of surgeries and a long, windy road to recovery.
When he breezed into the room, I was a bit surprised. In his casual street clothes, he didn’t much look like my previous surgeons. No white coat or hospital pants. Not even socks or closed-toed shoes, instead some kind of sandal? He was gracious, however, and introduced himself before announcing “No surgeries needed!”
Huh? I’m not usually at a loss for words but I couldn’t do anything other than stare blankly at this guy. And wonder if maybe I’ve been referred to the most incompetent knee surgeon on the planet.
I knew those sandals weren’t to be trusted.
He pulled out some papers and a pen and began laying out his plan - the foundation of which was providing the environment for my body to heal itself. OK, well, that’s my language all day long so he had my attention, but really? Seems I was at a point that I needed a little surgical intervention.
By the time we parted ways, armed with the beginning of a road map to recovery, I was cautiously optimistic. Initially we met every four weeks or so to review my progress, and determine what the next action steps would be. As each month passed, I was walking more, limping and popping less, until it became clear. I was healing. No surgery required.
So when I got my earlier mentioned marching orders to get “thick with muscle”, I was on it. And having done a brief stint with competitive bodybuilding years ago, I knew how to carry out those orders.
Which is how I found myself at the gym, on the leg press, staring at the back of the muscle man on the pull-down machine in front of me.
“Simple Not Easy” his shirt read.
How true, I thought. Here on this leg press machine - simple - straighten my legs and push the foot plate away from me, rebend my knees and come back to the starting position. With the 100 pounds of weight I had loaded on - not easy.
As I continued around the gym, fighting the good fight through lunges, squats and the one where you side-step across the floor with a big, tight rubber band looking thing around your ankles, the muscle man and his shirt seemed to always be in my line of sight.
I started to ponder how often that was true. Learning a new language: memorize vocabulary, practice grammar rules, and converse regularly. Simple. The cumulative effort required to achieve fluency? Anything but easy.
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle: Eat clean, exercise regularly and get the right amount of sleep. Simple. Not easy.
Even the seemingly complex, when broken down into its individual parts was simple, but not easy to execute. Was there anywhere this principle didn’t apply? So really, then, what did it take to achieve anything that we want in life?
I begin listing them in my head. Commitment. Dedication. Perseverance. Willingness. And then I landed on the big one, at least for me.
Clarity. I can be all of the above, but when I don’t have clarity the result is usually some cocktail of frustration, stress, anxiety, overwhelm, exhaustion and hopelessness. How often do dreams, goals and ideas get abandoned, or not even embarked upon, because we just don’t know what to do.
That was my inspiration behind this week’s five minute fix. If you’re struggling with what to do next, in any area of your life, I invite you to click below and take the question into this week’s guided meditation for clarity.
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