Episode 200 | AnnKNEEversary – The Little Moments

What is up team? We have a special episode today—episode 200! That means that this podcast has been going for 200 weeks straight. Yeah, I’m that weird. I have a podcast all dedicated to ACL rehab and I just can’t stop. In all honesty, I love doing this and showing up every single week for all of you. This one’s very special because it’s our 200th episode. It actually falls on a week here in the States, which is Thanksgiving week. I’ve done this for the past three years now, the “Annkneeversary” episode. I’m going to keep going with this theme. It’s a fun one to do. 

If you have listened to all three of the previous ones, I appreciate you for being here, for being on this ride for so long. If this is your first episode, I’m sorry, but not sorry, I hope that this hits you in the feels a little bit because it is going to be a little bit of a feeler episode. But this is one that I want to do today. When I was brainstorming, what it is that I wanted to talk about for this particular episode. The title “Little Moments” came up. This theme around this and something in my life and just working with our team and ACLers, thinking through all this, the low moments became the topic for today. So that is what we’re going to dive into.

But before I do that, the first thing that I want to talk about it’s really just being thankful for this platform, for all of you who spend even a second and a minute listening to this podcast. What was literally just a dream and honestly, just something for me to start, just to put thoughts together. I did not think for this to turn out the way it has. For all of you who have supported this, who have shared this, who have sent me messages, who have been able to share this on different social media platforms, it means the world to me. 

This is something where I just want to share what we have accomplished together, and it’s because of your support. We have have hit 219,000 downloads and counting, which is just wild! We have impacted and got into 148 countries in different territories, all around the world. Almost 8,000 different cities, 7,939 different cities to be exact. That is just crazy for something to be so dedicated to ACL rehab, shows you this is something that people need some help with, but also just the fact that people are still continue to show up, listen to this and hang out with me in all honesty. It means the world to me. Thank you all for your support. Really in the fields this week with Thanksgiving. And with having our son now and it’s his first Thanksgiving, and as a family, and with the business as well, and with all those ACLers we get to work with and connect with and the clinicians and coaches that we get to work with, thank you!

Now, annkneeversary,  this title comes from a cheesy way to say your anniversary for your ACL knee surgery. I had my second ACL surgery on Thanksgiving week, so I always remember this time of year at the same time is when I had it. I’m always reminded of this as well, because there’s always a photo of me that pops up this week on Thanksgiving week, 11 years ago now, which was my second ACL surgery. It was at our last home game at UGA (University of Georgia) as I was an undergrad students, I was a senior. This was a night game and it was a big deal to be a UGA fan, but it sucks. I know all of us with ACL world has probably experienced this where you had to kind of miss out on something you wanted to go to, whether it was in those early stages, post-op, maybe it was traveling. For me, in that second surgery, it was going to our last home game as a student. I couldn’t go because I had ACL surgery. The timing worked out around Thanksgiving. I had to watch on the couch while I watched all my best friends all go to this game. I know this is like a first world problem here, but in the moment it sucked. But this is just something that I’m always reminded of more so from a time standpoint, in terms of my knee surgery and getting onto the road of recovery, especially for my second ACL.

Now, if we’re looking fast forward now to current day things have been super, super busy, especially now with our eight month old and running a business. I thought I was busy before, but man, having a kid now and especially a young baby and running a business and still kind of wearing all the different hats, this season really does redefine what busy is for me. Every single minute matters that much more and you just get less and less of it to dedicate to specific things. And that brings up this idea of the little moments and the theme of this episode for this annkneeversary. And if you’re not here for the feeler episode, I get it. But if you are then lean into this, because I think anyone who is going through this process, or maybe you’re just a supporting role, maybe you’re a PT, just wanting to listen in on this episode, then this is something that you can lean in on because anyone can take something from it no matter if you’re going through the ACL rehab process or not. 

This is just something for life in general, and this is more so related to me as going through the season and wanting to share with you guys, not only as a business owner, as a father now, a husband, but also as working with ACLer, our team, myself, and just kind of pulling from these different themes that we’re seeing. The thing about this little moment and big moments, if you will, just moments in general in life. Life can be made up a lot of these big moments or another way you can kind of think of as an ACLer—the big milestones. Think about it as like getting off your crutches. That’s huge because now you don’t need to rely on your crutches. Driving again, being able to do a full bike revolution. That’s huge because then that means you’ve gotten enough flexion to be able to ride the bike or do that without feeling like you’re stuck on this, like kind of back and forth little wheel. First jump–you take a little hop. Maybe it’s getting back to running and is something that opens up the door towards so much more and feeling athletic again. Back with your team—if you are playing with a recreational team or a school team, being able to get back with your teammates and actually participate, that’s huge. 

Of course, there’s the big thing, the thing that you just want to get to fast forward to, and be able to get back to playing your sport or your activity, maybe it’s soccer, maybe it’s MMA, maybe it’s skiing again. The list goes on of a number of different things that people want to get back to, but that’s a big milestone. These big moments are the ones that might feel like they stand out or the thing that you’re aiming towards. But in reality, all of these big moments are just a bunch of little moments leading up to it. And those big moments are far and few between if we’re being completely honest, whether that’s in life or whether we’re talking about specifically ACL rehab. Especially once you get out of those early stages of ACL rehab, I kind of call the honeymoon phase where you might be seeing progress after progress, getting that flexion back, getting off your crutches, being able to take stairs, no longer needing help with things, being able to drive again. Just noting those milestones and more importantly, just that progress that is accumulating, especially in those early phases. 

Let’s say the first six weeks, eight weeks, you noticing big changes. But then once you get into the mid and late stages, it’s harder to notice that progress as much. That’s where these big and little milestones can play into this because there are the big milestones that are anchoring this process. And then there are those little milestones that come into it. The thing that is important is that we’re always looking at these big milestones or this big moments, then it sets us up for maybe not as much involved or I’m enjoying the process as much. And this kind of arrival, if you will add a destination, it ends up feeling more momentary, then we can build it up to being right. Once we get to this certain point where like, all right, yeah, this is it. And all of a sudden, we get there and then it’s there. It’s still important, but that big moment doesn’t last as long as we think it will and then we’re onto the next thing that’s like the moving goalpost. 

For me personally, while being a parent has been fun, it’s been crazy busy as I had mentioned earlier. It’s easy to let the days pass super quick and just lose out where we are with where our feet currently are. So that’s where this little moment concept comes in. That’s what life honestly is. And even in this ACL process, lots of the little wins and the moments building up, if you will. For me and my wife, we sat down and we talked about how we can slow things down and be in the day-to-day versus waiting to get to this big moment or this big break. Because guess what? There’s always something after that, whether you move the goalpost. Or some sort of other thing comes up where you might have felt that small break, but then there’s something else that shows up. We all know this, this is life, this is also ACL rehab. And the thing is that we want to make sure we embrace the process and the journey; not just the outcome or the destination. And that’s the biggest thing here is a lot of times we can get so focused on let me get to this or let me get to this end point and then I’ll be good. Or, being able to make sure that I am able to get back to running or I hit this certain quad number and then I’m good, but then it’s the next thing. This kind of comes back to more so of embracing this process because I think that’s really important. And embracing the journey because that’s what’s going to make up most of ACL rehab and what’s going to be live too, share there certain milestones, getting your driver’s license, graduating school, going to college, all the typical things that are big milestones in our lives, getting married. All these things show up, but those are just very rare moments in time, but then what about the in-between? Because those certain points are only far and few between. 

Therefore, it means we have to embrace the journey of getting there in that process. And so for me and my wife, we wanted to try and make this as practical as possible. What we did with this, to be able to embrace the little moments in the day-to-day, is we started putting a sticky note each night on our mirror before bed. On the sticky note, we each had to write down a little moment or something that stood out to us. That was a moment, nothing grand, it could be something super small, talking to our friend or it could have been our little guy having his cute little baby laughs nonstop for like a few minutes because I was doing something stupid. It can be literally anything. It was something that we started to do a few months ago and it has been actually really awesome for us to do it. Now on our bathroom mirror, we have all these sticky notes. It’s funny, we can’t actually use the full mirror anymore. We have to find spots where we can actually operate and use the mirror if we need to. But it’s honestly been so great for us to stop, to slow down, to count each day and cherish that versus waiting for these far and few between big moments or these big milestones, if you will. It also helps keep us accountable to each other, to know at the end of the day, we need to stop and we need to reflect on this. We need to have a little moment if you will. I have to really slow things down to do that. And be thankful for every little moment of each day. I know that this is super cheesy and some of you are probably like, nah, this is not me. I totally get it. But for some of you, this might hit. I think in the current world with which we live in, it always feels like it’s the next thing. It’s the go-getter mentality, grind it out. It’s also like I need to achieve this and then I need to do this. And don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that. But sometimes it almost steals the happiness of the current moment and the days that we’re in, whether you’re in the ACL rehab process, whether you’re dealing with some sort of other life stuff, or just as a human operating through the current state of when, which we live in society and it’s fricking hard.

My goal is always to make sure, how can I bring value to you, that is applicable no matter what situation that you’re in. This is honestly something that has helped us so much through, especially some rough days. Let me tell you, we have had some really, really rough days just with having a little one, some things coming up and some sicknesses and whatnot that we’ve had to deal with, that we’ve never done this before. Also, had some rare instances we had to navigate. With that said, it has made it hard as parents for us to navigate this process. But we’ve had each other and we’ve luckily been able to kind of get through it. One of the things that has helped us a lie is honestly, even on those rough days, knowing like we have to still account for a little moment. I guarantee you, even on your hardest days, you can find something in there as small as it is to be able to count as a small win. This is something where I’m asking you guys to lean into this and nudge you in this direction because we can all use a little bit of positivity in our lives. Be able to do something a little bit more practical in order to show gratitude. I think that this is something that I just want to share with you all. And even from an action item standpoint, the biggest thing here is find a way to collect those little moments or those little milestones or little wins for yourselves. 

My ACLers, I always call it the small wins. There’s always some win that you can find, whether it’s just like you literally got on the bike for five minutes, or you did 10 quad sets today, or you ended up going to the gym for 10 minutes instead of not going at all. It doesn’t need to be this grandiose. I started running today or IPR in my squad or my leg extensions. It could be the smallest thing. It could be literally my knee feels a little bit better today because I decided not to do too much yesterday because I was on my feet. It’s the small wins. 

I want you to be able to collect these things and it could also be just being able to get out and go hang out with your friends, show up to our team practice, be able to go talk to your coach and be able to start getting that feel of getting back into your sport or your activities. I have my athletes with these types of things. Write these down in a journal, or maybe it’s a notes on their phone, or maybe it’s a reminder set every night to fill it out, whatever method you want. Or you could be weird like us and find a spot on your wall, your mirror, your closet, etc. Just as spot and get a stack of sticky notes. Do it every night like us. This is something that you can visually see. I will say, man, it’s been pretty cool to read all of them and it remind us of those moments. When we come into the bathroom every day, we see all these sticky notes, tons of them, and you could read different ones and see what those little moments were. Nothing big. Sure, there would might be some ones that stick out more than the others. But you get to read all these and you get reminded of these moments and all of the little things that added up, especially towards any big moments we may have had. 

For example, our little guy started crawling during this period. It’s fun to see that sticky note where we were like, he crawled today. But there are all these other little things leading up to that were still just as enjoyable and we were able to appreciate that and look back on it. I’ll tell you on the days that are really hard is really great to just be able to look at this because we’re able to say, man, we have a very blessed life. And we get to do this thing day in and day out with each other and be able to just kind of like sit and reflect on these little moments. We’re so thankful for that. I think that’s one of the things in this process that is important for ACLers and anyone who is also listening, supporting this, to be able to just kind of slow down and appreciate not only those big ones, but the little moments and those little wins. And when you’re having a hard time this can be so helpful because this is going to be life. If we just wait for the big moments, we might have to wait a while sometimes, especially if we’re in ACL rehab, maybe we’re dealing with some setbacks. But if we embrace the little ones, those little wins, if you will. Well, those happen every single day, if we can find them and especially the little moments. 

I want to make sure you can translate this to your ACL rehab in life. Maybe this is something that you needed to hear because you feel stuck or you need something to get the momentum back. My suggestion, give this a shot, stick to it for even seven days, just do seven days. You’re like, all right, I’m in. If I’ve been doing this for a week and then from there, you can decide if you like it and keep going. If not then stop and say, you just gave it a shot. But seven days I feel like is like a good sweet spot where it’s like, all right, it’s a very achievable thing. Set aside literally a few minutes. We’re busy as humans. Set a reminder on your phone, I’m going to do this every night before I go to bed. It allows us to have a little bit more gratitude and thankful for our lives. And also, especially whenever we feel like we’re in a season or maybe the day just sopped, like your knee just bogged out, or maybe there’s just something life-related, you’re going to be able to look at the list of things that you’re like, wow. I know that this is only just a moment. And while there are good moments, there are bad moments too. 

But with that said, you’re able to see the little moments and all of those small winds stacking up that you’re just like, I know that this too shall pass, going back to the previous episode. But with that said, you’re able to have a little bit more gratitude and you might not feel as stuck as you think you are in this process. You might actually be making a little bit more momentum even on those tougher days. And so then that just might be the 1% gain that you need to kind of keep things rolling and keep the momentum, not to zero, but in the positive direction. 

This is something that I hope is helpful. If you are someone who is going through this process, or you have something today, share it with me. You can go to the show notes and you can send me a message. I do not see anybody’s numbers or anything. You can also send me a message on Instagram, email. I get them all the time. I am very appreciative of this. This is something that I just wanted to tap into for the Thanksgiving annkneeversary episode, the little moments because I think it’s important. I think as I was going back to with life, that for some reason, there almost feels like in society that there’s not enough time and there almost feels like there’s always this go, go, go, go, go mentality. I think sometimes we can almost lose sight of the day-to-day. And something me and my wife have above our bed is be where your feet are. Our goal with these little moments and recording them and keeping each other accountable is just be where our feet are versus thinking about the next goalpost or thinking about the next thing. We can embrace the journey. We can embrace being in the process and enjoying the process. 

It doesn’t have to be all sunshine and rainbows. There are times where it sucks and it sucks and we know that. But I think being able to see the positive and all this and having the gratitude can help so much. It’s something that maybe we lose out on some of these low moments if we don’t reflect on them. And these things all add up and it keeps the momentum going, which is so huge in ACL rehab and life in general. I hope that this is helpful y’all.  Happy Thanksgiving! This is your host, Ravi Patel, signing off.