Episode 210 | Four Whole Years + Four Lessons Learned

Welcome back you all. Today is a special episode. It is episode 210 and we are celebrating essentially the four years anniversary of the ACL Athlete Podcast. It is wild to think that this podcast has been around for four years and an episode every single week for the past four years. Today, I want to take a trip down memory lane, I always love doing that with this podcast and just show essentially what the work has been done and what we’ve accomplished together in terms of this podcast. And also four lessons I’ve learned, in this podcast journey that have come to me in this anniversary and what has come up. I’m just kind of feeling all the fields. You all come along with me and let’s talk about this for a second. What I want to start with first is essentially how this first started.

Now, if you’ve been listening to this podcast, since its creation, I appreciate you, or you’ve gone through all the episodes, or maybe today is literally your first episode. We welcome you. What I want to share is essentially the first episode release, which was the first week of February (February 4, 2021). So that is when this podcast first started about four years ago. It took like a thousand tries to get it right. I had no idea what I was doing. I’m still honestly not sure some days. But with that said, it’s just something that I was like, you know what? I’m going to do it. And I would rather say I did it than not, or at least like I failed trying. And that’s important to me and it’s important in life. This was one of those things where I was just like, let’s make the jump. Let’s do this. I feel like there is a need here. And something that I wanted to mostly create for ACLers, along with clinicians and coaches, and people who are supporting these roles, but especially for the ACLers who are trying to find information. And they’re trying to make sure that the steps that they take are the right steps for them, and everyone’s path is so different. That’s what’s really important here. It’s just crazy to think back to when I first decided to do this, I posted on Instagram and I was like, the ACL Athlete Podcast coming soon at the end of 2020.

And then into 2021, I was like, all right, I got to do this thing. It’s now or never. And so then I decided to do it. I remember on garage band is how I started. Every time you restart, there’s a counter. Every time I would delete the intro or whatever audio that I created, it kept counting. And man, it went really, really high because I was just doubting myself. I was the only one involved in the podcast. It was just really nerve-wracking to be honest, to put yourself out there and do something honestly that doesn’t really exist—to talk by yourself a lot of the times. I’m sure I do it with people as well. But especially for this podcast has been concentrated around thoughts and just answering questions and covering concepts and being able to distill a lot of the stuff that gets lost in all the noise in healthcare, ACLl rehab and performance and all those things.

I was just trying to figure out a way to communicate that. It was really crazy that it started to pick up. At first, I was like, there’s no way, no one’s going to listen to this. If anything is something for me to be able to make my thoughts more concise. And then I got my first hundred downloads and it’s always the funny story of, I feel like my wife was the one who was just going in there, hit download on repeat. Then I got my first message about the podcast via social media. I was like, wow. Someone’s actually listening to this thing. 

And now I get multiple messages, emails, comments a week, and it is amazing. It’s from all of you who are saying how this podcast has helped you. And every single message that I have received, I have it saved. And I look back at these and I think about this podcast and where it’s gone over the course of four years. And these messages are truly the fire and the fuel that gets poured on it to keep this thing going, in all honesty. I love showing up for you guys. I love it. And it’s something that I want to make sure that I continue to provide value to you and make sure we can do as best as we can in this space and making sure that every ACLer has control of their own process.

Now I want to share a few messages that I’ve gotten over the past year because I feel like this really hits and maybe this will actually connect to some of you too. Maybe if you’re listening, you’re one of the people who has sent this in. But I’m going to share some messages so hear me out with some of these messages.

The first one is: “Hey Ravi, I know you probably get hundreds of emails, but I just want to let you know how much of an encouragement your podcast has been to me. I discovered your podcast two years ago after I had ACL surgery. I really found it encouraging and helpful to hear the stories of others who went through what I did as well as tips and tricks.

Well, fast forward to this past week. I rediscovered how much I enjoy your podcast. I’m considering returning to sport and your episodes about returning to sport were so helpful to me. It made me rethink making a rush decision. I really appreciate your insight and wisdom. I now, and even more now determined in this new year to push on and make my knee even stronger as I look to return to soccer in a few months. You do a wonderful job with the podcast. I want to let you know how much this made an impact on my life. Keep up the great work!”

Here’s another one: “I had my ACL injury. And throughout this process, my only guidance and main support was your podcast. Thus, I’m sending you this message of gratitude for what you do. Your podcast has helped me both mentally and physically to extent that you can’t even imagine. Keep doing what you’re doing because I believe you are providing great guidance to all ACL athletes.” 

And then here’s another one that I thought was really awesome. “Your podcast gave me so much motivation and confidence than I had prior and really changed the way I view rehab entirely. I went from dreading, getting up every morning to getting up and putting in the work for the next brick on my wall. It hasn’t been easy whatsoever, but knowing I just had to keep pushing until the next Thursday every week has helped me a ton.”

A couple more here: 

“I can’t express how valuable your podcasts have been to me lately. I have surgery in two days, over Christmas and the New Year period. I felt pretty alone with this injury. Listening to your podcast has certainly shown me that this is not the case. I can’t thank you enough.” 

And then last one here:

“First, I just want to say thank you for your ACL podcast. It has really gotten me through some really dark days and helped me when I felt like I was unsure. Keep doing what you’re doing, mate. You have made a huge difference to my ACL journey, so thank you.”

And these all mean so much to me, seriously. And I appreciate any of the messages that have been sent. Anyone who has sent an email, through the show notes of sending me a text, it has been amazing. Let’s see what we’ve accomplished together. I always say “we,” because I wouldn’t be here without your support. So yeah, this is a team effort of doing this thing. We have hit 210 episodes, counting this episode to date, 230,000 plus downloads. And here’s what’s really cool, is that this podcast has been downloaded in 150 different countries all over the world. And 8,122 different cities all over the world. Not going to lie, that’s pretty cool. And most importantly are the messages. Knowing we are making a dent in people’s lives and helping them feel empowered and informed in this process. That is why this podcast exists. 

Now we’re here four years later, and now what I want to do is share some lessons with you (four specific lessons). I have so many that I could honestly share, but I want to keep it short and sweet for you. We’ve got four to stick with this theme. 

Number one: It’s about the 1% gain and the compounding effect. I know I’ve talked about this before. It’s such a foundational principle in this process. It’s a foundational principle in life but especially in ACL rehab. There’s a lot of work that’s done behind the scenes, a lot of work. When I think about people who are going through this process, outside of postop and surgery and being on crutches and maybe having a brace on, people don’t really know what’s happening. They don’t know what’s happening in the day-to-day, especially if they’re not familiar with this. They’re not seeing you in the day-to-day. They’re not seeing all the work that you’re putting in those grueling hours of doing range of motion work, trying to get that extension back, trying to get your quads firing, trying to get that knee to bend, being able to walk normal again, take stairs. And then not to mention the countless and countless hours of strength training and dynamic work (jumping, running, cutting, and then getting back to your sport, man). It is a hard freaking process and there’s so much that’s done behind the scenes that people can’t really see. They can’t really understand the context of it or walking through your shoes as an ACLer. 

I understand it! I’ve been through it twice. And the same thing applies to business, to being a husband, to being a father now, like it’s about 1% gains. It’s not about these massive jumps that are going to really move the needle; it’s about the daily input that you put in to help make sure you keep the momentum moving forward and not falling to zero. I’ve talked about that for this year for a theme, is not letting your momentum hit zero and you’re going to have a compounding effect in the positive as long as it’s not zero. And so that’s the thing that’s important here is that there’s so much that you’re doing behind the scenes in that day-to-day that people can’t see.

I promise you it’s something that we see, we understand and just know it is for something. I think the hard part about this is that it’s hard to see it. You might initially in that honeymoon phase of the first post op process, you might notice the changes. But as time goes on in this process, you feel this stall or you don’t feel necessarily like the progress is just very visible or noticeable. And the thing that’s really important here is that when we think about coming back to that analogy of James Clear talks about in his book of the ice cube analogy, where there is a melting point of 32 degrees Fahrenheit. But let’s say we take an ice cube out and it’s at 26 degrees and then 27 degrees, 28 degrees, 29 degrees. Nothing is changing about this ice cube, but there is work being done. It is slowly getting to that point where there is melting point of being able to go over 32 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s not even a melting point, it’s just getting away from freezing point. This is something that is happening behind the scenes. We’re just doing the work, doing the work and all of a sudden, boom, I’m able to get off my crutches. Doing the work, doing the work, doing the work, boom, I’m able to start running now. Doing the work, doing the work, doing the work, now I get to go back and take part in my sport or activity again, even in a small chunk. But it’s not just like that. It’s just this like you cross through and each and every step is this major milestone. Majority of this process is actually not these huge milestone moments. This is where that 1% gain comes in and it’s something that I think is important to stress in this process in life. That’s where we do put in the work and it’s letting that stuff build up brick by brick. 

Number two: Process over outcome. I know you want to get to the end of this process. I totally get it. No one chooses to be in ACL rehab and be in this process. I want you to be at the end of this process and get to the outcome you want. But what I’ve come to realize that if you just look towards that, we can’t enjoy the process in the here and now. It’s hard for us to find happiness or be content with this process and where we are. We’re just waiting to get to that goalpost. This is honestly where the growth comes from is in the process. What I encourage you to do is give yourself space to do this. How can you be happy being now in the present and in this process of ACL rehab, as much as it sucks, as much as you’re going through a setback, it’s okay to feel that. But how can you find contentment in this process and grow from it versus getting to the outcome of getting back to the thing? That’s the end goal. I get it.

But the thing is that once you get there to the outcome or the goal you’re hoping for, you’ll realize, especially if you’re hard on yourself and just constantly in that pursuit without being able to allow yourself to enjoy the process or just embrace the process, you’ll realize you robbed yourself of the time when you were in this process. You robbed yourself of the opportunity to grow as much as you could and to lean into that. And that’s honestly 98% of life—it’s the process. It’s not this end destination. It’s not this end goal. That’s awesome. But oftentimes, what we see is that when we hit these milestones or these moments, we’re onto the next thing. And it’s our human brains that do that. Therefore, the process makes up 98% of life, if I had to guess (just a random arbitrary number). 

But in reality, is most of what we do in the day-to-day. It’s just a random Wednesday and you’re doing your ACL rehab work. This is something that I’m encouraging you to think about the process, embrace the process over just constant outcomes. Because that’s what this life is, that’s what ACL rehab is, and it’s about this journey versus the end destination. But don’t get me wrong it’s important, but the end destination is something where it might be far away or it might just be a momentary thing. Embrace that process as much as you can.

Number three: Play the long game. You’ll often have to decide on things in the short term, especially in ACL rehab. I think about my own life and I think about business and I think about even the ACL rehab journeys that I’ve taken and walked other ACLers through. There’s always these decisions to make short-term games versus the long-term gains. It’s always challenging but you want to make sure whatever short term you decide to do. You want to make sure it’s worth it in the long term. The thing is that I see people all the time that they’ll sometimes take the short-term gain at the cost of the long-term gain. And that might be rushing into running or rushing into playing their sport again. And then on the other side of that is that they might be dealing with swelling or they’re limping, or it just doesn’t feel great, or maybe worse. They go off and they tear their ACL again. I think that this is important because life’s a long game, anything that you’re worth in pursuit of is a long game. This ACL rehab is no different. It’s different than any other musculoskeletal recovery that exists. I’ve been through a lot of them, many, many of them, many complex ones. ACL is still one of the hardest that exists, especially for the duration that it takes. 

I promise you playing the long game will be worth it. Both physically and mentally, you will be better for it too. There’s no reason to rush. I always say, what is the cost of another injury? What is the cost of getting back to this thing, but only at 50% of who you are? Put in the work, do it right, play the long game because I promise it will pay off.

Lastly, run your own race. Stop comparing yourself. As a business with an online footprint, I’ve dealt with comparison a lot over the years and even prior to starting the business. My whole life, it’s just been something that I’ve honestly dealt with. The thing is, who hasn’t? Who here listening hasn’t dealt with comparison whether it’s on social media or friends or family members. It’s just something that naturally happens in life to compare, because we want to see what we have versus what other people have. But as I’ve been in this more, I’ve realized that I am truly running my own race now. Am I immune to comparison now? Definitely not. But I make sure I’m aware of that if it sneaks in and doing everything I can to run my own race. 

It’s funny now people see my social media stuff, whether it’s the remote coaching stuff that we do, highlighting athletes or the podcast, or it’s our education side for our ACL mentorship. And what’s been crazy is actually to witness other professionals stealing my stuff that I’ve created over the years. But there was this one this year that was blatant, clearly copied and took exactly what it was from marketing material and promoting his own stuff as if it was his. I actually called him out and had a direct call one-on-one with him and told him to run his own race. It’s just one of these things where I’m like, we can see what other people are doing and it’s okay to respect that and maybe to even get ideas about it. But in terms of trying to make it our own, we need to be very, very careful in that. And so that’s where we need to make sure we filter that and make sure that we are truly running our own race. Even if we’re looking at other people in this ACL rehab process and seeing where they are in the journey, we’re not here to try and copy what they’re doing. We are here to try and make sure that we can respect that and appreciate that. And yeah, taking information around that, but not to put you in a place that’s in a negative place. 

It can be really challenging in this process. And I want you to essentially do the same of run your own race. Don’t steal stuff, but run your own race. And I have calls with ACLers each week, all saying that this person was at three months running or this person was at 10 months out onto the slopes. And I’m still trying to get 60% quad strength and extension back. It’s okay to feel that, it totally is like that is just going to be life. But I also challenge you to really try to filter what you’re letting in. My wife always says, guard your gates. Guard what it is that you let in. I know you see some people in the clinic and can’t help it. That’s okay. 

But there are lots of things that happen to people that put them in their own track up the mountain to get to their own peak. There are some that are controllables that you can control and then there’s uncontrollables that you can’t control. You can’t control that you got a cyclops lesion, or that your knee is more swollen, or that for some reason the graft didn’t take, or maybe the meniscus didn’t heal the way it needed to, or for some reason, graft site is just become a big issue, or your quad strength has become asleep. There are things that we can control. There’s things that we can’t control. But just know it is your own journey up the mountain and you’re going to face your own battles and barriers and struggles through that. But it’s about your own ascent up the mountain. You’re on your own path. Don’t let it steal from you and run your own race. That’s so important in ACL rehab because you will fall into the comparison trap. I promise you based on protocols, based on other people you see on social media and the clinic you might be in. It could be really challenging. Therefore, allow yourself to really trust your guidance. If you don’t have good guidance and you don’t know where you’re at, then therefore switch your guidance and get better guidance. But with that said, lean into that and trust that guidance to make sure that you are where you exactly need to be. That will help so much in that comparison and knowing that you have your own GPS and your own path forward. 

Seriously, thank you to all of you who are listening, who listen to this in the future, who support me, support this company, support this podcast. Our goal is to bring you information, perspectives, education, evidence, science. The goal is just pure value. How can we give as much of this free to you and equip you and educate you to help you or the people you know who needs this to navigate this ACL process. And this is from one ACL athlete to another. Our mission is to redefine ACL rehab and this entire space as a whole, so you can get the best care and to have confidence and most importantly control. Feel in the driver’s seat of your own ACL process and that’s what’s going to be super important. And that’s where education is so powerful so you can make better decisions.

I know when you need to say no or step away or make a change. And that’s so important because this injury can change your life, man. It can change your life. It could be for the better, but it could also be for the worst. So that is why this thing exists is to make sure you don’t fall into the cracks, into this trap of the healthcare system or not getting the care that you need. Make sure to take control of your process. It’s so important and you have to be your own advocate, you have to. No one else is going to be the better advocate for you than yourself. 

Here is to year four you all and we are just getting started in all honesty. There is no end in sight for this podcast so you can continue to look forward to more podcast episodes. As a thank you to all of you and to any of the listeners, anyone who has supported this, we’re doing a giveaway and we always do this. And what you’ll get is your own ACL Athlete t-shirt, some merch that we have and it’s going to be something that we raffle and pick certain people. And the way that you can enter for this is send me a message or an email or how this podcast has helped you. This could be via Instagram. It could be email. You can send it via carrier pigeon. I don’t really care. We would just love to hear from you guys. And the info will be in the show notes for this, and we will pick one, maybe two people to send a shirt to and some cool merch. The deadline will be on Friday, on February 21. If you’re listening before February 21, 2025, you can do that. 

One small favor before we sign off here that would mean the absolute world to me is if you would leave this podcast a review and if you’re on Spotify, it takes literally 10 seconds to scroll up and be able to review this. If you’re on Apple podcasts, you can just review it or leave some feedback or how it has been helpful to you. And if you’re on any other podcast platform, it would mean the absolute world to me. The reason why this is so important is because this helps us reach more people. As you guys know, this podcast is only to help equip and educate you guys and to make sure that supporting people in this ACL process, ACLers, everyone has access to really reliable information, research-backed, science-based, all these things are so important and so these reviews help us to extend that reach and be able to multiply the impact that we can have. Your reviews go a long way for podcasts and for companies and it’s something that just takes a few minutes so you can go into the show notes, onto the page, into the podcast specific album and be able to leave a review. That would mean the absolute world to me. 

Appreciate all of you guys. Also a quick shout out to the editor, Nick, who has been helpful in this podcast. I appreciate you and thank you for all of your work. As we sign off here, just want to say thank you all so much for listening, for supporting for four years to the ACL Athlete Podcast. This is your host, Ravi Patel, signing off.