Episode 34 | Remember Your Why

What’s up gang, and welcome back to another episode on the ACL Athlete Podcast. Do you guys ever just have a day where you’re just feeling like you’re constantly just breathing heavily? I’m having one of those days, so just bear with me. But I’m excited for this one, the topic for today is “Remember Your Why.” It’s going to be a short one. We’re going to get straight to the punch with it. 

A little background on how this came about. This is something that I think is really important in the ACL rehab process and just life in general. And it really sparked up whenever I was talking to my wife recently, where I was feeling a little bit tired. People feel these types of things, whether it’s with school or with athletics, work, life, all these things. And for me, I put a lot into this podcast into working with my athletes, into things outside of my professional life. And it’s important to recognize that, and it’s important to know, okay, do I need some time to recover? Take a step back and look at the big picture here. I talked to my wife and we were looking at the big picture here and what it is that I am looking for with the ACL athlete and what I want to do going forward and where I’m currently at. It went into this really deep conversation about my why, which you guys have heard, and if you haven’t, go back and listen to some of the first episodes of the podcast.

But those things haven’t changed and it was something that really fired me up whenever I was talking to her. And she does such a good job cultivating that with me because she knows how much I love to put into this. And it’s easy to get caught up in the micro and the small things in life and in what we’re doing. And sometimes we just need to take a step back, look at the macro, look at what is driving that, what is the motivation, and more importantly, what is the why? 

And so to me, I’m a big person who likes to reflect on these things and to know why we do what we do and how life seems to move so fast. This is something that is mainly focused today on ACL mindset. And why is it important and mostly focused on remembering your why. And we all know, and I’ve talked about this in the past, how much ACL rehab, surgery, recovery, and the journey is just as much mental and emotional, as much as it is physical. And it’s one of those things that’s really hard to describe unless you have gone through it yourself.

You can talk to friends who have gone through it, but I know any of you ACL athletes who are listening to this, you’re shaking your head right now because you’re like, yeah, it sucks, it’s hard. And no one really prepared me for this, how long it is and how much hard work it is. And it could take a big toll on you. It’s one of those things where it can be easy to get discouraged, especially whenever things aren’t going the way that you had planned. Maybe you’re experiencing a setback. Maybe you feel very lost because you’ve been cleared and maybe you’re just unmotivated because your knee keeps swelling up. There are all these obstacles and things in the way that are kind of keeping you from getting to that end goal. Part of this has stemmed also from having a lot of conversations with athletes who are going into surgery and who are feeling the way that I just described where they have experienced setbacks or they’re feeling very lost and unmotivated.

And this is the whole point of this episode today, to take a step back and look at your why. And this is what I ask these athletes when I talk to them, whether they’re athletes that I’m working with or maybe they’re just connecting with me, wanting to reach out. But here’s what I want you to do take a step back and ask yourself, what is my why? Why am I going through rehab? What is my end goal? What do I want to get back to doing? Is it playing a sport? Is it to play with your kids? Is it just to be healthy and not to be afraid of your knee? What are your dreams and aspirations? I have some athletes who want to get onto the professional level right now, so they have a lot of aspirations to get to the top-tier level. And that’s going to be their driving focus to make sure that they are pushing it day after day and doing the best that they can with their rehab. 

I want you to ask yourself these things and look at why ACL rehab is important for you why you should show up every day and what is it that you want to get back to. An action item for you is to take a video of yourself, put it in selfie mode, and record a short video of your why. Now, you might think this is really cheesy, but I promise you it’ll be something that will be incredibly valuable for you. It can be something that you use, especially on those days where you are struggling, where you feel like you’re not winning and you feel like all the odds are against you. And it might be a setback. These are the times when that video can be very valuable for you to be able to play and be like, okay, it’s just one day. This is not how it’s going to end. 

And I’m going to give you an example of this. I just had an athlete who had surgery and before surgery, I told her, “Hey, can you please record this video of your why, why are you having surgery? What is it that you want to get back to? And it’s just a short video for her to keep for herself. And she went through surgery. And she’s had a very hard first week. As expected, she’s doing fine. But it’s just been tough, a lot of pain, a lot of swelling and things like that. She went back to that video on the day that she felt like she really hit a really low point. She went and watched the video and she was able to bounce back because she was like, this is only temporary. And it was able to give her some fuel to be able to get through the day and then move forward. And guess what? She’s doing much better now. It’s something that can even just give you that little nudge. This is something that I want you to try. And if anything, write it down. But I highly suggest recording a video as it will just translate and mean so much for you to be able to see yourself in order to use that later down the road.

Next week, we are going to dive into something called “The ACL Athlete Self-Assessment.” I want you to think about what we’ve talked about in this episode. And then I’m going to bring this self-assessment onto the podcast and we’re going to dive deeper into your why. We’re going to figure out what it is that really pushes you, and then also we’re going to figure out where you’re currently at, and where you need to go and what that looks like. It’s going to be an honest self-reflection and an assessment that will be very helpful for you, to make sure that you are on the right track. And especially for the people who feel like they’re a bit lost. This can be something to help redirect you on this path toward the end goal that you’re looking for. And let’s face it, we just need this from time to time. I told you, short and sweet to the point, here we are remembering your why. Make sure you tune in next week because it will be building off of this. I think it’s something that will be really helpful for everyone who’s going through their own ACL journey.

Before I sign off, guys, do me a favor. Go and leave a review. It doesn’t take very long and it’ll be super helpful for people who are looking for ACL guidance and help. And that’s the main goal of this podcast is to provide information to people so they can make better decisions, so they don’t get trapped and so that they can have a better outcome and get back to what they want to do. Please do me a favor and leave a review so other ACL athletes can see this and check it out.

Other than that, I’m signing off. Thank you all so much for listening. This is your host, Ravi Patel, signing off.