Latest / The ACL Athlete Podcast / 265 | Five Years of The ACL Athlete Podcast + Five Lessons Learned

Transcript

265 | Five Years of The ACL Athlete Podcast + Five Lessons Learned · The ACL Athlete Podcast

• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome everyone to the ACL Athlete Podcast.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is the podcast where we talk about everything related to the ACL, whether that's the injury itself, the rehab process, return to sport, and more.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Ravi Patel, performance physical therapist and coach.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Between myself and fellow guests and experts, you'll learn through the lens of the patient, the healthcare professional, and the coach.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: The goal of this podcast is to equip you, the athlete, with the education to make the best informed decision about your care and your ACL journey.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's dive into today's episode.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was diagnosed with a high grade partial thickness tearing of the ACL.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was the biggest injury and shock of my life.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: I went to the hospital and I got dismissed.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't move my leg at all without having extreme pain.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: I played and practiced through the pain and re-injured a few times.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I then started physio and was referred to the doctors and am now getting an MRI because my physio listened to me.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: April, I got the MRI back, and I found out what happened.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: It has been such a mental battle.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: It seems like no one understands how I feel, what I'm going through, and how depressed I have been.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: But then I found your podcast.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the more I listened, the more I felt seen and heard.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: The countless times I've cried about my knee and then turn on your podcast.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: It really has made an incredible impact on me and how I get through this.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: I know the odds of you actually seeing this is slim, but I wanted to say thank you because you really do make a difference and make me feel less scared about this.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm meeting my orthopedic surgeon this Tuesday, and I feel prepared because of you.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for making me feel less alone and heard.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: That message came to my inbox in the past year, and I have saved it.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: I have saved every single one that I receive.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I show up every week for five years.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Five years.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you are new here, welcome to the ACL Athlete Podcast.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are a familiar ear, I guess you would say, welcome.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the host, Robbie Patel, and this is episode 265.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Five years.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be honest with you guys.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: I almost let this episode pass.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Life is really, really full right now for me.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: I have two young kids, they are under two years old, and so I would say that it is definitely busy.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: A business that honestly does not slow down.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: There is a lot of positives, but you know, owning a business has its downsides too, y'all.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: And a calendar that honestly has a mind of its own.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I forgot to record this when I was supposed to, but I can let five years go by without sitting down and actually talking to you about what this has meant.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So here we are.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: No perfect plan here.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Just me and you, like it's always been for the past five years.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I may get a little emotional.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: So y'all just bear with me because this does really mean a lot to me.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so I need to start here because I don't think I've ever said this clearly enough.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not just a clinician or a physical therapist.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm someone who just started a podcast about ACL rehab because it seemed like a good content strategy.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: I am an ACL athlete.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: I have lived this, I've breathed this for years and years.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen other people live this.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing that really started this was the first time I tore my ACL when I was in high school.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And because of insurance, I had to play a waiting game, play this doctor game for longer than I needed to, sitting with a torn knee, watching my teammates play and do things, enjoying their summer, wondering when I was gonna get back to what I wanted to do and whether I ever really would.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like that really did cross my mind.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: I know what that waiting feels like.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: I know what that uncertainty does to your head.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, any of you ACLers listening to this, I feel you.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: The second time I tore my ACL was in college.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I had a$10,000 out-of-pocket max.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And for those of you who are international who probably don't have to deal with this chaos of insurance that we deal with in the US, especially, that means that we have a certain deductible.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: So you pay a certain amount before your insurance even helps you.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Usually it's around two, three thousand dollars then.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's more like ten thousand.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: But then you have an out-of-pocket max, and that is something where until you hit that amount, then your insurance starts to take over.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I was a senior in college, pretty broke, um, did not have much money to my name.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I worked a job all throughout college, and so I had to help use that to help pay for my rent and for things and and whatnot.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like I was just, you know, flowing with the money.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I had a$10,000 out-of-pocket max.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll never forget whenever I was going to the surgeon, and my brother was with me, and I basically was shown like this is what you're going to have to pay out of pocket.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: And there was an upfront, like two or three thousand dollar charge.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I don't even have a credit card that gets here.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so my brother whipped us out, paid for it, said, We'll figure it out.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was due to pay$10,000 after my surgery, and so I paid$25 every single month to make sure that the amount did not go to collections and influence my credit.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what healthcare is.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I had to go through that.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: So when people are telling me, hey, I can't afford this, you know, finances are tough, I get it, y'all.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I get it.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's not often that college students are having to pay$10,000 out of pocket for a healthcare expense.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had to navigate that while also considering physical therapy school debt and college debt in addition to that.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I get it, but I had to walk this, right?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because I didn't want to also wait.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to wait to get my ACL, you know, a year, two, three years later.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time, that's all I thought I could do.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: This was the right steps to take.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I wasn't gonna let the system decide for me, and I was like, I'll figure it out, like I always have.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so going through this twice did not make it any easier.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: It honestly made it harder because I knew exactly what was coming, every phase, every setback, every moment where your body and your mind are both testing you at the same time.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: But it's different.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: I always tell people, I always tell my team this there is no one ACL that is going to be the same.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: You're never gonna find one single ACL journey, even on the same person, to be exactly the same.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is something that can make it almost challenging to go through this a second time because you're like, oh, well, I know what to prepare for, right?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes it just doesn't go nearly the same way as you had planned, right?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it's almost like you get can get in your head a little bit more because you have a comparison.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing here with this is that when I went through this twice, I also had people in my corner, physical therapists who actually were there for me, a support system that showed up, and at the time it was my brother.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: I went home after my second ACL because my parents are immigrants, and if I told my mom I was having surgery, she would have freaked out.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, let me just go ahead and do this.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'll show up at Christmas break.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it was Thanksgiving break, actually.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Just say, got it done, no problem, I'm doing good.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I showed up in the car, five-hour drive, and my mom was so mad at me, but you know what?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: I got it done.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's just what you do.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have immigrant parents, you might understand that whole rationale behind it.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's just something you do because you don't want to burden your parents anymore, right?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyways, went through this process, and these people in my corner who have supported me through this has been such a huge part of this.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Both the injury, the surgery, and just the people who have helped me through it is the entire reason the ACL athlete honestly exists.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: The entire reason this podcast exists.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to be that for someone else.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: That really meant a lot to me.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, the showing up part, the building something from scratch with no guarantee it works, that did not start with me.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up in a small town in Georgia, southeast Georgia, the swamp.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: My parents owned a motel, small little motel, still do to this day.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: And our parents worked hard.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: The hotel itself was attached to there was a small little home in the office.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so that is where we lived, that's where I grew up.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: From the time I was a kid, I was answering phone calls to the motel, cleaning rooms, helping run the operations.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: My parents had to go to other places, and so my brother and I, as single-digit kids, would run the motel during the day sometimes.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: My dad came to this country, he got fired from multiple jobs because of language barriers, and built that business from absolutely nothing.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: There was no AI, there was no internet to get this thing started, there was no, here's this book, here's this business coach.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's none of that, y'all.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And he built the business from absolutely nothing.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Him and my mom both.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: He showed up every single day to something he was creating from scratch.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: No roadmap, no guarantee.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: He just worked and he was consistent and he never gave up.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I watched that growing up.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: I did not fully understand it then, but I do now.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: My mom, toughest and smartest person I know, she made sure we never quit.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid, you know, there were times where I like really struggled, um, especially when I was overweight.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there were times where, you know, sports were really hard for me.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Being able to acclimate to public school, being this, you know, overweight kid, this Indian kid in this rural Georgia town, you know, was very isolating at times.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: And there were plenty of moments where I felt like walking away.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I watched my parents, they worked hard, they stuck it through, and they raised me to stay in it.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, at least I can do a stick with this, right?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so I turned a corner.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, whenever I was in seventh grade, I decided to I was gonna outwork everyone around me.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't because I was the biggest and strongest, I never was, but I knew I could work hard, and I knew I wouldn't stop, and I knew that I could try to outsmart people, and so that's what I tried to do.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that kid is still in here, and that is who has shown up every week for five years.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: The first episode of this podcast went live February 4th, 2021.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I am a little bit delayed in the month to be five years and some change.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: I had no audience starting this back in 2021.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: We were in the middle of COVID, no strategy, I had no idea what I was doing.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: I recorded it probably more times than I want to admit.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like, literally, when I looked at the number of takes, there was three digits on there, like of how many times it took for me to like retake certain things because I was just so nervous.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, no one's even listening to me.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm recording this on my own.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I still wasn't sure it was good.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: I just knew I had something to say, and that athletes who are going through what I went through deserved better information and better support.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: You guys deserve this.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And man, I genuinely thought my wife Abigail was responsible for most of my first 100 downloads.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: I even told her, I was like, You're definitely in that play button, aren't you?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Or you're texting your friends and being like, go hit Robbie's podcast play button.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And she laughed at me, but she's always been in my corner, supportive since day one, and still to this day.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then one day I got a message from a stranger.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Someone I had never met, had no connections to, who said the podcast helped them.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: That was the moment I realized this was real, like it was legit.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: That someone out there was listening and it was actually making a difference.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's every week.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I save every single message, every single one.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want to share a few more with you guys before we keep going.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: I know you guys are like, wow, he's already talking so long.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is my podcast.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: I can do whatever I want.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: And also, if you're here with me, I appreciate you for just listening because this is my time to just kind of reflect on a few things.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if you stick with it, I appreciate you for being on this ride with me.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: I promise you that it will be worth it.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, a message from an athlete that I'm gonna share with you guys is that just want to let you know that you have been an enormous part of my journey already.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: I tore my ACEL four months ago, did prehab, and just had my surgery.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: I would not have been able to do this and would have been totally lost without your podcast.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: I've still got a year to catch up before I'm up to date, though.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: I tore a plane AFL.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: It took me over a month to get a diagnosis going from suggestion of a tear in the MRI report and complications.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, all this to say, I found you by accident and feel like you've been stepping me through it ever since.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: You have helped me so much, and I appreciate all you do for our niche community.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: I really don't know what I would have done without you.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then here's another one.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast has helped me so much in so many ways.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Every episode feels like a hug.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: I hope the girl that had nine surgeries, Megan, if you're is still doing better today, I hope I can get to know her even more.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: I am 20 weeks post op now, and most of the time I see the light at the end of the tunnel.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't read these to celebrate myself, y'all.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: I read them because these people are the point.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast exists for the athlete who finished BT and felt lost.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you're in the midst of it and you just feel lost, right?
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: For the parent watching their kid go through this and not knowing how to help.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: For the clinician who wants to do better work, that's who I'm talking to every single week is everyone who is involved in this process.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, the ACLer, of course, but also being able to talk to people who are supporting in these roles.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: I get calls and emails and messages from moms and dads and partners who are also listening.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, I'm sharing these podcast episodes with my partner, or I pointed them to your podcast because I wanted to help them.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, man, what an incredible person to be in their lives.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And but the thing is, is that I know that it's just more than the ACL or who is listening.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's also the clinicians who are working with the ACLers, it's also the coaches who are working with the ACLers, it's everyone who is in this process together who is listening and helping to help the ACLer at the core of all this, right?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so one of the things I wanted to share is some of what these five years have looked like.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the 265th episode.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then in terms of downloads, here's the thing that's really wild 301,000 plus downloads.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: And when I saw that number, it was crazy when I checked it because we passed a 300,000 download number, which is pretty wild.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like we just passed 150 and 200.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: So to hit 300,000 listens, people have clicked download is wild.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then in terms of countries, 157 different countries where this podcast has been downloaded, and 9,469 cities that this podcast has been downloaded in.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: So when I sat down in 2021 with a microphone at our kitchen island in our small little 600 square foot of apartment, no plan.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: I could not have imagined those numbers.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: But what they represent is what gets me.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Every download is a person, every country is someone in a completely different part of the world who found this podcast because they needed it.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is not lost on me at all, not even a little bit.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, next, what I want to do is talk through the five lessons in five years, one for each year.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna try and keep these tight because I want them to actually land.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: So y'all bear with me.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Lesson one, consistency wins.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing glamorous about showing up on the weeks where it doesn't feel like it's working, right?
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: I've recorded episodes, I've showed up for workouts, for the business, for my family.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: And don't get me wrong, when we're talking about like recording some episodes in the middle of the hard seasons in the business, there are times where, you know, I generally question whether it was worth the time sometimes.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it it can get exhausting, right?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: But I hit record anyways, not because I felt motivated, but because I had made a commitment and I decided that commitment meant something, whether or not the conditions were perfect, right?
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that is what consistency actually is.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: It is not showing up when things are good.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone can do that.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: It is showing up when things are hard and uncertain, and you have every legitimate reason to skip it.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: That is what compounds over time.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: That is what five years looks like.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: And this is exactly what I'm asking you to do in your rehab, in this ACL rehab process.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Not to have perfect sessions, not to feel motivated every day, just show up and do the work.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: The thing is, is that we have evaluated so many different athletes over the years.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Our team has just defined essentially what are the different traits that makes people successful in ACL, and consistency is one of those.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you look across any goal people want, right, it's consistency, it's showing up.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's not having the highest amount of energy and perfect workouts and most linear process.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: You ask anyone who has achieved anything hard, and there are days where they don't want to do it, and they do it anyways.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: The results are buried in the repetition, y'all.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: So showing up, being consistent does win.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Lesson number two don't get too high on the highs, don't get too low on the lows.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: I learned this early in my business, but not early enough.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: One of my mentors shared this with me, and I want to pay this forward to you.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had months in the business where everything felt like it was clicking, athletes coming in, revenue in a good place, team is humming along.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had months where, you know, it felt like the whole thing was moving backwards, taking a step backwards.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Early in building this, I let both of those realities hit me harder than they should have.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: The good months made me feel invincible, the hard months made me question everything.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And there are times where I've been like, you know, is this worth it?
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I think everyone should kind of have those moments, right?
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: What I've learned is that neither the peak nor the valley is telling you the full truth.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not typically where we live, anyways.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: The peak is not proof that you have it figured out.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: The valley is not proof that you are failing, right?
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Both are just data points in this long arc of this process.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: And this will sound familiar to you if you're in the middle of your ACL process.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: You can have sessions where everything feels right, and you think you are almost there, right?
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: You see the light at the end of the tunnel, and then two days later, your knee might be stiff, might be a little swollen, might be a little painful, right?
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: And your confidence is gone.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: That is not a setback, that is just this process, y'all.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I cannot tell you how much it is normal to expect a setback at some point.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: I communicate this to all of my athletes.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: I literally said this quote to my athlete a couple of days ago.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: The goal is not to eliminate the highs and lows, it is to stop letting them make your decisions for you because it starts to become this huge roller coaster of emotions.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Stay anchored to the work, not how you feel on any given day.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get too high on the highs and don't get too low on the lows.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: Lesson number three embrace your support system and ask for help.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: I am wired to do things myself.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: I've been that way my whole life.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: You can ask my wife this.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: I am stubborn as hell, and it is something that I try to do everything myself.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: I try to fix things, I try to solve problems.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's just the way I've always had to operate since I was young.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm being honest, it comes from wanting to make sure it gets done right as well.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: But it also comes from not wanting to need anyone.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: That is not a strength.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: That is a story I told myself to justify not being vulnerable.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: The truth is nothing I have built happened alone.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: My dad showed me what it looks like to build something from nothing.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: My mom made sure that you know you do this in a smart way and you look at it from all angles and that you show up, right?
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: Abigail has been my corner through every hard season of building this business and company and raising a family at the same time.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: My team carries the weight that I cannot carry by myself.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: And the athletes I've worked with and do work with who recover the best are not the ones who just kind of white knuckle it in silence, right?
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: They're the ones who let their support system in, who tell their people what they are going through, who ask their clinician and coaches the real questions instead of pretending they are fine.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Or like, oh, I don't need your help.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like I've got this, like I'll figure it out.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Asking for help is not weakness, it is one of the highest leveraged decisions you can make.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if you talk to anyone in a position who is doing good, who is trying to move things along, asking for help is so huge.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like that is something that a pride thing can be.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I had that early on, and it's something that I have to let go in order for us to move forward, right?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: To stop caring and stop trying to do it all alone, right?
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: The people around you want to help.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Let them in, let them help you.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's important for you to embrace that support system and ask for help, right?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: And if you feel like you don't have the support, go find it.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is not something that you need to do your DIY, do-it-yourself ACL rehab.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is where you figure out where is the right guide for me?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: Is it online?
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is it local to me?
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Find the person who knows this stuff like the back of their hand, who takes the anxiety and the worry and the loss feels out of this process and becomes your Sherpa.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: They're helping you up the mountain every single turn, bad conditions, there's you know, a path blocked off.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: They're the ones who are helping you with every switchback and every turn.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's so important here.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: You are not the one who is trying to trek Mount Everest here.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of what this is.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: People kind of think that it's like just a knee rehab.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like you're kind of taking on your own Everest of your knee.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if you don't get there, there is something that could be influencing the rest of the different hikes that you do for the rest of your life, right?
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so that is why this is so important.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: So having a good support system and asking for help is so key.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Lesson number four, do hard things.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: There is a version of comfortable that will slowly take everything from you.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: I've watched it happen in rehab and I've caught myself falling into it in my own life.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: When things are going well, the instinct is to protect what you have.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: Stop pushing, maintain, and I get it.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: But what I have learned is that the people who stay sharp, stay resilient, stay steady for what life throws at them are the ones who keep choosing hard things, even when they don't have to.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to train hard after your ACL.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: You can just get back to sport and coast, right?
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: But the athletes who come out of this process genuinely stronger, physically and mentally, are the ones who decided to do the hard version on purpose.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because here is what voluntary things give you that nothing else can.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: They prove to you that you can handle hard things.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: And that proof lives in your body and your mind long after the hard thing is over.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Stop avoiding the hard and go find it.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because I promise this is an opportunity, y'all, for you to be able to come back stronger.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I fully believe it if we do this right, we lean into the process.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: I know there is long, I know that there are a lot of hard parts of this.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: I've done it myself twice, and I daily hear walk other ACL athletes through this process.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: Our team does as a whole.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: We coach other clinicians and coaches how to work with other athletes doing this.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we get it, but I will tell you if you do hard things in this process, you lean into it and you do the hard, you will be better for it.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Lesson number five: fear and action can coexist.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Don't let the fear stop you.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you something that took me longer than it should have to understand.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Fear does not always go away before you act.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: And this is someone who I really feel it is important to push yourself outside your comfort zone, right?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Doing hard things.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: That is gonna allow us to grow and be better people.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so we need to take advantage of these opportunities because when you don't feel like you're pushing yourself or you feel like, you know, you're in your comfort zone, then I start to get a little panicky, to be honest.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it's something that if we feel a little bit of imposter syndrome, if we feel a little bit more of, you know, we're pushing ourselves out of the comfort zone, then that's good.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: If we're feeling a little bit of fear, I think that that's healthy.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I know with ACL rehab and this process and this injury, there's a lot of fear, there's a lot of anxiety, and that sometimes that can almost handcuff you and it can almost feel like inaction, right?
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're just like, my knee is not letting me do things, my brain is stopping me, the emotional side, all the things that come along with it, right?
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing is, we think that fear needs to go away for us to act, right?
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it might not go away.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing is, you have to act, but it does go away because you act, right?
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: It will.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've been waiting for fear to leave before I do the thing my entire life, and it's never once worked that way, right?
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: I hit record on episode one, and I was terrified as I kind of shared with you guys.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I made my first hire terrified.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: I set the edge of the decision in this business that kept me up at night, and I have had to decide whether I was going to let that feeling make the call or whether I was going to make it myself.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I know you guys know this feeling.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: The first time you load that knee after surgery, the first time you sprint at full speed, you hit those cuts, right?
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: And trusting that that knee holds up.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I just love showing my athletes that their knee is so capable of these things.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: They have worked hard and built up the strength, but it's okay for that fear to exist, right?
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: You can wait your whole life for that fear to go away before you do it, but it won't, right?
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: The fear is part of the rep in the process.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: You feel it and you go anyways.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, do you go do things recklessly?
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: But that is how trust gets built in your knee, in yourself.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Fear is allowed to be in the room and it's okay.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need it to be completely gone.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: It just does not get to be in charge, right?
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where action comes in.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I truly believe that if you have a good approach and if you have good guidance, that you're going to be able to slowly let that pendulum swing the other way from fear towards action, right?
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that's gonna help to make that fear dampen down and decrease.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: And don't get me wrong, the times that I started to play sports after my ACLs, yeah, there was fear in there.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: But was there a process to get to that point appropriately?
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's what's important to help make sure we're not feeding that fear and we're feeding more of the confidence in your body because of the rehab that's done and getting prepared for what you're going to do.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: So fear and action can coexist.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: Do not let fear stop you.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say one more thing before I close.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: When I started this podcast in February of 2021, I was a different version of myself.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: I did not have kids yet.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was earlier in building the ASOL athlete.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, I did not fully understand why I was doing this beyond wanting to help athletes.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now I have two sons under the ages of two.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Wild for me to even say that.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: Asher and Liam.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I do this has gotten bigger and clearer every single year.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: I want them to grow up watching their dad build something that matters, something that serves people, right?
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Something that reflects the same values my parents showed me in that motel and folks in.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: That you showed up, that you do the hard work, that you stay in it even when no one is watching, and even when you're not sure it's working.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: Five years of this podcast, this company is my version of that.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: And my wife, Abigail, my best friend, none of this has existed without her support, especially through these five years and beyond.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so, as we finish this episode up, I am not going to do a giveaway like I have done in the past today.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to ask you something more important.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: If this podcast has helped you at any point over the last five years, please share this episode with one person who needs it right now.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: One person who is in the middle of their ACEL rehab process and feeling lost, feeling scared, and like they're maybe doing this alone.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's all I'm asking for because that's how this thing grows in a way that actually means something.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: And to everyone who has listened, shared, sent a message, left a review, or just showed up week after week alongside me, thank you.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: I really, really mean that.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: From one ACL athlete to another, here's the five years.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: Let's keep going.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is your host, Robbie Patel, signing off.