One small change

Sometimes it is just about one small change. Be it a minor shift in your nightly routine that sets you down a path where you can sleep a full 8 hours. A slight tweak to an email that builds trust with a colleague. Whatever it might be that you are struggling with, often it’s a simple change that can help in resolving your issue.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this because of a simple modification in my workout routine that has changed my life. Now hang with me as I lay out this story. For over a week, I was dealing with acute sciatic pain. It felt like a hot poker was being shoved into my butt cheek and the pain that ensued radiated down my IT band and into the side of my calf. Given I’ve had this issue in the past, on and off for the last 20 years, I dutifully pulled out the foam roller and lacrosse ball (if you know, you know). I then chased those “stretches” with a few Advil, all to the tune of no relief.

As week two of this excruciating pain continued, I began thinking I would need to see a doctor. I’m no spring chicken, and perhaps it’s my aging that was prolonging this pain. With the lack of sleep, due to the pain, I even began having terrible thoughts like, maybe I had cancer! (Yes, I totally get hypochondriacal when pain lingers longer than I think it should). At some point I made the decision, to go back to the gym, regardless of the pain (I know, I’m awful).

At the gym, on a whim, I decided to consult with Tyler, the owner and primary trainer at The Block Maui (highly recommend it, even if you are just on vaca and want to get a little swole). We had about a two-minute chat, when he said, “Sounds like your gluteus medius isn’t firing.” Within ten minutes, he was showing me a simple exercise to add as a warm-up before my workouts. He even took a few minutes to guide me through a full round of this exercise (total white glove service) and wouldn’t you know it, the pain was gone! WHAT???

You see, sometimes we try to do things on our own. And left to our own devices we are terrible at diagnosing the problem. Some of us don’t like asking for help. We don’t like being seen as weak or as a burden. We suffer in silence, or worse make a mess of the very thing we are trying to do because we see no other way. But sometimes, we can’t do it on our own. We don’t have the simple tools, perspective, or experience, to make the right change.

So, I ask you, where are you holding back from asking for help? Where are you ready to explode your life because you haven’t gotten the result you want and don’t see a way through? What can you do to ask for help? What’s holding you back from asking? Would you buy that story if someone else said it? My guess is you wouldn’t.

Go on, ask for help, and get that small insight or change in your perspective that will help you soar!