We spend a lot of time talking about WHY YOU should choose physical therapy. We talk about the techniques we learn, the skills we have, and how they can improve your life. But, rarely do we focus on WHY WE chose to enter this field.
This year we will continue to focus on the benefits of physical therapy through our communication with you, but we hope to also help bring home the many great reasons we love this field of medicine.
A New Year is a natural starting point, a place from which we can set new goals, reflect on the past year, and decide how we would like to be better. A desire to improve ourselves is something that occurs naturally with most of us. Because physical therapy is about improvement, you can see why we were drawn to a field where we can immerse ourselves in the work of watching and helping others meet new goals and overcome obstacles.
I have been employed in physical therapy for ten years and never get tired of working with patients, they are inspiring. They come to us looking for assistance and guidance, but it is through their efforts and work that the true difference happens. We can tell them what to do, but we can’t change them, only they can do that.
Imagine meeting someone on the day their life changed, for example a stroke or major surgery. They are feeling overwhelmed, tired, they are often in physical as well as emotional pain, and we ask them to get up and give us some of their precious energy at that time. They are worried about what their future looks like, and we are asking them to worry about how to get out of bed, one of these things might seem a little more important than the other and you can see why they sometimes give us the look of, “are you kidding me, can I have a second.” We know this, and we see that it can seem uncaring that we want them to step away from the big picture. But that is where progress starts, the small steps. The seemingly insignificant tasks, like getting out of bed on your own. And seeing them follow us, and work hard on these tough days gives us the motivation to keep showing up for them. It puts it all into perspective for us as well, we know that we have to put as much effort into preparing our patients for success as they are willing to give us during their therapy sessions.
So, as we embark on this New Year, the take away I hope that you get from this post is that you need to surround yourself with someone, anyone that inspires you. That’s why I chose physical therapy! We are lucky that those people are around us every day at work. But if you can find someone that lifts you up, puts in the effort with you, you are much more likely to succeed. These people, our patients, are our reason and inspiration. Now go find yours!
Ps. Stay tuned because we have an awesome project featuring our patients that we are working on and you are not going to want to miss it!