What Performance Means to Me
As I started thinking about my own physical therapy practice and how I’ve treated patients throughout my career, I kept coming back to performance as a key metric. Sometimes, this is subjective. “I was able to get back on the basketball court and scored 10 points in my team’s win.” Sometimes, it is objective. “Patient was able to lift 50 pounds then push or pull 100lbs 20 times each, for 3 cycles in an hour, to simulate work tasks.” Regardless of our chosen activity, we each need to perform at our best every day.
For me, I have started to view everything as performing because I believe it is. Some people call it ‘functioning,’ which it is but I think performance takes it to the next level. I don’t want to simply function, I want to perform at a high level in everything I do. Throughout a work day, I personally have to stand, walk, lift, perform manual techniques, demonstrate exercises, and guard patients for safety anywhere from 8 to 11 hours right now. I can feel the difference if I don’t sleep well or feel my mobility isn’t at its best. These things affect my ability to perform at work, and that’s not even considering the things I do at home like walking the (energetic) dogs or cleaning up the house.
For you, performance likely means many different things as well. You may be a grandparent trying to avoid knee pain while lifting your grandkids or running after them. You may be the new parent carrying around that same child. Maybe you are an account executive struggling with neck stiffness while you’re working all day or you could be a high school soccer player dealing with a nagging ankle sprain. Performance certainly is something we think of when it comes to sports, but it doesn’t only have to relate to sports or high-level activities. Carrying the groceries in from the car or standing for extended periods of time to talk with friends at a party are important activities for most of us too.
I would consider any of these activities, and anything else you do, as performance. I don’t know many people that truly want to be mediocre at what they do, regardless of what it is. While there are many factors that affect our performance, physical therapy can go a long way to helping you recover physically and get back to top tier performance on a daily basis and that’s what I want to do for you here at Legacy. As for those other factors, we will have some future posts to help you perform at your best day in and day out so keep an eye on our blog and social media channels to build your legacy!
