How to rethink a problem

You're listening to episode number 11.

Thank you so much for joining us today. My goal with these conversations is to explore different types of people and their successes as well as their failures in navigating and mapping out their lives so that you too may have more insight in what it takes to build the life that you envision for yourself. I believe if you take action each day, the life that you want can be closer than you think. Welcome to Work That Out, guys, your guide to connecting authentically, living with purpose, and having no regrets. This is a show that gives you real stories and real examples of people working it out and creating the life that they want.

Hey guys, so today real quickly, I just want to talk to you about how we don't have to always just accept our present circumstances. So, you know, I try to be real open with you guys, and I feel like at first I used to think that I didn't have much to say, and I felt like the things that I was going through didn't really matter, didn't really mean anything to other people. But I, you know, have recently realized that a lot of the things that I know that I'm going through, that could possibly help someone else. So for about 7 months, I have been having some physical neck pain. And it started off when, you know, I would be working on my school set, you know, when I was still a theater teacher, and I would be helping, you know, because I always had a drill or a hammer in my hand, and I wanted to take part and do a lot of the work as well. And then, you know, I would finish and then have to hang my arm because, you know, at first I thought it was carpal tunnel, but I realized that I was having some neck and spine issues. Now, been about 11 years or so, I used to have an L5, you know, where I had a herniated disc. Well, I had that fixed. They just went in and snipped that off. And probably about 20 years ago or so, 15 years ago, my mom had her spine, like the steel rod placed into her spine because she was having back issues. Now I do realize that I feel like everything that my mother had, she passed all my siblings up. She passed up Sitter, Sandra, my brother Ron, my brother Les, and gave them all to me, right? So I have joint issues, I have osteoarthritis, and now I've got this neck stuff going on, right? So I started, you know, I was proactive with going to physical therapy, and then at first I was, I was also going to a chiropractor. I'm just, you know, just being open and honest with you guys. Although, you know, some people close to me would be like, quit letting those people pop your neck. But the chiropractor was like, oh, I can help. So I think that was I thought it was helping. So anyway, I've been really, really proactive. And so what I've been doing is I continued to lift weights. I ordered this traction thing for my neck. It looks weird as hell, but you know what? It helps kind of give my neck and the disc in my neck a little bit of space. And so, you know, in doing my physical therapy exercises 2 and 3 times a day. So I've been really, really cognizant of trying to fix it because Surgery, it's not like going down to Walmart, Kmart, to Fry's or whatever. Surgery, there's always a possibility of something going wrong, and now we're talking about my neck. So I was just real terrified of them operating on that. And he said, "If we have to operate, we'll go in through the front of the neck, we'll slide your esophagus over, and we'll get it from there and put these screws in." And he said, but you know, I had the appointment today. And he said, but when I look at your imaging, when I look at the paper, he said, you are a candidate for surgery today. And he said, when I look at your MRIs, but as you sit here in this office, and he said, I look at how strong you are. And he said, you know, and during the test, I feel how strong you are. And he said, we don't operate on paper, we operate on patients. And he said, so you have totally debunked what the MRI says, what the imaging says, what it says on paper, because of how much you have done to help the situation yourself. And so, long story short, you know, I felt like there are lots of things that I, I just could have accepted. I could have just complained about and not done a single thing about it and go, oh yeah, you know, this is just the cards that I've been dealt, right? And I did notice that when I'm strength training, especially like when I'm dumbbell bench pressing, that my left arm was a little bit weaker. And that is correcting itself, you know, well, not by itself. I'm working my tail off to correct it. And so what is it in your life that you can realize, you know what, I don't have to accept these circumstances. I can change. The outcome? I can change the outlook. How can I turn this around and not just accept the cards that I was dealt? Well, number one, you can just decide, right? I talked a couple weeks ago about choosing. Everything is a choice. We can choose to accept it, or we can choose to turn something around. So because everything is a choice, first of all, you just make the decision that you're not going to accept that. That you are going to do your very best, everything that you can, you know. That might be from researching. I did a lot of, you know, I Google this and Google that, and I join a lot of Facebook groups talking about the herniated disc in your neck. And so I like to educate myself and empower myself on how can I fix this on my own before I have to have surgery. And so is it possible that sometime in the future I might need surgery? Yes, totally possible. But you know what? Today I don't, because I was proactive and I didn't accept the cards that I was dealt. So what changes could you make in your life starting today, starting next week? How can you not accept something and turn it out to be even better than you ever anticipated?

All right guys, thank you so much for listening. If you want to know more about what I'm up to, head over to traviesteward.com. If you like seeing the videos of the podcast, every episode is on my YouTube channel. And if you like what you hear, please do me a favor and subscribe to the show. And remember, life is about connecting authentically, living with purpose, and having no regrets.