Rebuild/Reboot: Work Insights After Recovering from an Injury

Authored by: Nancy Blair, SVP Content/ Editor-In-Chief

A physical injury can teach valuable life and work lessons. Nancy Blair, Editor-In-Chief, offers insights on how a recent surgery inspired new perspectives on productivity, creativity, and resilience.

A colleague asked about my recovery from recent rotator cuff surgery, and, as these things go at Access, it quickly turned into a conversation about life/work lessons the experience might hold. Initially, I wasn’t sure there were any, but perhaps unsurprisingly, thinking about it further has produced some parallels between my approach to the surgery and how I go about my worklife as the head of our content practice here at Access. Some thoughts:

Research. Hitting Dr. Google excessively pays off. I found a few accessories (a nifty freezable shoulder sleeve, for example) and tons of helpful YouTube videos about what to expect. Here at Access, we lead with research. We have a great team that helps on all of our projects, but anyone who works closely with me can attest to the amount of obsessive Googling I add to that when I approach any project – a habit built over my years in newsrooms as well as in PR.

Prepare. For surgery, I gave up my beloved tennis and engaged in a summer of pre-hab that is helping immensely now that I am on the other side of it. Thoughtful preparation also helps me in everything I do at work, from sourcing sessions with executives to media trainings.

Rest. You can’t push healing. It takes time. So does writing. One of my biggest tricks of the trade is to put a piece of writing down and take a walk. It frees the mind and, without fail, helps the words flow when I return to my desk. Our best ideas often come when our minds are at rest.

Be grateful. Starting from zero mobility post-surgery was humbling, and I found myself grateful every day for just a bit more range of motion.? I’ll be back at tennis in the new year and will be more thankful for the joy and camaraderie in it than ever. It’s a good reminder to be thankful for the wonderful colleagues and the breadth of interesting work I get to do here.

Compete. I’m doing great, btw, well ahead of schedule according to the folks at my physical therapy group. I’m a semi-competitive person by nature. I like to win, but it’s not the only thing that drives me. The satisfaction in the doing is just as important. This nature has helped me recover faster and has also helped drive our success as a content team at the agency. We want to win for our business, but especially for our clients.

I’d have preferred not to need the surgery, of course, but the lessons I’m taking take from the experience will help me moving forward. Maybe they’ll even help me improve my backhand.