Three Bullet Thursday - 20240320

#ThreeBulletThursday - Raising the Tide of Continuous Improvement and Applied Knowledge in Personal Life and Business. If this was insightful to you, please repost/share. #Inspiration #Leadership

Huzzah!! The return of Three Bullet Thursday.

*(Inspiration) So what happened? Opportunity.

30 years ago, I blew out my knee down hill skiing, and had to have an ACL repaired. Cartilage is like scaffolding. The injury, broke down some of that scaffolding and unfortunately, it's an area of the body that doesn't build back. Fast forward 30 years, and my knee simply ran out of tire tread. First opinion, do all the therapy. <Checkmark>, but still pain, swelling, and bone on bone. Cortisone was next -- oh wow, by day 2, felt like I had a brand new knee! That lasted about 3 weeks, and you can only get that shot about every 4 months. Doc said we can try this other gel, but really you want to push this down the road til your 70's. Second opinion, New Doc, which seemed to resonate with me better, said, look, its an elective surgery. If it takes away from living and doing the things you love, you qualify. You're bone on bone. The therapy, well you've added a v8 to a car with no tire tread. Not a bad thing, but you're still not going anywhere. Concerns? What about when the replacement wears out? He said, they have brand new tech right now to deal with that, and in 20-30 years, it will be even better. Doc also said, on the upside, you're young and fit. On the down side, you're young, fit, and a surgeon has been in there before, so the swelling will be a challenge, the tissue I have to go through is thicker, and the work to recover is going tougher than if you were 70+

So... in life, every moment has balance. Every choice will have a benefit and a suffering tied to it. Thing is, we get to choose our suffering. Do I want to suffer for 20+ years as is, being limited in life? Or do I want to suffer for ~3+ months and get on with life. I chose the latter. Part of the challenge would be mindset. The pain, was in essence lying, because once installed, the knew knee was brand new mechanically. Everything else was trauma of change, trying to sort out where new fluid return paths would go, retraining muscles, healing from the incisions, etc, but... the .. .knee...was ... NEW..

What got me through.

One, my wife, who both pushed (frustrating) and supported me (yay!). Sometimes you need that feedback.

Knowing where the mind goes, the body follows... so that was first and foremost to keep on track.

David Goggins. Yes, I watched and listened to a lot of David Goggins. Did I want to be part of the elite 1% or part of the masses? (The former). Every time I got up, for anything, I did no less than 3 laps. "Who's going to carry the boats!" I'd shout inside my head. Have some vision of an end game you can get to that fits into that one second decision. Yes, the body may be doing laps, and hurting, but I took my mind to space, looking out the window of Virgin Galactic Unity space craft at the blackness of space, the curvature of the earth and our thin blue atmosphere. Each second, reframing my mind back there. Envisioning being able to climb those steps into that craft, and the ensuing the ride to space. Floating.

As things progressed, I had to do more mental work. The therapy game became like groundhog day (the movie). Workout, hurt, Ice, do my work for work, sleep, repeat. Again, coming back to those one second decisions. The knee was mechanically fine, and again working through pain to get the range of motion desired to ensure could do things like motorcycle, hike etc.

3 months in, doing pretty good. Graduated from physical therapy with a road map of exercises for the next 9 months to keep all the gains I've made. I've got pretty darn good range of motion, enough that it surprised my doc. And, best yet, I get to call myself a cyborg now :D

*(Inspiration) - Water into cup, Bruce Lee. A short little video on how to visualize navigating the universe. Challenge? Maneuver around it. Be like water.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=874988406572433

*(Book I'm reading / Leadership) Hammer of God by Arthur C Clark. Originally published in 1993. It seems like I pulled this out of the archives. What's interesting here is some of the forward thinking for that era. Rogue asteroid from space, on collision course with earth. Can we track it? Deflect it? It's a great dive into some "what ifs" and "what could be", relevant even today.

*(Leadership) The future is moving fast. Here in Japan, an innovative new algorithm sped up walking to human like variable speed. It uses a neural circuit model. Sounds like we're learning to mimic nature a lot better. (Mother nature is an interesting teacher).

https://www.cryptopolitan.com/robotics-human-like-variable-speed-walking/

*(Inspiration) Perception Management for Very Advanced Souls (a.k.a. Ron)

The next time someone upsets you, think, "Thanks for pointing out that I've begun depending on your approval. Time I lose the expectations."

And the next time someone doesn't take your view into account, think, "That's okay, I was once like that."

And if someone steals from you, think, "It was nothing, my supply is the Universe."

Or lies to you, think, "I'm sorry you feel that need."

Violates you, "All for my growth and glory."

Is rude to you, "Cheer up, dear soul, it'll be okay."

Judges you, "Thanks for sharing your truth."

Drives by you like a bat out of hell, "Be careful, my friend. You’re loved."

And the next time someone greets you with a smile, smile back, like you're sharing a secret.

Headmaster,

The Universe

www.tut.com

*(Bonus Bullets)

You live in a paradise, cloaked in matter, where your thoughts become things, your words give you wings, and all things remain forever possible. How could things be better? www.tut.com - Mike Dooley

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. – John F. Kennedy

ps. That photo for this week, is plasma as starship from IFT-3 re-entered. Pretty Amazing!.