Inspired: Rising Up Each Day with Purpose
Inspired: Rising Up Each Day with Purpose
KayLynne Ezzell PT, MPT
There is no doubt, we have loved watching the Tokyo Olympics. We are amazed with what people can do, and we love watching them do it, knowing the grit, time, determination, skill, drive, passion and support it takes to get to an elite level of sport or really anything. It’s beautiful! There is also beauty in watching people come together, and that is even more powerful after a season of being apart/ in isolation, living in a time of pandemic as well as a world struggling to overcome hard things like social injustice. We watch in amazement – people compete, do their thing -show up in their uniqueness and gifts from all over the world. We watch the beauty in coming together. We see team-mates push each other, work together and help one another. No-one is lying down on the job. It’s go time, and people step up and step out for one another. We watch and feel the emotion of accomplishment and defeat. I remember my time in sport of both… I remember feeling great accomplishment in winning, and the heartbreak of 3rd place that kept me from that state meet. I reflect on coaches that I wish had pushed me more. I regret not running that mile each morning with those weights in my hands – when my Dad was trying to help me get to another level. I reflect on teamwork in sport at times when it was both great and other times – it could have been better- we could have showed up for each other in better ways. I see that hamstring pull mid-stride and know the feeling. I feel the charge of stepping up to the starting blocks, I know the head games that happen. It’s all a part of life in sport and life in the greater place of living this one life we have. It inspires me to love more, to work hard, to listen better, and to know that the human condition is both Amazing and complex.
We have this amazing privilege to walk with each other every day. Just yesterday, my youngest looked at me and said “ I don’t want to work at Chili’s” Me: “Really? Why not?” (I also take into account that my middle daughter has a different view – and being in food service is a goal and desire of hers) Grady’s answer: “It’s way more important to work on people than on food or on a house.” This gave me a moment to reflect on my purpose and privilege as a physical therapist, who “works on people” and leads a business of people working on people. It’s not to say that preparing and serving food and building homes for people isn’t equally important. All of us have roles and objectives within our work that are both important and critical to humanity. It just gave me another glimpse of perspective, and I am honored to “work on people”. It’s a calling, and has always been a calling to help and encourage others – whether in my family or in my business.
I have a role to reach out and help someone up, to walk with them through adversity – to become both a coach and a team-mate, and I remain ready and empowered to step forward where I’m at to help my community stand up, walk, run and succeed in the goals they share with me. I am humbled and honored….. And there is a flip side – I need my own coaches, mentors, encouragers helping me be my best, helping me find the mindset to move forward in adversity and the strength to tackle my own hurdles.
One thing is certain is that the human condition is both powerful and vulnerable. We are capable of more than we think, and we have days that we struggle or experience defeat or injury. Yet, we have a choice- we let defeat take over or we stand up and press on, we reflect and learn knowing that our hardest days are capable of transforming us into something greater than we ever knew.
So…we step out in purpose @ Heights Physical Therapy…we are here, ready to help you be a better you- whatever that looks like.