What Is The Path?
You know when you are on the Path. You know when you are NOT on the Path. It is a specific feeling you get when you are driving to and from work; when you wake up in the morning; when you go to bed at night. It is there when you are in the thick of the right book; there in the heat of a stimulating conversation with friends and family; there when you are cresting the peak of a mountain or completing an invigorating training session with a community of motivated individuals. Whether it be making headway on a new and important project, gaining traction on a fresh diet, or undergoing a spiritual breakthrough, the feeling of being on the Path is always the same. It is that magnetic pull of internal energy and sustained motivation that one gets when they are doing things right. When on the Path, the creative energy starts flowing. The inspirational books, podcasts, and songs start queueing up by the minute. The next steps are clear and obvious. The only limiting factor is available time in the day. As eloquently stated by japanese philosopher Miyamoto Musashi and popularized by leadership guru Jocko Willink, “if you know the way broadly, you will see it in everything.” The Path is the conglomeration of thoughts, actions, and experiences manifested by knowing the way broadly.
Conversely, we’ve ALL been off of the Path. We’ve woken up feeling sluggish, scrolled through instagram for 10 minutes before rolling out of bed, grabbed the Xbox controller instead of starting the day with journaling, meditation, exercise, or reading. The commute to and from work becomes an opportunity to zone out into oblivion rather than to digest a good podcast or audiobook. Exercise gets skipped, diets go out the window, and one’s overall purpose becomes diffuse.
If you’ve gone through the vicissitudes of being on and off of the Path, you aren’t alone. There is an infinite arsenal of internal and external variables that resists every single step that we strive to take in the right direction. Work gets busy, pain and injuries pop up, we can’t seem to get a good night’s sleep, friends and family demand precious time that we can’t seem to find enough of, and sometimes we just plain don’t know what the heck we should allocate our time and energy toward. We become lethargic, unmotivated, and stifled with pain and/or injury. While nobody is on the Path at all times, through the process of seeking and keeping onward we grow in character and experience sustained periods of fulfilment along the way.
And we shouldn’t have to do it alone.
Dr.’s Paulina, Cody, Sam, and I created The PATH Rehab & Performance in order to serve the motivated individuals fighting the everlong battle of finding and staying on their Path. We believe that being proactive in managing pain and injury is essential to be able to effectively engage in one’s physical passions and experience life’s full potential. To address pain and injury, it is necessary to holistically investigate the roadblocks within one’s Path of life to determine whether specific lifestyle factors may be predisposing and/or perpetuating these barriers. It is our mission to help our clients navigate the multifactorial nature of pain and, in doing so, find their way back to their own Path and potential.
Don’t accept the dead end of pain and injury. Choose the Path.
Dr. Brooks Kenderdine
Co-owner
DPT, PT, CSCS, USAW-1
