Reflections...
Last week's newsletter reflected back on the most recent crazy 10-day period in my life. This week we are going to look back even further.
Earlier this week, for some unknown reason, I scrolled back through my Twitter feed. To be honest I forgot that I even had one... While scrolling, I noticed one of those tweets linked to one of my old newsletters. Would you care to guess how old it was? Let's just say that it predated Freedom Chiropractic & Rehab which opened in 2015, and this was a link to a newsletter that I had written for the previous office where Dr. Carol and I worked prior to opening our office in Eldersburg. After scrolling, clicking on, and reading random newsletters as I went, it dawned on me that I had been writing these newsletters for well over 10 years. Actually, the oldest one that I found was dated November 2, 2011.
That is A LOT of writing. I haven't done the actual count, but I have been writing them weekly for at least 10 years... That means that I have written at least 500 newsletters so far.
During those 10 years, I have learned a lot of lessons, and have shared many of them with you through these newsletters. One of the most important lessons that really jumped out to me is the importance of practice if you want to improve. I began writing these newsletters as a simple way to share health information with patients and friends. That's it. That was the only intention.
In the beginning, 9 out of every 10 newsletters was simply that and nothing more. A way to disseminate what I thought was important health information that I came across every week. Once in a while, it would be a story about my family or a non-health-related lesson that I had learned. Guess which newsletters were opened and read more frequently. Guess which ones got more comments and responses from the readers.
After reading several of these old newsletters, I completely understood why no one was reading those that were simply filled with health news. They were TERRIBLE! The topics were dry and boring. They were clearly written in an effort to force-feed information, rather than explaining why things matter, or what they may mean to the reader.
Over the years, the focal point of the newsletters has shifted significantly. My writing style has evolved quite a bit during that time too. Now, 9 out of 10 are written about life lessons. Or to share stories about our lives. Very rarely are they used simply to disseminate health information. Often those lessons or stories contain a takeaway message that can, and will, have a profound impact on our overall health and well-being, but I try to avoid regurgitating research or simply throwing boring facts at you.
In this case, the take-away message from this newsletter is that practice is key for any skill. Doing anything consistently will help you learn and improve. The key is to establish the habit. Then, sometime in the future, randomly look back at how bad you were at something in the past and laugh. Then pause to be grateful for how much you have improved since you began your journey.
If you are a glutton for punishment and want to read the first newsletter (that I was able to find) that I wrote at our old office, here is the LINK. (Before you click on it though remember that I already told you that it was awful, but on the bright side look at how much better these improved newsletters are!)
Last week's newsletter reflected back on the most recent crazy 10-day period in my life. This week we are going to look back even further.
Earlier this week, for some unknown reason, I scrolled back through my Twitter feed. To be honest I forgot that I even had one... While scrolling, I noticed one of those tweets linked to one of my old newsletters. Would you care to guess how old it was? Let's just say that it predated Freedom Chiropractic & Rehab which opened in 2015, and this was a link to a newsletter that I had written for the previous office where Dr. Carol and I worked prior to opening our office in Eldersburg. After scrolling, clicking on, and reading random newsletters as I went, it dawned on me that I had been writing these newsletters for well over 10 years. Actually, the oldest one that I found was dated November 2, 2011.
That is A LOT of writing. I haven't done the actual count, but I have been writing them weekly for at least 10 years... That means that I have written at least 500 newsletters so far.
During those 10 years, I have learned a lot of lessons, and have shared many of them with you through these newsletters. One of the most important lessons that really jumped out to me is the importance of practice if you want to improve. I began writing these newsletters as a simple way to share health information with patients and friends. That's it. That was the only intention.
In the beginning, 9 out of every 10 newsletters was simply that and nothing more. A way to disseminate what I thought was important health information that I came across every week. Once in a while, it would be a story about my family or a non-health-related lesson that I had learned. Guess which newsletters were opened and read more frequently. Guess which ones got more comments and responses from the readers.
After reading several of these old newsletters, I completely understood why no one was reading those that were simply filled with health news. They were TERRIBLE! The topics were dry and boring. They were clearly written in an effort to force-feed information, rather than explaining why things matter, or what they may mean to the reader.
Over the years, the focal point of the newsletters has shifted significantly. My writing style has evolved quite a bit during that time too. Now, 9 out of 10 are written about life lessons. Or to share stories about our lives. Very rarely are they used simply to disseminate health information. Often those lessons or stories contain a takeaway message that can, and will, have a profound impact on our overall health and well-being, but I try to avoid regurgitating research or simply throwing boring facts at you.
In this case, the take-away message from this newsletter is that practice is key for any skill. Doing anything consistently will help you learn and improve. The key is to establish the habit. Then, sometime in the future, randomly look back at how bad you were at something in the past and laugh. Then pause to be grateful for how much you have improved since you began your journey.
If you are a glutton for punishment and want to read the first newsletter (that I was able to find) that I wrote at our old office, here is the LINK. (Before you click on it though remember that I already told you that it was awful, but on the bright side look at how much better these improved newsletters are!)
Movement is my medicine,
