Spectacular Piece at The Reformed Broker - Hit Reset

Hitting the Reset Button

• Joshua M Brown
 
• June 29th, 2011

Welcome to Guest Post Week here at TRB.  One of the best things about being a financial blogger has been the opportunity to meet so many amazing people around the country these past few years.  And of all the people I've met, Eli Radke is easily one of my favorites.  Eli is a former college football player and is currently an independent trader.  He is an absolute teddy bear and his siteTrader Habits is all about helping people help themselves to become better.  Here he is on taking a step back in order to move forward. - JB

***

I can’t think of a more appropriate topic than taking a break or as I like to say hitting the reset button as TRB is doing just that.

It was my freshmen year at spring practice and I got injured. My kneecap dislocated and it caused major damage. I limped my way back to the facilities. Threw some ice on it and started rehab. After a few weeks and not getting better, I got an MRI. The results came back, it was  two pages long. Basically every ligament, tendon, and cartilage was damaged. My knee cap had suffered a compression fracture but luckily my ACL was still attached.

I had surgery to clean up the knee; they took an eraser head size piece of cartilage out. I walked out of surgery and was ready for rehab in a few days.

I tried to ignore the situation, I did not want this set back and I was determined to "make up" for lost time. Two surgeries and a year and a half later I was to get back on the field.  It took another year and half after my football career was over before it didn't hurt to walk. It wasn't that the pain was devastating; it was that I forgot what it felt like to walk without pain.

My football career did not go as planned and it was at least in part because I did not have the courage to hit the reset button.  I had not accepted or acknowledged the psychological and physical damage that the injury caused.  By ignoring it, the only solution that was obvious was to keep working.  The problem with working at less than 100% for a long period of time in a competitive world is that you end up losing ground.

READ FULL POST HERE