The Busy PT's Guide to Finding Balance

My Baby Wants to be Adopted

2009-11-18T12:47:00Z

Be careful what you wish for. It is so easy to see greener grass on the other side. Often we don't take time to think through the ramifications of our decisions. My seven-year old, Abigail, announced, "I wish our family only had five people." We currently have six, so I was curious who had offended her most grievously. Turns out she wanted to oust herself! She wanted our family down to five, because she wanted to be adopted by neighbors with a little girl her age - her current best friend. So I played...(read more)

Your Life is an Occasion – Rise to It!

2009-11-11T15:39:00Z

Your Life is an Occasion – Rise to It! --Dustin Hoffman as Mr. Edward Magorium in Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium If you haven't seen "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium," you are missing a gem. I love this movie. In so many ways, it embodies what this blog is all about: living life. To live life well, we have to live it balanced. We have to balance our work life to be productive. We have to balance our home life to be fulfilled. We have to balance our work life with our home life to be sane. Mr. Magorium...(read more)

NUTS!

2009-11-04T14:30:00Z

Are you trying to perform tasks but find you consistently come up short? Maybe you are working outside of your skill set. As I watch a squirrel, his tiny cheeks chock full of nuts, I marvel at how easily he can crack open the shells. This feat is made all the more impressive because of his diminutive size. My relative giant-like stature and comparatively inferior nut-cracking skills only raise the squirrel's status in my eyes. The average squirrel weighs about a pound. One pound. Let's just say I've...(read more)

When to Let it Die

2009-10-28T12:41:00Z

We lived in West Palm Beach, Florida. You'd think we would have been in heaven. The sun, the sand, the glitz. But our experience was far from heavenly. While I finished out the remaining six weeks of a contract assignment, my husband moved down to get us settled. He says if he'd have known then what he knows now, he would have packed his car and headed back to Ohio time he got there. Go figure, he preferred our life in Ohio to our life in West Palm Beach. In retrospect, he knew it was a bad move...(read more)

Sun Spot Sightings

2009-10-21T11:56:00Z

Yesterday was a bad day. That's how I went to bed remembering it, anyway. Mulling over its badness, I realized yesterday was really only bad in spots. Because those "spots" had come toward the end of the day, they eclipsed all the good that came before them. My next thought surprised and challenged me. I was only able to experience those bad moments because I'm alive. The amazing gift of life makes those bad places possible. However bad they are, they can't compare to the greatness of being alive....(read more)

Saying your Peace or Holding Your Tongue?

2009-10-14T12:44:00Z

I went for a routine radiological test - the dreaded annual mammogram. Because the procedure and the equipment are so specialized - and because "emergency" appointments are unusual - the wait is typically minimal, nothing like going to see your family doctor. Having left my four children home alone, I scheduled the first morning appointment so I could slip in and out. My teen was awake to receive anyone who made an appearance, but I truly expected to get home before they awoke. My appointment was...(read more)

It’s All I Know

2009-10-07T13:17:00Z

Watching the movie Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium , I couldn't help but feel sorry for Mutant. He enters an environment where he is the outcast. In a world of imagination and creativity, he speaks a language of rules and regulations. When difficult times come, he tries to help, but his love of paperwork gets in the way. Mr. Magorium is the eccentric owner of a magical toy store. At the ripe old age of 243, he decides it's his time to depart. Mr. Magorium's young protégé, Molly Mahoney, isn't quite...(read more)

Gardasil Vaccine

2009-09-30T12:07:00Z

Why is this "cervical cancer" vaccine not being advertised honestly? I watched a commercial with my teen daughter several weeks ago. When it was over I asked her, "Based on this commercial, should you receive the vaccine?" Her response was along the lines of, "Duh, yeaah." So we had an eye-opening chat about why her father and I decided not to have her vaccinated. None of the information we presented to her was in the commercial. Where do you stand on the Gardasil issue? What do you think about the...(read more)

Balancing Hormones

2009-09-22T20:53:00Z

It's a taboo topic. But the truth is if you are a woman, you deal with it. If you are a man who has ever lived with a woman, you know about it, you sense it coming, and - if you're smart - you get out of its way! I wish I could get out of its way, but I'm going to have to deal with it. I'm coming to grips with the fact that a lot of life's unpleasantries these days are probably directly linked to hormonal imbalance. I talked to my mom, which was a stretch for both of us - this is a taboo topic after...(read more)

They Don’t Make a Pill for That…I Asked!

2009-09-16T15:14:00Z

Our five year old son received the diagnosis of mono. The doctor said other viruses could give false positives, but suggested we follow mono restrictions to be on the safe side. Our task was to keep him calm for a ten days: no riding anything that moved, no rough housing, no playing with kids his own age. The doctor returned my sideways glance with a grin. Keep a five year old boy calm for ten days? Crazy! I asked him if they had a pill for that. The doctor just laughed. So I asked if there was a...(read more)

Old Wives’ Tales

2009-09-09T15:49:00Z

"Don't believe that. It's just an old wives' tale." Live long enough and you'll see those old wives weren't just spinning tales, some stories contain at least a scintilla of truth. Arthur Itis is an excellent meteorologist. I never used to believe this one. Then I worked in home health. I quit watching the news and began asking my patients for the next day's weather forecast. They were far more accurate! Now that I'm clicking off decades quicker than Superman can leap tall buildings, I may go apply...(read more)

New Hires: Warm Bodies or Assets?

2009-09-02T13:42:00Z

Winner of the most dreaded interview question: What are your strengths and weaknesses? Used properly, this question can screen potential applicants for a job opening. Every office has a current set of skills that needs to be complemented, not duplicated. As you are considering new hires, look at the overall team already in place. What strengths are present? You probably don't need another team player with those same strengths. Consider where the team's weaknesses lie. Look for a candidate who is...(read more)

Employee Evaluations

2009-08-26T21:35:00Z

Consider reinventing the employee evaluation. Typical assessments identify weaknesses and ask employees to improve on them. Is that really where you want your staff investing their time - trying to achieve mediocre results in areas of weakness? We all have weaknesses. No one is good at everything. Granted we all must have minimal competencies. In life we all need to be able to read and perform basic math skills. But beyond those minimal competencies, our life's pursuit will determine what areas we...(read more)

Bringing Balance to our Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2009-08-19T20:23:00Z

I recently dreamt about someone close to me being in danger - danger too unspeakable to recount here. The danger had warning signs. Warning signs that - after having served in the medical field for over a decade - I should have picked up on. But my first recognition came too late - death was imminent. My heart was crushed. Thankfully it was only a dream. But a dream that vivid, that intense, left me shaken and got me thinking. How much do I miss? Some days are so hectic I feel like I hardly have...(read more)

Bringing Balance to our “YES!”

2009-08-12T15:12:00Z

The best defense to avoiding overcommittment is to learn how to say, "Yes!" I know what you're thinking: But saying, "Yes!" is what gets us in to this mess! No. Saying, "Yes!" indiscriminately gets us into this mess. Here are some guidelines to bring balance to our "YES!" RESPOND You've heard of impulse shopping. Rehearse - and then use - the following responses to reduce the chance of saying "yes" on impulse, then regretting it later. Practice this first response: "That sounds like a worthy project....(read more)