You can't see the picture when you are in the frame

It was early in 2014 and I wasn't feeling the best. Work stress was pretty brutal,  I had a new baby at home and my workouts were sporadic.  I was having some low back pain that was lingering way longer than the occasional stiffness that accompanied long days on my feet training people.

The pain was getting worse by the day and even starting to affect my sleep. "I'm fine", I thought to myself. "I train people with low back pain all the time." I know what I need to do."

Then it happened. Shortly after returning from a weekend trip for a conference, I was outside with my dog and I sneezed. I immediately was hit with blinding pain in my low back and torso. It was 10 degrees outside and I wasn't even sure I could back into the house.

Even my dog looked worried.

After a night of pain meds, I soldiered into work the next day. "I have clients. I'm fine", I told myself.

My second client of the day, a local physical therapist took one look at me and immediately knew what happened. She told me to come in for an appointment. I was embarrassed. "I should know better.  I'm a fitness coach. "I shouldn't have low back pain.... from a #$%@ sneeze!

The prospect of more days of misery, however, trumped my ego and I started PT 3 times per week. It helped tremendously. Was there a new earth shattering approach that I wasn't aware of? Was there an exercise that made everything better?

Nope.

I just let someone other than myself call the shots. That isn't easy for a control freak like me. I couldn't figure out what was so radically different. Then,  on night, while googling cool quotes (i'm a bit of a quote nerd) I came across this. "You can't see the picture when you're in the frame." That was it! I was just too close to my problem and couldn't see the simple things that needed to happen.


It's been one of my favorite quotes ever since.

How many times in life have we been completely stumped by an issue only to have another point the obvious solution? There's no shame in asking for help. Most are willing and never judge. And besides... "Other people's opinion of you does not have to become your reality" Sorry... Couldn't help myself.

Thanks for reading!