If you play Major League Baseball and get hurt badly enough that you can't play, you can be placed on the "Disabled List" (DL) while you tend to your injury. This may be for 15 days or 60 days or both. Not a bad deal really. You get paid, focus on overcoming your injury and don't have to work. Before you go back to the big leagues, you can spend time on a "rehabilitation assignment" in the minor leagues, fine tuning your game and making sure you are good to go back to "the show". Similarly in the National Football League, you could be placed on a "Physically Unable to Perform" (PUP) list or may be placed on Injured Reserve (IR). In either case, you do not work while you rehabilitate yourself back from your injury.
Most of us though, who work to support ourselves and our family, do not have the luxury of a DL, PUP or IR. You might have an injury but you still have to go to work, tend to young children, fulfill duties and responsibilities that simply cannot be ignored. You play hurt which is a very difficult thing to do.
If you have to "play hurt", here are three things you need to consider:
1. Give yourself a break. Adjust your expectations. Recovery from an injury is slower when you continue to play. It's not impossible but it is much more difficult. As a general rule, the longer you have had the problem, the longer it will take to recover and rebuild yourself.
2. Be responsible; not foolish. Playing hurt is sometimes what you have to do. But, let's not confuse being responsible with being foolish. Larry Bird, one of the all time greats in professional basketball, played hurt in the 1991 playoffs against the Indiana Pacers. He was struggling with a lower back injury. He had a great game; 21 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists. A triple double. He led the Boston Celtics to victory and then spent the night in traction at a local Boston hospital. A year later, he was forced into retirement due to his back. Was Larry being responsible or foolish? Hmmm...
3. Watch out for the "shoulds". When you play hurt, you can also develop a bad case of the "shoulds": I should be better by now. I should be stronger. I should heal faster. I should......fill in the blank. While you're thinking about what you should be able to do, you're missing the opportunity to actually do what you're able to do. The shoulds keep you shackled in the jail of wishful thinking.
Are you frustrated by the consistent variability of your problem? Does pain visit you more often than you would like? Have a case of the shoulds? Maybe you're "playing hurt".
Make today count.
Doug Kelsey
Author. Speaker. Therapist.
P.S. We are proud to announce the release our first audio CD designed specifically for the clinician: The 411 On Pain - Are You Hurt or Just Hurting? Order this CD today and discover:
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