£12K To Walk And How This Made Me The Expert I Am Today | Ep 40

In this weeks episode I share how I have reframed my story of paying £12K to fix a hip injury at the beginning of my Dance Degree is the reason I am the expert I am today. 

This comes from a recent Strategy Day with my good friend Regina and realising that I overcame a lot during my degree and this actually helps me with business which in turn helps you 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Hello and welcome back. So today's episode is a bit of a backpedal and a bit of a tell you more about me. So recently I went on a business strategy day with the awesome Regina, who, if you've listened to previous episodes, you know I will often rave about her as um website visibility and all that jazz. So I did a strategy day with Regina and I went in with zero expectations and came out with so much clarity. In fact, the whole strategy day is now like posted up on my wall as a reminder to help me when I'm like, oh, what should I be doing? I can look at my strategy wall and go, right, I need to do this element or that element. And one of the things that came up was my hit and paying 12 grand for an operation at the beginning of my dance degree. What transpired was that for the last certainly for the last 10 years, I have been talking about it from the wound, from the from the frustration, from the from the victim almost. And no one in different things that I have done in the last 10 years or so has got me to reframe that story. I've always just seen it as a an event that happened that made me rethink my whole career process. However, through Regina's support, I have done the reframe. It's not obviously fixed straight away. It is a work in progress, but it's it's definitely happening, and conversations that have happened since that strategy day, I have been using the reframe to talk about it. Um and so I'm going to share that reframe with you. So, yes, day one of my dance degree, I was injured because a ligament that had been causing me issues since I was 14, finally pinged off my femur head. I said that slowly to help it process in your brains as much as process in mine. So imagine your hip, which is a ball and socket joint, and you have three ligaments which hold it in flex. One of mine had worked its way off, and I was having lots of pain. I was unable to dance in my first year because a lot of the rotation movements essentially were trapping the ligament. Wasn't until we had the operation, I say we, I, had the operation that we found out that the pain was because of a two-centimeter um hanging ligament. And yes, we paid 12 grand. So me and my family took the decision to pay 12 grand because not dancing wasn't an option, quitting wasn't an option, and the NHS at the time couldn't get us the x-rays that were vitally needed, so we took the decision to go private, and here's where the reframe comes in. Twelve weeks to the day of my operation, I returned to my second year of uni. Having spent a year watching, attending every day, no matter what, I was finally able to join in. In my third year, my other hip decided to play up because it had been compensating, and I hadn't really factored that in any of my rehab, um, and I had kind of disengaged some of my glute muscles and all that jazz. But so that was nearly another hurdle towards the end of my degree to go, no, don't fall at the final hurdle. Um, but I graduated with a two-on honours, which is fantastic, but when you look at it on paper, I only partook in a year and a half of a three-year course and got a two-on honours. Imagine what would have happened if I'd partaken in the full three years. Could that have been a stronger two-on? Could it have been a first? Who knows? But I got a two-on honours from not being able to partake fully. But what it taught me, and this is where it now helps you, what it taught me is how to adapt, how to take a situation that is beyond my control and adapt with it. Do what I can do on days that I could move, because there were some days I could move, and obviously there were some days where I literally crippled, um, struggling to walk, let alone move and dance. But it's taught me adaptability, and I still use that adaptability naturally today. Um, I'm always adapting because yeah, my hip still causes me the odd niggle, but 13 years later it's still attached, to my knowledge. Um, I have to adapt in pole to try and get some of the angles because some of the rotations, yeah, they're they're a bit tricky. So I'm adapting the moose to my body. It also means that I can help you adapt because I understand the frustration of not being able to do the thing you love. If that surgeon had turned round to me when I was having consultations and said, You will never dance again, I honestly don't know how I would have coped. Because dance is all I've ever done. Ever. From the day I could walk, and again, this is why I say that ABBA thank you to the m thank you for the music is my song. Because yeah, ever since I could walk, I've been dancing. I've got 20 plus years experience, and I've got that adaptability experience, so I know what it means and feels to have something you love and not be able to do it. So I can help you with your adapting, whether that's doing chair exercises, whether that is modifying a move to not use the legs or to use them in a different way. And it's something that I had never really thought of. I just kind of I sort of do it naturally and never really thought anything of it until Regina highlighted it to me that it's a pretty incredible achievement. A year and a half of a three-year course and getting a 2-1. When I could have quit. I could have quit, had the operation, done the normal rehab, because in reality they probably didn't want me dancing 12 weeks from the day of the OP. They probably wanted a bit more of a gap, but I kind of didn't give them the choice. And could have come back and restarted at a later date. The possibilities are endless, however, that's not my story. So I go with the lessons that I've got of the adaptability, and it's probably also why I've ended up partly because my teacher training placement was with special needs as an element of it. It's probably why I end up very much in the neurodivergent community. There may be stuff coming, who knows? I'm playing with some ideas following the strategy day, but yeah, it's probably why people are drawn to me because yes, I'm 32. So yes, I'm still a baby in terms of business world. And probably a story for another day, is some of the other challenges that I've had to overcome and adapt from. But this was a big one, and it felt the right moment to talk about it, particularly when I have decided to pause the weekly feel-good movement sessions. Um, it's too much pressure for me to commit to weekly when I have a full-time job. Um six-week blocks, yep, I can manage my energy, I can manage my time commitment, but committing to every week is a lot. Um, so I'm adapting and I'm going with the flow of what works for me and my schedule. Um, and probably works better for your schedule because you can commit to a six-week, you get the replays, you build in between and kind of keep trying and keep the habit going, and then we do another one, and each time you keep building different skills and different ways to build it into your everyday life, so that you're not having this pressure for you to build something simple and easy, but the adapting that I've had to do to be able to protect my hip because yes, it's been 13 years since the operation. The last thing I want to do is do anything that's going to undo that work. So I'm always adapting, I'm always adapting, protecting. Um, and the two little scars I have on my hip are a great reminder in those moments when I do feel like quitting to remind me that I'm not a quitter. So it's a kind of short and sweet one today. It was a bit of a who am I, where have I come from? Who am I to be helping you? Well, that's exactly who. The girl who paid nine grand fees for a three-year course partook in a year and a half worth of the content and graduated with a two on honours. That's who's helping you, not just a dance teacher. So until next time.