How tearing my ACL made me a better professional
I haven’t straightened my leg in 9 months. After an unfortunate skiing encounter with some icy moguls, I tore my ACL. The journey to this conclusion involved 3 misdiagnoses, some poor direction from a sports medicine doctor to maintain intense exercise, and a few months of limping my way through a bachelorette, Coachella, and multiple 8-mile hikes. Two surgeries and probably hundreds of hours of physical therapy later, my leg is finally millimeters from being straight and I can move around more normally. But, the story of the injury isn’t the real story here.
I’ve always been the person trying to rush to the next step. I jog the walking warmup, start the game at the “advanced” level, and raise my hand for the big project, no matter what’s already on my plate. Now, with my first major injury, I was finally forced to pump the brakes.
After an ACL surgery, the first thing you have to do is spend hours retraining your knee and leg muscles to activate properly. Flex, flex, flex, flex, trying to get the kneecap moving, quads firing, and leg extending. It’s monotonous and uncomfortable and I kept waiting to get. to. the. next. thing. But there are no shortcuts in healing. You have to get the movements right before you can strengthen, strengthen before you can bend, bend before you can bike, bike before you can walk, walk before you can squat, and the list goes on.
The discomfort here was not only physical, but also mental. I had to force myself to focus and get the little things right. Progress felt nonexistent. Except… suddenly, the littler things started to feel monumental. A moving kneecap, a crutch-free step, a turn around the bike, a stair step.
And I watched these little things add up. I saw atrophied muscles regain definition. I repeatedly practiced form for steps, bends, squats, and straightening. Suddenly, I started to feel stronger than I did before the accident. My squats had better form, each muscle in my legs gained its own strength, and the increased focus I put on upper body during the injury meant I could more easily lift my (always overpacked) bags. I realized that working on those little things meant that when you get to the next thing, you do it even bigger and better.
I started to apply this shifted mindset to other areas of my life, especially at work. Where do I need to stop looking to the next big thing and focus on the one that’s happening right now? Where do I need to stop rushing and start leaning in? I reset goals to break down bigger plans into steps and improve cross-functional relationships.
I thought about how to build the muscles I need to be a good manager, marketer, and professional. I started to assess where I don’t have the strength to take the next step and need to put in the work. I realized that it’s not about the product launch results, it’s about having the teamwork, planning, and relationships in place to get there. You have to flex, flex, flex, those muscles until the motion becomes instinctive, not forced. It’s helped me set more intentional goals, outline measurable milestones, and communicate more openly.
As we all think about resolutions and jumping into a new year, I suggest you think beyond the big, shiny things, and see where you can focus on the basics. What matters to you now and where can you get better? I assure you that if you build the right foundation, when you finally get to the next thing, the results are even better and more satisfactory. Now, my leg still isn’t quite healed, but dang, it’s gonna feel good when I can take the next jump.