Too Much Information!

Boy, did you ever have the feeling that you're drowning in information overload? What am I saying...this is the 'technology age'...we ALL feel like that, don't we?

I work full-time as a physical therapist, and with a finger on the pulse of the fitness realm, there is just an endless supply of studies, research trials, journals, books, seminars, etc. It's overwhelming. The Strength and Conditioning Journal, put out by the NSCA, has 30 or so studies per journal! That's just one journal. I think they put out 4 journals a year. Then I get one on PT, on one manual therapy, another on movement therapy...and this only scratches the surface. How are we supposed to keep up?

Probably we aren't. By that I mean, maybe, just maybe...we need to keep our eyes on the forest and less so on each tree. Cheesy analogy, I know. But the tree-centered thinking can predispose us to becoming one-dimensional in scope...by my take, not something you want. We become so obsessed with the shape of the leaf, the contour of the bark, the complexity of each branch that we forget to notice the beautiful landscape that's just beyond our chosen tree.

Let me give a personal example. I'm really interested in manual therapy. You know, the "hands on" kinda therapy. It's amazing the amount of material is out there validating this wonderful method of patient treatment. But the hard part about learning manual PT is the "rules" and the "techniques." You have to position yourself at spot "A", while holding patient arm at spot "B", then move the torso to spot "C", all the while your other arm is palpating area "D", etc. I'd spend countless time looking at pictures and reading descriptions until I was blue in the face. Visualizing each of the maneuvers in my head, I tried to memorize what needed to be done.

You can only get so far with this approach...trust me.

It wasn't until I was re-reading a quote from the originator of osteopathy, Andrew Taylor Still, that I realized my approach was flawed. He stressed (and I'm paraphrasing here) that the techniques are not as important as the concept. From the concept of what you are trying to do, you can, in essense, create a technique. How beautiful.

Put down the books, the diet plans, the infomercials (how do you put those down, right?).

What is it you want to create/acheive?

What do you presently know that can help you toward this goal?

What do you need to do to implement this process?

Go do it.