The Slow Leak

Ah, living the life....

Training, physical therapy, and coaching. Love it.

But I don’t practice sports medicine. I work in nursing homes.

Go figure.

My dad died in his early 60s from Alzheimer’s disease. A few times his sickness brought him to nursing homes when my mom couldn’t take care of him. To my amazement, she always took him back home. 

While we visited, I saw how he was treated. He wasn’t regarded as someone’s husband, brother, or father. That’s how we saw him. To them he was just another body in a bed to take care of. There were a few exceptional angels that treated him with respect, but only a few. 

Those who work in nursing homes aren’t bad people. Many of them are wonderful. They just can’t escape being understaffed, underpaid, overworked, and under appreciated for the amount of work they do. That's is a recipe for burnout. 

And burnt out they are.

At that time with my dad, I was an outpatient therapist, but after this experience, I knew someday I would work in a nursing home. Treating everyone as if they were my dad. 

I also work in nursing homes to see the writing on the wall. If I’m lucky, I’ll get old. Will I end up in a nursing home? Or will I still have the freedom to enjoy life? 

These two options are total opposites. 

People living in nursing homes are NOT enjoying their life. The overwhelming theme is being miserable. Their lives end like a favorite ice cream melting on the floor. It’s slow and painful to watch. This fact may upset you, but I’m not wrong.

Seeing this misery everyday gives me the moxie and determination not to end up there. It works for me. 

The big question is, what’s working for you? As men over 50, are we thinking about the direction of our lives enough? Life is happening, and life is change. Are we actively guiding our future, or have we handed over the controls to chance? 

I’ve seen chance, it doesn’t care about us. 

If we’re doing nothing, then we’ll end up with nothing, in a strange room, with a strange roommate, slowly melting away.

Not wanting this to happen is not enough. Action is required. 

Sustained action. 

Like being in a boat with a slow leak, we can stay afloat for a while, thinking that nothing's wrong. But ignore the leak, and we end up under water. 

Entering our 2nd 50 years, we start to feel this effect of the slow leak. Aches and pains, less spring in our step, easy things getting difficult. Medical problems pop up and we start taking medications.

But we’re still plenty above water, so we keep looking at the view instead of at our boat. 

Using a bucket to keep us afloat three or four times a week will keep us sailing to exciting shores for many years to come. Throwing water isn’t glamorous. It takes effort, but it works like magic. 

Our bucket, my friend, is strength training. 

Grow or Die,

Ken Kowalsky