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Today's conversation,
I'm looking forward to this.
Our guest started in a world that physical
therapists and healthcare providers know
well, rehab, movement,
helping people recover.
But along the way,
he noticed something a little bit bigger.
Many professionals knew how to care for
everybody else.
but had no idea how to care for
themselves.
Since then,
he's coached hundreds of professionals,
spoken nationally,
and built a mission around emotional
resilience.
Today we talk about why optimism may be
one of the most overlooked performance
skills in healthcare.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the show,
Charles Ennis.
Charles, welcome to the program, man.
Yeah, it's great to be on.
Thanks for having me, Jimmy.
This is my go-to line.
Whenever I have someone on that's written
a book,
which is getting to be pretty often,
which I like, I always tell them,
I pat myself on the back when I
read a book.
I'm like, look at that.
Look at all these pages I read.
How great am I?
But you sat down to actually read a
book.
So sort of my go-to when I talk
to an author is...
Why?
What did you see lacking in the world
to actually not only want to talk about
something like this, but really put time,
effort, thought,
and energy into writing all and organizing
these ideas down?
Yeah, absolutely.
You know,
I think anyone who's in health care or
in an educational type of service realizes
that they say the same thing over and
over again.
And not that we mind every time we
have a new patient saying the same thing.
But I got to this point, I'm like,
oh,
maybe I can magnify my impact if I
can write it once and then hundreds or
thousands of people can benefit from that
wisdom.
So let's go back to the start.
You started out your background as a PT
and a trainer.
What did you see early on that made
you realize clinician wellness needed more
attention?
We've heard this phrase, right?
Put your oxygen mask on first.
But what made you see what did you
see and made you realize that clinicians
really needed some attention?
Yeah.
And of course,
some of it just came from my own
experience.
Sure.
Like a lot of clinicians,
I felt like I was burning a candle
on both ends.
In the beginning,
I was working as a trainer,
so I'd be at the gym in the
morning training people at six and seven
and running off to the clinic and then
sometimes running back to the gym and then
Saturdays and Sundays.
And so it was part of my own
lived experience as a new grad,
just feeling like I was stressed,
overwhelmed and burnt out.
And of course,
I was trying to find some balance in
my own life.
And hopefully if we all grow,
we get a little wisdom and we start
figuring out how to navigate our careers.
But what I realized is when I got
into corporate wellness,
that it's not just clinicians,
it's really most people in their work
settings that
we can get into a pattern where we're
just stressed and overwhelmed and burned
out and in school they teach us about
how to be good at our jobs but
they don't always teach us how to deal
with actually working in the ups and downs
of life and so for me i felt
that was a gap in the market that
yes we're bringing clinicians we're smart
professionals we're accomplished but what
are we doing to try to make sure
that we feel just as good as the
people that we're serving
Yeah.
And for the people watching the live
stream, there it is.
I mean, when you see your cover,
what sort of emotion does it bring about?
I'll make sure people know.
Up Your Optimism Game, How to Turn Stress,
Depression, and Anxiety into Joy,
Happiness, and Peace of Mind.
That's your book.
When you see the cover finally,
how does it make you feel?
You got a big old smile on your
face.
Yeah, yeah.
It does make me feel good.
It's been a journey.
I actually it took me about four years
to go from first putting sitting down,
putting pen to paper or letters to
keyboard and and getting it out there.
And one of the things that I love
about my book,
like
In the beginning,
it sounded so differently than it does
now.
I feel like in the beginning,
I wrote it more for my critics.
And I was trying to figure out,
how do I write a book that no
one's going to argue with?
This Stanford person says this,
and this Harvard person says that.
And then about the fourth draft,
I found my voice.
And I'm like, yeah,
this is how I would say it.
And it really is, to me,
a beautiful combination of all my health
care experience just pulled over into the
emotional world to try to help people to
be their best and shine emotionally.
Yep.
You said PT school teaches us to care
for others, but not ourselves, right?
So where does that gap show up in
most real careers, both chronologically?
Like, I'm sure in the beginning,
we all have shiny object syndrome, right?
You work and you go through school.
So when you get there,
you got a lot of energy.
So when does it show up?
And where or how can we spot this?
If someone's listening, it goes,
you know what, that might sound like me.
Yeah, yeah.
There are a couple of different things
that I feel are common that I went
through that probably other people went
through.
And you're right.
Initially,
that initial burst of joy is connected to
our vision about what we see for our
career.
And so when you have a compelling vision,
that's just the coaching principle.
You're going to feel motivated and
excited.
But then somewhere along the path,
the vision doesn't turn into the exact
vision that we thought.
We thought, wait,
this is not what I signed up for.
And so what I find is that people
either get burnt out,
they're living the dream,
but they're just exhausted,
or they get cynical and they're like,
what the heck am I doing with my
life?
And so I feel like the exhaustion and
the cynicism are two things that sometimes
happen at the same time,
but they can happen individually.
I know for me,
I feel like the burnout happened first
And then the cynicism kind of came like
right behind it.
And I feel like that's one of the
hardest things I think for people now who
are navigating work is how do you
contribute, give your best,
but not get to that point to where
you're just exhausted and cynical?
Because that's not a good spot for us
and it's not a good spot for the
people we're trying to help beat them.
This is something I never heard of or
thought about in a particular way,
which to me is always a compliment.
Whenever someone can say,
I listened to something that either you or
the guest said on your podcast,
and there's two compliments.
One is I never thought about that before.
In a world of the internet where you
could look at billions of ideas,
that's a compliment.
Or I never thought about that topic that
way,
which means they had thought about it,
but they never thought about it that way.
You made them look at it differently.
And you made me look at something
differently.
Yeah.
I've looked at optimism,
but you say optimism is a skill.
I've never thought about it as a skill.
I've always thought about it as sort of
amorphous, an emotion,
something you might have,
hopefully more often than not.
What does optimism as a skill actually
mean for someone who feels burned out
right now?
Yeah, absolutely.
And so I know most people define optimism
as just like a positive outlook.
But what I would say is that optimism
is any thinking pattern that generates
positive emotions.
And so I'll say it this way to
kind of bring the PT kind of part
of it,
because when most people think about
mental health, actually I'll say this,
it's two buckets for me.
It's cognitive function,
and then it's positive emotion.
So if someone says, oh,
I'm worried about my mental health,
if we think about something like
Alzheimer's, in Alzheimer's,
our mental health deteriorates,
but it's a cognitive function problem.
And that is more associated with our brain
health.
And so if we think about the other
challenge though, the positive emotions,
sometimes a lot of us,
our brain functions really well,
but we use it in ways that make
us angry, cynical, stress, fearful.
And so what I would say is that
just like we have physical muscles,
we also have mental muscles.
Our physical muscles generate movement and
our mental muscles generate emotions.
And then from a mental muscle perspective,
we have two categories.
Pessimism muscles generate negative
emotions like anger, stress, worry,
anxiety,
and then optimism muscles generate
positive emotions like joy, happiness,
and peace.
If we want to take care of our
mental health and feel more joy,
happiness, and peace,
we have to strengthen the mental muscles
that lead there.
Actually,
the way I wrote it in a book,
there's three core optimism muscles and
gratitude is one of them.
If we just take this as connected to
work,
When we're new grads,
we get into our job and we're so
grateful.
We got a new job.
We got a salary.
We're making money.
We're growing.
We're learning.
We feel good because we're in that spirit
of gratitude.
And then we start taking everything for
granted.
Our salary is not enough.
We don't like our boss.
We're not happy with anything.
And we're just living in that more
ungrateful mindset towards work.
And it's so easy to think about the
things we don't like about work.
And one simple way we might,
if we're just thinking about optimism in
connection to work-related emotions,
if we start bringing a little gratitude
for our work,
then that's gonna change our experience of
our work.
And so again,
how we think influences how we feel.
And if we start practicing the patterns
that lead to the positive emotions,
then that's the way we can up our
optimism game and get the benefits.
I've heard about people practicing
gratitude, saying things publicly, right?
And I don't think anybody has a problem
with that,
either expressing someone who actually
you're grateful for or being expressed
gratefulness.
If that's one of the muscles,
what else would be on your home exercise
program for those three muscles?
What else can we do?
Because again,
I've looked at optimism like something I
have sometimes and sometimes I don't.
But you're saying it's a muscle.
I like that.
What else would be on your HEP?
Something that someone does every day or
every week or something to check off?
Exactly.
It's perfect.
And so the way I think about working
out our optimism muscles, and of course,
I think we can do like a five
minute optimism workout.
Good.
I consider breathing as the warm up.
thinking as strength training,
speaking as cardio,
and writing as stretching.
And so simple example,
if we wanted to strengthen our gratitude
muscles,
we could start with three or four deep
breaths, try to ground ourselves,
get ourselves in a state of mindfulness so
that our brain is ready to learn.
And then we can use positive questions as
our weights.
Anytime we ask ourselves a positive
question,
we're gonna strengthen the pattern of
thinking connected to that question.
So if we wake up and say,
what do I hate about work?
What is missing?
Then that's gonna strengthen that thinking
pattern.
If we ask,
what am I grateful for at work?
what's present in my life, what's working,
then that's going to strengthen that.
So positive questions are our weights.
And it can be a thirty second to
two minute just thinking about the answer
as a way to strengthen that pattern.
Then from a cardio perspective,
we can do cardio in two ways.
We can talk to other people or we
can talk to ourselves.
And so when we have a positive
conversation about a topic,
that strengthens that thinking pattern.
And we all know this.
What we say out loud carries a lot
of weight in our brain.
And so we can talk to ourselves.
There are good things in my life.
I'm grateful for all the good.
I'm truly blessed.
I'm grateful for my family.
I'm grateful for my health.
I'm grateful for my job or whatever it
is that we say.
But using our voice is simply a way
to magnify.
And I always think about cardio with
affirmations because I feel like,
you know,
you can just keep walking through those
phrases.
There are good things in my life.
I'm grateful for the good.
There are good things in my life.
I'm grateful for the good.
And so just simply repeating and
practicing is one way you can strengthen
that pattern.
And then lastly,
if we think about stretching,
we can go a little deeper and train
our brain.
We can have a gratitude journal where we
write one to three things that we're
grateful for.
We could write a story about something
that we feel gratitude towards.
And from a learning perspective,
when we're incorporating all those
processes, the auditory, the kinesthetic,
the cognitive,
it just really deepens the pattern.
And we can do it in less than
five minutes.
But of course,
if we don't even have five minutes,
we could choose any one of those elements.
Strength training,
think about the answer to a positive
question.
Speaking,
say something positive out loud or to
someone else.
And then writing,
writing down some positive thought or
intention.
That's a good HEP.
Five minutes, that's all you need.
Five minutes a daily.
And this is the beautiful thing I love
about mental training is I feel like we
can get a big bang for our buck
in a lot less time.
If you wanna get in shape physically,
all right,
you gotta do your hundred and fifty
minutes of minimum activity to meet the
non-sedentary standard.
In one study on gratitude,
they took people who were depressed and
they asked them to simply do one
intervention.
At the end of the day,
write three daily blessings.
Three things that went well.
And what they found is that after six
weeks,
people had a significant decrease in their
stress and anxiety and a significant
improvement in their happiness and life
satisfaction.
And it didn't take a long time.
It's three to five minutes to just do
your journaling.
And the beautiful thing about our mental
habits is once we ingrain a positive
mental habit, it follows us.
And so we just start naturally walking
outside and looking for what we're
grateful for.
We naturally start interacting with people
differently.
We naturally just show up at work
differently.
And so once we it's a snowball that
can feed on itself and build an upward
spiral of positive emotions and positive.
I didn't see it,
but this book screams to have a partner
podcast.
Like I feel like you walk five minute
episodes a day,
walking everybody through a different HEP
each and every day.
I don't know.
It feels like a QR code on the
back of the book that leads to your
YouTube channel.
Your podcast would be a layup.
You know,
I appreciate that thought and I've been
thinking about it and like being on your
podcast is inspiring for me because I know
to take those skills that we might have
in one setting and then to use it
in somewhere else.
Yeah.
And so you've been an inspiration and
maybe the podcast will happen one of these
days.
Tell us about the moment you treated one
person in clinic and coached another in
the gym with the same back pain,
but two very different mindsets.
Yeah, that's such a beautiful question.
And it's actually one of the reasons why
I leaned away from rehab and into wellness
as a trainer.
Really early on,
I was working in a spine clinic in
Quincy, Massachusetts,
just south of Boston.
And a forty year old guy came in
with back pain.
He was like, Charles, my back hurts.
Can you rub it?
Can you work on it?
Oh, I just I had a long day.
And I'm like, this is physical therapy.
You're going to do physical stuff.
You bring the physical.
Not that I mind doing manual therapy,
because that's one thing that I miss about
being in the clinic is doing the manual
therapy.
And then later that week,
I was in the gym with a new
personal training client,
a prospective client.
And he came and he's like, Charles,
you know, I sit all day at work.
I never stretch.
I know I'm overweight.
I got a weak core and my back
hurts.
What do I do?
and i was like oh shoot i'm like
this is the same person but in the
fitness environment they're coming in a
little bit more proactively and so i was
like you know as a professional i'm like
i want to try the demo on that
proactive side where i'm trying to
encourage people to do something
proactively and have hope
And and what else is not everyone in
the clinic comes in with that more victim
defeatist mindset.
But I realized that when I saw that
difference in the clinic,
I needed to help inspire people to take
some ownership and feel some hope that
they could actually make progress.
And so I feel like being in both
of those worlds definitely shaped my
perspective.
And when I became a coach,
this is one of the first reason why
I actually got into optimism was in its
ability to support people and feeling
motivated to reach their goals.
So I'm sitting in the office.
I'm talking to someone about their health
and wellness goals.
And this is so simple.
Everyone already knows this.
if someone has zero hope that they can
be successful, they won't try.
And so for me, I'm like, okay,
how can I support someone in developing a
mindset that's conducive to motivation and
going after their goals?
And of course,
optimism and hope is a key.
There's a chapter in my book called The
Anatomy of Motivation, chapter three.
And of course,
this was inspired by my coach training.
But from a behavior perspective,
we're motivated by one of two forces,
approach and avoid.
And negativity is the underlying mindset
of avoidance.
And if we are focusing on the challenges,
the problems that come with changing our
behavior,
we're gonna avoid changing the behavior.
So someone might think, oh yeah,
I really wanna go to the gym,
but the gym's gonna cost money,
and it's gonna take time,
and I'm gonna be sore,
and I'm gonna have to miss out on
this.
Whenever they're thinking about the
negative aspects of making the change,
they're gonna avoid the change.
Sure.
But on the flip side,
if we can tap into the positive aspects
of making the change,
my knees might feel better.
I might lose some weight.
My blood pressure might come down.
I have more energy.
I'll sleep better.
I'll be able to run around with my
kids.
Then when they're focusing on the positive
aspects,
they're going to be more likely to
approach the change.
And so that was one place where optimism
was important for me to help people get
healthy.
If I take it a step further and
how we think about ourselves influences
our motivation.
And when people focus on the negative
aspects of themselves, their weaknesses,
their past mistakes, their feelings,
they're going to feel less confident and
less up for the task.
Oh,
I tried to go to the gym in
the past and I never stick to it.
And last time I did,
I messed up my shoulder and
versus if they think about the positive
aspects of themselves, their strengths,
their abilities, their past wins,
their past successes,
they're gonna feel more confident and more
ready to go for it again.
And so again,
it's a simple way that optimism shows up
in success, in growth,
We need to think about our hopes,
our dreams, our vision, what we can gain.
And we need to think about our resources,
our abilities, our strengths.
And so as a coach,
that was really one of the things I
loved about optimism.
How can I support people in getting ready
to charge up that mountain and live their
best life?
It sounds like when you say you're talking
to the same person in two different
settings,
how they see the goal and the process
and how you see the goal and the
process, I mean, it matters, right?
What are my expectations here?
Let's go back to physical therapists.
We're smart people,
but what do most PTs get wrong about
stress management?
Where do we go right?
We're smart if we read something and we
love research,
but what do we typically get wrong about
it?
Yeah.
One of the things that pops into my
mind is, and this was like for me,
when I think about stress,
I think about both body and mind.
And because we're such educated body
professionals,
we tend to lean on body care.
So someone was sitting in front of me
and I would think, OK, you're stressed.
How's your exercise?
How's your sleep?
Are you meditating?
Get an Epsom salt bath,
get some magnesium,
do all these things for your body.
And what I'll say is that body care
strategies are great for stress when the
stress is being driven by our body.
But what I notice is working with clients
is someone would take care of their body
on Saturday, go for a run,
eat a good meal,
get a good night's sleep.
And then on Sunday night,
they still feel anxious and stressed
thinking about work.
And I'd be like, oh, shoot.
And so if the stress is being driven
by the mind,
then we need some type of mental strategy
or mind care strategies,
as I refer to it,
in order to overcome the stress.
One simple mind care,
which I think for people is worst case
scenario.
Many people,
when something happens mentally,
they go to worst case scenario and it
adds stress and anxiety overwhelm.
And so I could go for a run,
but if I come back and I go
to worst case scenario,
I'm still going to feel stressed.
I can meditate,
but if I go to worst case scenario,
I'm still going to feel anxious.
And so one simple mind technique or mind
exercise is called decatastrophizing.
And it simply involves thinking about the
best case scenario and then thinking about
the likely scenarios.
And even if thinking about the best case
scenario doesn't eliminate the possibility
of the worst case,
it just makes the overall picture more
positive.
And so it tends to serve to decrease
our anxiety.
And if we're thinking about how we're
going to navigate the stressful situation,
when we do it from a more grounded
perspective,
our cognitive function and our judgment is
going to be better.
And so if we're in that worst case
scenario, sure we can do deep breathing,
but we also need to mentally think best
case scenario, likely scenario,
and then from that place.
our judgment is usually heightened.
So I would say that not just PTs,
but a lot of people, but especially PTs,
because we're so good at the body.
Like that's just, that's our world.
Right.
When you,
when all you have is a hammer,
the world is full of nails.
Right.
So we go body first.
Yeah.
It's in the name.
Absolutely.
Let's go tactical because if someone is
doing this on their own, that's great.
But if where you work helps to facilitate
this, how great would that be?
So if you owned a clinic or you
were brought in to help run a clinic,
what would you do to improve staff
emotional health without just throwing
money at the problem?
Because throwing money at the problem most
of the time doesn't work and you're not
going to get the money anyway.
So if you owned a clinic today,
what would you do to improve staff
emotional health?
Yeah, yeah.
I think that clinicians and clinic owners
have lots of options.
And I think that from a coaching
perspective, I'll say this,
collaboration is always, I think,
a little bit more beneficial than pure
directive.
And so if there is a way to
collaborate with the people that you're
trying to uplift and support,
then that can go a long way.
And so I think that
Actually,
I'll say it this way when I think
about stress.
And you know it because you got a
copy of my book.
The anatomy of stress.
Stress is going to be driven by four
things, our situation, our behavior,
our body, and our mind.
And so if we can change the situation
through behavior,
that's a great place to start.
And so there may be a clinic practice
will look and say, OK,
what can we change structurally?
What can we do something from a behavioral
perspective that just naturally leads to
more enjoyment?
I've had a bunch of friends here in
Massachusetts who have gone to a more one
PT one client model.
And I know that a lot of PTs
tend to like that model more.
So I have a buddy who has a
big practice and like they started to
expand like the amount of time that a
PT could have with a patient.
And so again,
like in every practice on this knows their
business better than me.
But what I'll simply say is that there
can be potentially things that we do to
just make the overall environment just a
little more supportive.
Beyond that,
we can think about how do we support
people physically.
And I'll also say this,
I feel like culture is one of the
words that gets thrown around a lot.
It does.
And I do feel that optimism is a
part of the culture that can just really
revolutionize how we interact.
Simple example,
I refer to connection as a mental skill.
And we know that when people feel
connection in an environment that they
thrive and they feel less burnt out,
less stressed.
And so a couple of thoughts about
connection muscles.
When we relate to people in a negative
way, it weakens connection.
When we relate to people in a positive
way, it strengthens connection.
And so, simple thing,
gratitude and appreciation.
I know those are two different things,
so gratitude.
If we are creating a culture where we're
expressing gratitude and appreciation for
each other, then that goes a long way.
I'm thinking about something, you know,
I'm in Boston and there was this study
on teams.
And it was, they actually used the,
I think it was the, the,
I think it was the,
I think it
And they wanted to see how many times
did the players touch each other?
Oh, I saw this.
This is interesting.
Yeah.
You know, high five, pats on the butt.
And what they found is that the Boston
Celtics in that year,
they had the highest touch percentage of
any team.
They just were congratulating people and
living in this spirit of service and
support.
And they went on to win a championship
that year.
and so what i'd say is that when
we're in a company if we can start
and i feel like the leaders can can
be the ones if the leaders are leading
with gratitude and appreciation more so
than criticism and blaming and i know it's
hard because like sometimes as a leader
you're like i want people to do the
job
And so what I'd say is criticism,
I would consider a pessimism muscle.
What are your flaws?
What are your mistakes?
What are your weaknesses?
What are you doing wrong?
What do I not like?
And the optimism muscle would be
appreciation.
What are your strengths?
What are you good at?
What are you doing well?
What do I like about what you're doing?
And so simply if we start shifting and
start being more appreciative,
then that can just go a long way
to make people feel empowered.
And when we're connected to something
that's meaningful,
the hard work actually uplifts us.
When we feel like we're doing something
that's meaningless and we're not getting
any appreciation, that beats us down.
And so again,
I know we could probably talk about it
for a lot,
but what I'd say is that a culture
that is more optimistic and appreciative
will always be the culture that is more
cynical and negative and critical.
Yeah.
You ready for a quick rapid fire game?
I didn't prepare you for this,
but we're in a rapid fire.
Sure.
Best sixty second stress reset.
What would you suggest?
Yeah.
For me,
I'm thinking going outside and sitting
outside for sixty minutes and just
breathing.
Touch grass.
Yeah.
No technology.
Just in nature.
Breathe for thirty seconds,
sixty seconds and go back inside.
Besides yours,
a book every rehab professional should
read.
What do you like?
Actually,
one of the books that really informed my
book,
and I write about it in chapter four,
is The Upside of Stress by Kelly
McGonigal.
It was a beautiful book that completely
changed my perspective on stress.
Actually,
there was a study in nineteen ninety eight
where they interviewed thirty thousand
people and they asked them,
do you have a positive view of stress
or action?
What they asked them was,
do you think stress is harmful for your
health?
Yes or no.
Actually, I'm messing up the study,
and that's funny because it's what I've
talked about.
They actually asked them if they had a
lot,
if they experienced a lot of stress in
the previous year.
And then the second question was,
do they think stress is harmful for their
health?
And what they found years later when they
looked at the death records is that people
who had a lot of stress and thought
it was harmful were forty three percent
more likely to have died.
Wow.
But the weird thing is the group with
the lowest mortality were people who had a
lot of stress but didn't think it was
harmful for their health.
And it led the researchers to conclude
that the perception that stress is harmful
is likely causing excess deaths.
And so we know this from a,
if we think about placebo effect,
most clinicians are aware of the placebo
effect.
But what we don't often think about is
the nocebo effect.
which is our thoughts can actually cause
harm.
And so how we think influences how our
body physically responds.
And so the way she collected the
researches on expectation theory and
nocebo effect,
and it was just such a beautiful way
to just change how I talked about stress
because I used to tell people,
stress is gonna kill you, avoid it,
it's toxic.
And by me making stress out to be
such a villain,
especially because it's something that
people cannot escape,
I was actually adding to the anxiety and
probably the negative effects of stress.
And so that book really did change how
I thought about stress and played a large
role in how I talk about it in
my book.
So yeah,
The Upside of Stress by Kelly McGonigal.
It's a beautiful book.
Good one.
Most underrated daily habit.
What's underrated that you'd say, hey,
listen, if you add this,
best juice versus squeeze ratio?
Yeah.
The first one I'll say is optimism,
but I know that's just like a layup.
But if I have to choose another one
besides optimism,
I feel like optimism can go in so
many different ways.
Actually, I'll stay with optimism.
And what I'll say is that I think
if we appreciate ourselves and practice
self-appreciation,
it's something that can just change our
experience.
Most of us are our own worst critics.
And we go through life beating ourselves
up.
And it makes us feel inadequate,
depressed, frustrated, less than.
And if we just spend a little bit
of time appreciating our goodness, man,
we're just going to shine so much
brighter.
So, yeah,
self-appreciation is something that I'll
say that it's it goes under the radar,
but it just shows up in everything that
we do.
All right.
We have a tradition on the show.
It is called the parting shot.
This is the parting shot.
One last mic drop moment.
No pressure.
Just your legacy on the line.
I want to thank US Physical Therapy for
supporting the show and keeping this thing
on the air.
They're a national network of clinics
focused on developing clinicians through
mentorship, leadership tracks,
and long-term career growth.
Learn more at USPH.com,
plus our friends at Empower EMR.
If your clinic is stuck in an EMR
that slows you down,
it's not very optimistic.
Empower gives you faster workflows,
cleaner documentation,
and support PTs actually appreciate.
Upgrade your clinic's brain at
EmpowerEMR.com.
So, Charles.
Parting shot.
You can give us your own mic drop
moment, quote, idea, anything,
or I can hit you with a parting
shot question.
It's completely your call.
Yeah, if you've got a question for me,
yeah, go for it.
So if every person listening today could
build just one stronger inner muscle over
the next year, gratitude, resilience,
optimism, discipline,
which one would you choose and why?
Hmm.
Oh, man, that's a really great question.
I'm going to choose faith.
And what I'll say is I know that
in a world where sometimes people want to
run away from religion,
they also run away from faith.
But there's a quote that has been my
guiding principle as a person and as a
coach that comes from Dr.
Martin Luther King.
And it says,
faith is taking the first step even when
you can't see the whole staircase.
And I think a lot of times,
especially for highly educated adults,
we've learned to master certain areas of
our lives and we want to act with
certainty.
And so we just naturally want to research
and know before we try.
But sometimes that keeps us stuck.
And if we can embrace the idea that
life is never a hundred percent certain
and develop faith in ourselves,
develop faith in other people,
develop faith in a higher power,
and just take that first step,
then I think that that's going to be
something that really will lead to our
growth and success.
That's a great quote.
It's a good one.
Not the first time it's been used on
this show.
Up your optimism game, how to turn stress,
depression, and anxiety to joy, happiness,
and peace of mind.
I don't know.
Could the world use a little more joy,
happiness, and peace of mind?
I think it could.
Best way for the people to pick up
the book.
I know it's on Amazon,
but is it anywhere else?
Amazon's probably the best place.
You can get it in Kindle version,
paperback, or even hardback.
Yeah.
I say pick it up in paperback.
You want to pick this thing up and
you want to hold it.
It's a great read.
Kudos for you on caring about this topic
enough to not only research it for
yourself,
but put the thoughts in order and sharing
it.
So kudos to you, man.
Congratulations on writing this book.
Yeah, it's been a labor of love.
I'm glad that it's out in the world.
And I appreciate you for allowing me to
talk about it.
And hopefully, you know,
with this exposure,
we can help one clinician, one person,
one somebody to find a path so that
they can have more joy and peace,
allowing them to make the biggest positive
impact at home,
at work and in the world.
Sounds great.
Charles, thanks for the time.
I appreciate it.
Yes, very welcome.
I appreciate you.
That's it for this one,
but we're just getting warmed up.
Smash follow, send it to a friend,
or crank up the next episode.
Want to go deeper?
Hit us at pgpiecast.com or find us on
YouTube and socials at pgpiecast.
And legally, none of this was advice.
It's for entertainment purposes only.
Bulls**t!
See, Keith?
We read the script.
Happy now?