Staying Positive Through Injury: Everything Happens for a Reason

Kincade Pavich // August 13, 2019

Just over a year ago I wrote an article about conquering injuries: the physical part, the mental part and everything in between. I’m now injured again, re-reading my owns words written when I was healthy and digesting them. That article can be found here if you’re curious. It’s been a relatively long time since my last major injury. My labrum surgery was in December of 2016 and I’ve been back in action since May of ’17. On July 29th of this year, I broke my left collarbone – again.

I snapped it right at the end of the first plate, close to my neck. I think I looked something like this when it happened…

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Pinkbike (@pinkbike) on Aug 10, 2019 at 1:52pm PDT

…but it probably went more like this…

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Colton // Jerry of the Day™ (@jerryoftheday) on Aug 7, 2019 at 6:11pm PDT

Regardless of how it happened, my kickass summer quickly went from shredding bikes and dirtbikes 4 days per week to sitting in a recliner searching for a TV show to binge. It was easy to start feeling sorry for myself – and then I picked my head up and started thinking positively. I started thinking about how lucky I am…

• I live in a country that has experienced health care professionals who were able to throw a second plate in my collarbone with no complications. I live somewhere that there are amazing surgeons who can make me as good as new.
• I broke my collarbone. Yeah, I would have rather not. With that said, it could have always been worse – way worse. My head is okay. My shoulder stayed in its socket. My break was repairable. I can still walk.
• I keep thinking “I’m out for 6-8 weeks.” What does out mean? I’ve been working hard to think of injury as an opportunity instead of a burden. What can I now do that I should be doing regularly, or something I want to do but haven’t made time for? Not being able to ride all of a sudden frees up so much time for new opportunities. Thinking this way helps a lot.
• This is a relatively quick recovery. I’ll still be able to ride my bike and dirtbike before winter hits.

It is so damn easy to get down on yourself when injured and fall into a slump. Obviously the longer the recovery the harder it is to stay positive and motivated, but if you can manage to pull yourself out of that slump and motivate in some way you won’t be disappointed. It’s possible to accomplish more during an injury than you would ever expect. The mind is powerful.

On top of all of this, my mother has always said “everything happens for a reason…” and I never thought much of it or even agreed with it. And then things kept happening in my life where it made more and more sense. While you may or may not believe in this, it can also make seemingly bad things feel a lot better. I’ll never know how life might have played out differently had I not crashed, but believing that everything happens for a reason allows me to take life one day at a time and not feel sorry for myself for getting hurt.