Your Own Style

 Hello from Dallas!

I was supposed to be in Baton Rouge this week, but God had other plans for me I guess. I was about to leave Friday when my boss called me & asked if I wanted to stay here & train for another week. I was actually disappointed & wanted to head home. I was being overly optimistic thinking Hurricane Ida would probably turn another direction or not be that bad. I am glad I listened to him. 

I wanted to talk today about bringing your own style to what you do. There are so many analogies I can use here. The Stones vs The Beatles, Shaq vs Barkley, Fitzpatrick vs any other quarterback. :) 

These people all do/did a certain job or served a certain function in their field of expertise. They all did/do it their own way. The have their own style. One thing they all have in common? They worked the butts off.   

Whatever you do in life I strongly urge you study it & learn the fundamentals. Admittedly some don’t. They just try to wing. I will say that road is much harder to travel. Often if it works at all they burn out due to inconsistency & lack of discipline.

Every bit of knowledge you learn about something, the better chance you will have of mastering it. The fundamentals are important. Study is important. You need to get the basics down. There are those who just have a gift for something or some God given abilities they are blessed with. Yhe often make things look so easy. Even these people work at something a lot harder than many people often realize.  

How do you create your own style? Often it just comes to you. Many times it is due to a so called deficit someone may have. Take for instance the guitarist who plays with a certain style because he has a hand deformity or function issue. Tom Iommi from Black Sabbath, he is missing parts of his fingers. Certain basketball players who have developed great 3 point shots due to their smaller size. Some football players who are terrible on paper…they run a slow 40 aren’t as big as an average players…but still somehow figure out how to find the ball & make a play.

In my opinion, style just comes to each of us due to our individualism. When applying yourself, so called imperfections can turn into strengths. 

You could give the raw materials to different people and tell them to build you a table. It is with certainty  all  the tables will be different, because they and their style are different. 

There are some who will take a part of their style and will exaggerate it because it works so well for them. Possibly they did something once and it went over so well it becomes a goto or trademark for them. This can be limiting sometimes. The equivalent of the “one hit wonder”. It is great at the time, but it can become all you are known for. People may get bored with you. Worse, technology or progress may leave you behind.  Your opponent may eventually figure you out & anticipate you. I have seen great presentations by public speakers before. If next year I go see them again and its the same,, no matter how elaborate I'm going to get bored. Do not get me wrong this often can work for a whole career. AC/DC pretty much have been playing the same sounding songs for years. They did have the advantage of switching frontmen part of the way through their long journey as a band.. This did bring in a change to their sound and style in a different way. 

WE MUST CONTINUE TO LEARN AND EXPAND OUR HORIZONS

What does this have to do with prosthetics? You may get used to a certain foot or socket style. You like what you like. There may be something out there that is more beneficial you are missing out on because  you never checked it out? Your prosthetist may use the same foot and same type of socket on most of their patients. They get into a routine or habit.. Meanwhile a new foot may hit the market that could be better for you or other people. I remember watching the roll out of the Rush Foot. In a small way that foot changed the industry. One of the first feet made not using solely carbon fiber. Just like when the carbon fiber feet came out to replace those made of wood or cork. If don’t believe me ( I am actually not a huge fan of the Rush foot) look how many people have copied it? A sure sign of success. When people start to copy you, you know you are on the right track. 

For that matter while finding your way there is nothing wrong with copying someone to learn from. Even if you copy them 70-100% , your own style will start to evolve. Often our own mannerisms will not let us mimic someone that well, even if we are trying. I am not telling you to rip someone off. At first  while learning,, there is nothing wrong with drawing inspiration from someone. Over time you will borrow from several people or ideals. You will draw your own conclusions.. Then you will formulate your own style. 

There are always new things coming out in all areas of life. Think of all the new technology that has come out to benefit our lives over the last 30-40 years. The cell phone, internet, social media ( yeah the verdict is still out on if this one if it's beneficial or not). As I have stated many times before…all the information that is available to us at our finger tips. Car improvements, better gas mileage. The progress in electric vehicle technology. GPS. And many, many more things. What if we did not embrace some of these things? 

Do not get me wrong. I love old a school. Music, values and so fourth. There are many things from the past most of us look at with endearing memories. We should never forget where we came from and how we got to where we are. We definitely should not let people hijack the new ways of looking at values and technology. 

YOU HAVE TO BE OPEN MINDER…BUT THAT MEANS TO ALL POINTS OF VIEW.

I think it is a very dangerous thing to accept things as fact just because someone told you they are. You must do your own research. 

Weight 224lbs