Dooley Noted: 6/24/2014
Many patients have come to me because they received outdated, debunked advice.
When I shed some light, they appear perplexed. They always state the same thing.
“Well, why was I never told about this?”
You weren’t told because you didn’t investigate for yourself. One fancy person gave you advice, and you allowed yourself to feel obligated to take it.
I’ve done it myself.
But I won’t do it to my patients and students. And it actually frustrates them when I won’t tell them exactly what is right and wrong.
The need to seek the “right” advice might be inhibiting one’s ability to learn new things.
If you’re not learning new things, you’re simply perpetuating someone’s dogma.
What today was right, tomorrow may be wrong.
And it’s okay to be wrong. It really is!
But it’s less okay not to admit the wrong and stay true to the old, just because it is what you’ve always done.
Test.
Investigate.
Think.
Attempt.
Re-evaluate.
Doctors are wrong all the time. So are trainers, nutritionists, and even researchers.
Think of the way we regarded fat in the 90s. We were told fat was “bad,” and heart disease and stroke risks skyrocketed!
Don’t let yourself be mystified by a title of expertise. Seek advice, then actually think about it.
You don’t need one person to be right and another to be wrong. Understand the strategies of the thinking before finding the faults.
It’s like strategies of movement. A gait might look funky to me, but I’m only obtaining information, not making the patient “wrong” for their strategy.
Seek to understand strategies and perspectives, and make an educated decision for yourself.
As always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley