The R.I.C.E. protocol did me dirty
Two weeks ago, I got injured playing pickleball.
The details are irrelevant other than to say it was bad enough that I had to get a piggyback ride from a stranger because I couldn’t walk from the court to the car.
Laid up at home, I started out determined to stick to the R.I.C.E. protocol: Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate. As the days ticked by, a darker version of R.I.C.E. took over: Ruminate, Invent, Catastrophize, Exaggerate.
I couldn’t stop looping on all the micro moments that led to me stepping in just the wrong way on that particular morning.
I made up stories about how this happened because I’m old, careless for not warming up, and lazy for not drinking enough water.
I jumped straight to dire outcomes, like never being able to play pickleball, socialize, or use my leg again.
I made the setback bigger than it is. I even did it in this essay! I said I got injured two weeks ago. It won’t actually be two weeks until Thursday.
Most of us don’t need a midlife sports injury to fall into these kinds of unhelpful thought patterns.
Where in your life are you ruminating, inventing, catastrophizing, and/or exaggerating? What results are you getting in that area?
As a coach of mine famously says, you always have the perfect system for the results you’re getting.
If there’s an area of your life where you’re not getting the results you want, look at whether you’re ruminating, inventing, catastrophizing, and/or exaggerating. How you think about something is your system for creating your outcomes.
For example, my system for recovering from my injury included letting my mind run wild with negative self-talk and worst-case scenarios. Looking at it now with some neutrality, I can see how my thinking slowed my healing and prevented me from making better use of the downtime.
Where is your thinking getting in the way of your desired outcomes? If you did 10% less ruminating / inventing / catastrophizing / exaggerating in this area, what could become possible?
Hudson Valley, NY
August 2026
