Given the choice, would you choose a high quality of life where you are vibrant and full of energy for the next 20 years or a steady decline where each year your quality of life diminishes at an accelerated rate and even making it 20 years becomes questionable?
No this is not a trick question. This is more like a wake up call. When it comes to our health we have to pay a little now in terms of attention and resources to have the return of a high quality of life or the price later will be way more than we want and the return will be minimal. Either way, we do have to pay.
You see there are two ways you can be about health: Reactive or Proactive.
Reactive is the world of pharmaceutical drugs, surgery, crash diets, etc. Anytime we are reactive about health it is usually because of a health crisis. A health crisis can come in a few different flavors. There is “life happens” type of health crisis where we fall down and break our arm, or we get blindsided at an intersection, and to some degree genetic flaws in our physical make-up can lead to serious health problems. In these cases we should be thankful that we live in such an advanced medical age because we need reactive health solutions.
The other flavor of reactive health crisis is what I would call “self-induced” or neglect based crisis. Most all health maladies in our society are of this variety. The majority of the diseases, like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, auto-immunes, etc. are the result of lifestyle. That means they ultimately come from neglecting to do what is needed to avoid these. In these cases, once again we are fortunate to have such a great reactive health care system, but then again, what an enormous waste of resources and quality of life.
Once we are in the reactive mode, particularly from a disease, the quality of our life plummets. We become limited physically, drained financially, and life becomes regimented by the confines of the disease. I know this all too well because I have lived it through family members who didn’t survive and ones who survived a lot longer than they wanted to given the conditions of their life.
The other flavor of reactive health crisis is what I would call “self-induced” or neglect based crisis. Most all health maladies in our society are of this variety.
The ironic thing about the circumstances of reactive is that in addition to the limitations and the decreased quality of life, we have to also do the things we should have been doing proactively in the first place. I constantly see new faces in the gym who have had a heart attack and now they are exercising every day, eating healthy, etc. All the stuff that would most likely have kept them from having the heart attack in the first place. They are paying way more now.
It is never too late to be proactive. I believe if everyone could internalize the true cost of not being proactive, in other words, get a glimpse at the price they were really paying, nothing would stop them from doing the right things every day. Exercising, eating good food, drinking lots of water, and taking high quality supplements, is much cheaper in time and money than the ultimate price of not doing these things.
Stop for a moment and think to yourself, is there really a worthwhile reason to not do the right things for your health today? Will that reason (if you have one) stand up as legitimate to you if you were looking backwards in 5 years from a doctor’s appointment where you heard something life changing?
Be proactive. It will help you and it will set an example that might help the people you love too.
“I don’t have time,” “I’m tired,” “I can’t afford it,”…those are excuses. One of my favorite business philosophers was the late Jim Rohn. He used to say “Could, should, won’t…the formula for disaster.”
Be Proactive! You were designed to live vibrantly for many decades. I want you to be around to read my blog in 20 years!
If you are struggling with being proactive or have a question let me know by writing below:)
