or so. After this it’s predictable you will need to start funneling money into it to fix the ageing parts. How long do you want your body to run at peak performance? Are you willing to treat your body as well as my friend treats his car? Don’t void your warranty by neglecting proactive lifestyle choices and neglecting the little niggles that arise from time to time. Consider your body a vehicle that is engineered for a long life but needs regular maintenance scheduled to avoid a breakdown.
Measured Steps You’ve possibly heard the cliché, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It’s true. You don’t need to make massive shifts in your life in order to pursue wellness. Incremental changes in strategic areas can make an exponential difference as the years pass by. I invite you to journey with wellness, as opposed to trying to make it happen in one enormous lifestyle change. Read this book, identify some relevant areas for change, and let me map out for you a more healthy future. Don’t think of your health as something on your ‘to do’ list that gets crossed off and concluded. You don’t action it today and never address it again. It doesn’t ever finish. There is no finite end point. If you ever believe you’ve arrived at the ‘end’ of wellness, you’re giving up on the rest of the adventure that awaits you. Good health at least has to be maintained. This journey is a lifelong pursuit, but has massive daily benefits – starting today if you want it to. After 14 years of travelling the world together and living hand-in-hand, my wife has often observed that I am too focused on the destination rather than the journey. Figuratively and literally. My wife is patient enough in our travels to often see things I miss. I tend to want to go full throttle and arrive early, while she experiences a whole other dimension as she counts each moment an important part of the whole trip. Frankly, there are times when I’m flat out disappointed by the destination and all I can salvage from the experience is my wife’s memories of the sights, sounds, people and places we’d passed along the way. These reflections remind me to enjoy the journey, because it’s every bit as important as the place I am going. I’ve got to love every step of the way and embrace it as part of my life experience.
“This journey is a lifelong pursuit, but has massive daily benefits – starting today if you want it to.”
The road to health is no different. Take my wife’s advice. Accept that wellness is a journey to be enjoyed at every milestone and is as simple as just taking the very next step.
Health Secrets
1 Good health is not just the absence of injury, pain or sickness, but rather your ability to move and perform in an optimised physical state.
2 Wellness isn’t a ‘nice idea’. It’s a ‘life and death’ choice that you must confront.
3 Your fast-paced lifestyle threatens good health on a daily basis.
4 Pain in isolation is an unreliable indicator of your injury or sickness.
5 You need to drive and maintain your body like you would a high performance vehicle.
6 Enduring health is a lifelong pursuit, but it responds immediately to your positive daily decisions.
Actions for Optimal Health
Review the health secrets of this chapter.
Write down in 30 words or less how you would now define good health or wellness. Rate your measure of personal health on a scale of 1 to 10, where the higher the number the closer you are to your peak performance. Consider the obvious things like current injuries, restrictions, medical conditions and pain. Also include in your assessment your state of fitness, energy levels, body weight, nutrition habits, exercise patterns and general sense of well-being. If you are disappointed with your score (firstly, congratulate yourself for being honest) then set new targets to aim for in 3, 6 and 12 months from now. We will identify strategies throughout the remainder of this book that will help you score much better on future assessments.
Make one small change to your busy lifestyle that promotes better health! It could be to sleep longer, eat less sugar, walk 2 km on the weekend, or actually stop and sit down for lunch at work regardless of how busy you feel. Write a single statement of commitment to take action around this new health initiative. Be as specific and realistic as you can. Share it with a loved one, fitness coach or colleague. Log your “Healthy Decisions” online at www.getyourselfbackinmotion.com/healthy decisions for ‘global’ accountability, recognition and encouragement. You never know, I may even follow you up sometime.
References
1 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) 2006. Chronic diseases and associated risk factors in Australia, 2006.
2 World Health Organisation (WHO) (2005) Preventing chronic disease: a vital investment: WHO global report. Geneva
3 National Health Priority Action Council (NHPAC) 2006. National Chronic Disease Strategy, Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, Canberra.
4 Stollznow Research for Pfiser Australia: Chronic Pain. April 2010.
5 World Health Organisation (WHO) (2005) Preventing chronic disease: a vital investment: WHO global report. Geneva
6 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Health Expenditure Australia Report 2009-2010
Chapter 3:
RESULTS FOR LIFE
Abandon the ‘Quick Fix’ Mentality
Of our limited resources, time is the most precious. It’s unredeemable and we can’t afford to waste it. Consequently, the symptoms of ‘urgency’ sickness are breaking out everywhere as a 21st century pandemic. Everyone feels time-poor and can recall more than one deadline overdue. Queue-rage and growing impatience with red traffic lights are an embarrassing indictment on society. We are the first generation to get frustrated with the microwave. It seems normal now to be texting, making lunch for the day, watching the morning news, all while you are eating breakfast in the rush before work. Multi-tasking is no longer the envied skill of the superior, but the survival tactic of the many. We want it quicker, bigger, better…and we want it now!
The problem is, you can’t rush health. There are no shortcuts when it comes to wellness. As much as I’d sell more books promising a “quick fix”, the only short you’ll experience is a short coming to the long-term benefit. Forget the “miracle cures” and fab-diets, 5-minute abdominal workouts and those expensive weight-loss products that make outrageous promises. Not to be intentionally provocative or contrarian, but our health and wellness is not something to be gambled with parlour tricks. At best, even if some of these gimmicks and celebrity-endorsed products provide short-term results (although many of them don’t even deliver on this), I can assure you that after years of observation and even some experimentation with many of these approaches, they will leave you disappointed in the end. And without question, you will not be healthier.
If your goal is to enjoy a lifetime of good health and vitality, then you must make a commitment to invest in yourself with longevity. This doesn’t have to take brow-beating hard work or years to enjoy, but it does rely on consistency. With continued efforts it becomes a way of life with progressive ease. Your efforts compound over time, and you build strong momentum that propels your continued success. Riding the steady current of wellness as this book outlines, and
