We have all had those times where we thought “today is the day I get back on track”, only to fall right back into our old habits a week (or an hour) later. We want to look, feel, or perform better, but we just cannot seem to change. The problem is that there is no sense of urgency. If you want to lose 10 lbs., you know you need to start moving more and eating better. But what is the urgency? If there is no upcoming reunion, serious health concern, competition, etc., then there is no perceived importance in making changes right now. So what if you don’t lose the 10 lbs.? Well, you may be heading down a road to problems that become increasingly more difficult to recover from.
Attitude is everything
When we have the attitude that “I can always change tomorrow”, the change almost always comes too late, if at all. 10 lbs. becomes 20 lbs. becomes 30 lbs., and as we age, it becomes harder to lose the weight. This means that you now have 3x as much weight to lose and it will be 3x harder to lose each pound.
There is also a motivation factor. The longer you wait, the harder it is to get the momentum turned in the right direction, meaning that you will probably not see results as fast as you like. We do not end up overweight and unhealthy because of one bad habit. It happened because of 100 bad habits that built up over time. The lack of results and the seemingly endless work we have to do to reach our goals can lead to discouragement and again makes change hard. Even in the presence of a LIFE-THREATENING condition, change can be almost impossible to tackle. What was once 10 lbs. of extra weight has now become Type II Diabetes and the problem is more frightening and more complicated than we ever thought it could be.
On the contrary, when we have a mindset of urgency, we start figuring out what we can do TODAY to make a difference. We start to break down the problem into manageable parts because there is no other way to manage it. Just like a project deadline, we must figure out what needs to be accomplished and start chipping away.
So ask yourself, shouldn’t something as important as your health be your top priority every day? Without health, what do you have? There is nothing that can replace good health and it can be a full-time job to regain health once it’s lost.
Where to focus
The most difficult thing in prioritizing health is that the idea of health is so ambiguous. Feeling good, looking good, having energy, having stamina; these are all terms that are highly subjective and have many ways to achieve them in the short and long term. If you decide today that your health should in fact become more of a priority, what will your first step be?
I would suggest starting with that thing that you KNOW you should and can improve today. If you have a job that stresses you out and keeps you up late, then yes, it might not be the best for your health, but no, you don’t have to change jobs today just to get moving. Start with something small, but important. How much water have you had today? What did you have for breakfast? Have you moved at all since you sat down at your desk this morning? Write down 10 things that you know you can change, and pick the one that is easiest. Work on that for a while, and then once it becomes a habit, move to the next easiest.
Urgency does not mean that you have to do everything today, but it does mean you need to do SOMETHING today. Every day we choose to either improve our health or damage our health. We choose what we eat. We choose how we spend our free time. We choose how much we move. So let’s see what choices we can make today so that we set ourselves up for a healthy, fulfilling life. Start thinking about your health as if tomorrow depends on your actions today (which it does), and you will discover a whole new level of health and vitality that you may not have thought possible.
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