Health: Your Mindset

Health is not just part of our lives. Health is our life. If we don’t have health, we don’t have the life we want. We don’t have the ability to do what we want to do, nor are we able to enjoy life the way we want to. In some cases, we don’t have life at all.

I have discovered that health is the most important part of my life. I have also helped many others discover that it is important in their lives. In my years of coaching, I have continued to learn and find new fascinating aspects of human behavior. In learning about people, as it is with most topics, I find myself asking many questions. Some of the questions are simply ways for me to think through my own hypotheses, while others are very perplexing and take years to answer.

Why don’t we automatically think about health as an important part of our lives? Why is it so difficult to put our health at the top of our own list of priorities? I have posed these questions to many and will continue to do so in order to find the answers. While I have many ways to motivate, support and even technical aspects of improving health in my repertoire, these questions still intrigue me.

Why do they intrigue me? Well, it is not enough for me to simply say, “This is what you need to do in order to improve your health”. Many people, whether in good health or not, would understand the “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts” and even dismiss them as common knowledge. However, I know that it is difficult for many people and I know what to do to help you overcome that challenge. I know why people struggle and I can help them get through. What I don’t know is the part that intrigues me.

The part that I don’t know is: Why is it so difficult to prioritize health in the first place? Why do we put ourselves last on the list of our own priorities? Mentally, we know what we “should” and “shouldn’t” be doing. Yet we often fail to do what we know we need.

I want to know what you think. I know that we are already in an ugly situation, but rather than continuing to bombard you with facts and point fingers, I want to understand the reasons behind our national crisis. I want to know why we live this way despite knowing what our bodies need (and don’t need). I want to hear you explain what makes it so challenging to value and care for the most sophisticated and complex machine we could ever own. The machine that we own from birth and holds more value than anything we could ever purchase. The machine that we have for life and can do more than anything technology could ever invent. I want to know what makes it a challenge for you. What is your mindset and where did it come from?