Pay Attention (Part 1 of 3)

When you were a kid sitting in class, what was the instruction you heard most? Well, maybe you didn’t hear it quite as often as I did, but during my elementary school years, I was told to pay attention many times a day. Although I had to be told more times than I can even remember, I did eventually learn the importance of paying attention.

Attention is important in all areas of life. It started in school when we needed to pay attention to learn the lesson of the day. Once we knew the lesson, we could complete assignments and take the quiz or exam. Eventually this would all cumulate and we’d get a grade for the class. If you didn’t pay attention, what kind of grade did you get?

When I see the state of health in America, I can’t help but wonder what would happen if everyone started paying attention. I’m not sure where we went wrong. I have a few theories and can walk through a few steps to show what has occurred, but that is a whole new article.

Without getting into the entire history of US health, I just want to discuss the power of attention. If nothing else changed, what would we gain by paying more attention to our health? That question has been stuck in my head for a while, so I had to share a few ideas of what I think we would gain from paying a little more attention.

Part 1: Nutrition

The food we eat today is barely food. We eat more chemical preservatives than we do actual food these days. Everything we eat comes from a box, can or a bag handed to us from a drive-thru window. This “food” is literally destroying us from the inside out. Look at the health statistics. Our children (born this decade) are the first generation to have a shorter life expectancy than we do. (5 years shorter!) With all the technology we have, it took us many years to add 5 years to our life expectancy. Now we are going the wrong direction.

Why are we continuing to eat foods that only do us harm? We eat this way because we stopped paying attention. We let food manufacturers and restaurants choose our foods now. We leave the decisions up to the big companies and assume that the government agencies would only allow safe and healthy options to be sent our way.

We are wrong. There is a wide range of food options ranging from the processed crap (technical term) to the fresh produce grown on a farm only miles from your home. Just because it is in your favorite store in a happy container doesn’t mean that a food item is good for you. Just because it is on sale, doesn’t mean that food can’t be bad for you.

Question: Do you have any idea what is in the food you eat?

You can choose to eat a vegetarian diet of only fruits and vegetables, an Atkins diet heavy on meats and dairy, or anything in between. But in order to know what you are eating, you have to pay attention. If not, you have no idea what you are putting into your body. If you are trying to lose weight or simply maintain a healthy weight, the math says that you need to take in less calories. Most people have no idea how many calories they take in on a typical day.
Another question: Do you know how many calories you take in each day?

The fact is, you can start on a healthier path simply by taking a minute to think. Take a minute to think about what you are eating and you will be taking a big step. You don’t have to make a drastic change right away. You don’t have to try to eat completely different food starting tomorrow in order to be healthy. Just like every other goal we’ve discussed, it all starts with a baseline. Where are you now?

Where do you want to go? In this case it’s more like: What are you eating? What do you want to be eating? If you don’t know what you are eating now…I can think of a great place to start.

This is part 1 of 3. Later I will discuss the areas of exercise and healthcare. We can greatly improve our lives in all of these areas just by paying attention.

Deciding Your Own Future

I have a hard time seeing people quit. This is due to advice from a childhood coach. He said: “When you quit you are deciding the outcome.” He was talking about a game and the outcome you are deciding is that you will lose the game if you quit before it’s over.

This applies in many areas, which we will touch on as we go. This saying came back to me when I saw a post from my friend who runs a sports-performance facility. The post was “Choose your own future”. It may be a little different than deciding your own future, but it really means the same thing. It means that you are in charge. If you choose to go for it, you can get it. If you choose not to go for it, you can’t get it.

My career in the health industry has been very enjoyable. I love what I do on a daily basis. Working with people has been a fun experience for me and is why I started my business. As a health coach, I get to help people set goals and improve specific areas of their lives.

While this is very rewarding, it can also be frustrating for me. The most frustrating part is when I see people give up. I often hear people tell me that they are stuck. They tell me that they are unable to reach a goal and they don’t see themselves moving past where they are. This gets very difficult because all I want to do is help.

Luckily when it’s a client in this situation, I can actually help them. We can work together to get them through the rough patch and make the goal more realistic again. I still get frustrated when I see people quit.

Why is it frustrating? The toughest part is hearing someone decide to quit because they don’t think they can do something. They are not quitting because something is impossible. They are not quitting because they don’t have the ability to do it. Why are they quitting? They are quitting because they see a goal and don’t think they can reach it. When this happens, they are giving up not just on their goal, but they are giving up on themselves.

When it comes to life, you are in charge. We can talk about a business or career. We can talk about your finances, family or any other area. No matter what we talk about, you are in charge of the future of these areas. No one else decides how many meetings you set up or projects you complete at work. No one else decides whether you spend or save money to determine your financial future. You are in control of all of this. It is your life and your routine.

Health is an area that seems to be left out of this conversation. When I ask people about their goals, I hear them say many things that would suggest they don’t have a choice. I hear people say things like, “I can’t do that” or “I’m just not ever going to get there”. I even hear “I’m just an unhealthy person”. When someone says this, I can’t help but hear that they are forgetting they are in control. They forget that they can decide what their future looks like. Or maybe they just didn’t know that they are in control.

Why do we think we are not in control? I think we have actually given it up. In our day to day lives it has become the norm to do what we have on the to-do list. Often our list consists of things that others want us to do. It is important to consider others. Family, friends, employers and clients are all important and should be considered.

We’ve given up our control, but why? I think we have given it up because than it’s not our fault that we aren’t where we want to be. It is easier to say, “Oh well, I guess I’m not supposed to be healthy.”, than it is to take responsibility and work toward your goals.

Not everyone has willingly given up control. Many people want to gain it and improve their lives, so how do they get it back? It’s not as difficult as you may think. In fact it starts with one choice. Choosing to be in control is the first step. Once you’ve done this, you are in charge of your goals and your future. I’m not suggesting we put everything on hold and focus strictly on health. In fact, I’m suggesting we use the same tools that help us accomplish tasks in these other areas to help in the health routine.

Take a minute to think about what your goals are? What do you need to do in order to accomplish them? Planning is the key. Setting up your schedule and reminders can help you execute. There must be a balance between only focusing on health and the other extreme of never focusing on it. Success is found in the balance between the extremes. Having a plan can help you make that balance sustainable.

Many people are struggling because they are strictly focused on work or something else. When they try to set goals in another area they often fail because they don’t take control to reach them. In fact, it is easier for them to say they don’t have control and choose not to reach their goals. “I’m too busy” or “I just don’t have time” are perfect examples of this.

You may be reaching your goals. Or you may be making excuses like “I’m too busy”. If you are reaching your goals it is because you have taken control and decided on your own outcome. You have decided what you want your life to look like (in any area) and you have taken the steps necessary to make it that way. In other words, you are deciding your own future. The moral of the story is that if you are not reaching your goals and blaming outside circumstances you are simply making excuses. You too are deciding your own future.

Trying vs. Doing

We’ve all been in a conversation (with someone else or internally) where we say we will try to complete a task. We also know what the word try means. Trying is not doing. We try to find time for things we don’t want to do. More accurately in health, we try to do things we want to do, but don’t think we are able to do. We try to make it to places we don’t want to go and we try not end up doing things we don’t want to do. What happens when we try to do things? Well, often they don’t get done.

Why don’t we get things done when we try? The biggest reason was already stated: trying is not doing. Trying doesn’t work because it has built in doubt. When you say you are going to try something, you are implying that it isn’t going to be easy or natural. You are building in the expectation that it may not happen. When you start something thinking about how it may not happen, guess what, it may not and usually does not happen.

I hear this scenario a lot with exercise, diet, smoking and a long list of other changes that people want to make in their lives. We all want to be healthy and do things that will help us be healthy. Whether you want to exercise more, eat different foods or any other healthy change, you know what it feels like. Hopefully you are doing these things and not just trying to do them.

These are all things we “want” to do, so it is funny to me that we keep trying to do them as opposed to just doing them. It’s funny because we continually tell ourselves that that we are trying or we are going to try. If we are just trying, we are simply saying that we don’t really want to do it or don’t think it will happen.

Think about it with your friends and a social gathering. When someone is “going to try to stop by” are you waiting for them as if they said “YES, I’m coming”? No way. You are more likely to assume they are not coming. We hear the word try and the tone of their excuse and assume that they will not be coming. Not that trying means they automatically won’t come. If they do it will be a bonus, but we don’t expect them to come.

It’s the same thing when we do it to ourselves. When we say we are trying to do something that we want to do, we are just hoping we can do it. We are not planning to do it or better yet…doing it. Therefore, when something doesn’t get done, we already have the excuse ready: “oh well, I’ll try that again later”.

We’ve discussed the importance of habits before and likely will again. Trying can become a habit. When that happens, it only gets more difficult to stop trying and start doing. If you are already in the habit of trying, you can still change this. It often starts by taking a look at your routine. Whether we are talking about your health, work, relationships or any other area, you know whether you are doing what you want to be doing.

How does your routine look? When you think about what you want to be doing, are you actually doing it or are you just trying to do it?

Want Energy?

As an entrepreneur, I need a lot of energy. It takes energy to manage all areas of my business, not to mention the rest of my life. In my 2+ years in business, I have discovered something else about energy. I have discovered that energy is more than just something that comes out of the wall socket. It is something that we create. That’s right, we all generate our own energy.

Energy is what drives my business. Energy is what drives all businesses. Not only is energy necessary to keep you functioning, but energy can determine the direction of your life as well. So in fact, energy drives you. It doesn’t just drive your work, but it actually drives you as a person. The important discovery I made is that there is a formula for energy and how it affects your life.

The formula is simple. You may have even heard it before in other areas. “You get what you put it”, “You get what you give” and other phrases like that are very true. The more energy you put into your life, the more results you get out of it. This is true and I have seen it firsthand with individuals, businesses and in my own life.

I see it in many businesses as they try to drive their culture toward a vibrant, high-energy environment. It works on an individual level as well. In fact, in order for it to work, each individual has to adopt it. Perhaps that is the easiest way to understand the energy formula.

Picture this:

You are tired after a day of work. You go to bed and wake up tired again. The next day feels the same. Getting up and going to be tired.

This doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun, but it is reality for many people. Unfortunately, this may be your reality. Not only have I talked to hundreds of people living this way, but I’ve also been there myself.

How can you get out of this? How did I get out of this? Well, I’ve written about the energy cycle and how you can move upward or downward depending on how active you are. That is one way to look at it strictly from an exercise perspective. I would like to step back and look at this from a wider perspective. There is more to life than exercise. Despite my passion for health, I know that not everything revolves around exercise.

I also know that you need energy to make it through the day. Exercise can be a way to get that energy. Others use caffeine, hydration, food or other methods to push through the daily grind. But it’s the daily grind itself that we need to look at. When I step back and look at the big picture, I see many opportunities for increased energy. In fact, everything we do is a chance for energy to propel us.

Do you find yourself saying: “I don’t have the energy.” Or “I can’t do that because it will take too much out of me.” If you have said this, you are choosing not to put energy into these tasks. What do you get for results? Not good? Not a ton of results or high-energy coming back to you? I’m not surprised, are you?

It comes down to our simple formula: you get out what you put in. If you put in a little, you get a little in return. We’ve all worked with someone in school or at work that only contributed minor effort to a group project. Everyone on the team may have gotten the same grade, but how much respect did you give the person that put in minimal energy? Did you want to work with them again? Did you actually end up working with them again? Not likely.

This is why the energy formula is so important in your personal life. I’m not just talking about health either. I’m talking about every aspect of your life.
Picture this:

You have goals. You know what you need to do in order to accomplish these goals. You know that the more you put in, the more you will get out of this process. As you get started you realize that as long as you are acting toward your goals, it’s only as hard as you make it. In fact, the more you do something, the easier it becomes.

This goes for your exercise, your diet choices, work schedule and everything else in life. It is easy to think about whether we are capable of something or not. It is easy to say “No, that’s too hard.” Those are the easy choices in life. Or rather they are the easy decisions to make when faced with a challenge.

I like to look at it a little differently. I don’t think about what I can or can’t do. I think about what I want or don’t want to do. As I work with my coaching clients, we discuss goals in terms of what they want to accomplish. We don’t talk about what they should do and might try to do because they should. We talk about what they want to do. The choice really becomes: how much am I willing to do?

Once you decide you are willing to do something, you have another choice. The choice, “how much am I willing to do?” translates to how much energy I am willing to put in. Knowing the formula of getting out what you put in, the choice seems easy.

It seems easy to me. It seems easy to anyone that is reaching their goals. Anyone putting in high energy and getting good results will continue to make that choice over and over again.

Are you one of these people? If not, do you want to be one of these people? How much energy are you willing to put in?