After coming back from a short weekend vacation, I couldn’t help but think to myself: I need to do this more often. There are a few things that made me think this. Obviously, vacation is a good thing, but there were some specifics that made me really appreciate this particular vacation.
Before I explain the specifics, let me explain the nature of this vacation. It was short. It was only a weekend. It was near home. We didn’t travel far away. This vacation wasn’t supposed to be the most relaxing or the most extravagant. It was simple, but clearly very effective.
So what made this vacation so effective? For starters, I had it on the calendar for a while. This sounds like a no-brainer, but when it comes to short trips and simple plans, they often get moved to the back burner or completely put off. It is easy to make room for big plans, but little things often get overlooked.
Vacation To-do List
Item 1: Schedule a quick vacation
Once this vacation was on my calendar, I could start planning the details. This really means that my wife could start planning the details. She has a knack for planning and organizing many things and vacations are one of them. Now that my calendar was blocked, I could be sure that those details would get done when we got to that date.
Vacations are something that we find very valuable. We have always taken them and some of our best memories have come from these trips. We do different things on some, others are similar activities done taking place in new locations. No matter what we do, things are planned ahead of time so we are ready and jump right into the enjoyment when we get there.
Vacation To-do List
Item 2: Plan the details
The calendar is marked, the details are coming together. The closer we get to the vacation, the more clearly we understand what will be done. Now is when I start getting excited. The time is set aside and I can look forward to spending it doing things that I am going to enjoy.
What is the best thing I can do to make sure that I enjoy these things? The best thing I can do is be present and focus on the main objective. Now, in my day to day life, I have many things to think about. I have emails to read and return. I have calls to make, messages to return and I have other things that are kept on my calendar to make sure my business is running smoothly.
That is just the business side of my life. At home, there is whole list of things that have to be done too. I’m not unique in this situation. We all have many things to do at work and at home. We also have hobbies and other obligations. Life is busy and it takes some practice to manage it and keep stress in check.
Keeping stress in check is no easy task. When it comes to vacations, you can do a lot for yourself just by taking them. But, that is not enough. We’ve all been guilty of this and it can defeat the whole purpose of our plans. The biggest problem we have is our inability to turn our brains off and truly focus on the vacation. It is too easy to check emails or make and take phone calls. If you don’t fully take the vacation, it doesn’t bring you nearly as much satisfaction.
Vacation To-do List
Item 3: Fully engage in your vacation
These “to-dos” are simple. At least they sound simple. The point of vacation is to get away. We want to go somewhere new and do things that are fun or relaxing. If we don’t fully commit to this, it happens, but we don’t get the results we really want. We come home feeling like we missed out or often it feels like we never left in the first place.
You don’t have to go far. You don’t have to be gone long. All you have to do is go. When you go, keep these keys in mind and you will truly feel rested and relaxed when you return. The vacation is very important part of a successful schedule. No matter how many things you have on your to-do list, make sure you make room for a real vacation.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
Create Change or it will Create You
Changing is not easy. In any area of life, change is difficult. In everything we do, we can make changes to get new results. That doesn’t make it easy to do. When it comes to making changes in our health, change can be especially difficult.
When you think about your health, it is easy to think that changing is going to be a challenge. Many people are dealing with this dilemma by doing just that. They are thinking about how hard it will be to change. When you do this, it is even more difficult.
The difficulty often comes in the anticipation. The thought of change is worse than change itself. Think about the prospect of changing everything in your life in order to improve your health. We all know that you don’t have to change it all at once, but this feeling is common.
When you have been doing something for many years, it is hard to even imagine not doing it. Likewise, when you have not done something for many years it is hard to imagine doing it.
When you turn on the news and hear about the risks of not changing your lifestyle, how can change be scary? By comparison, isn’t changing a small habit easier than dealing with a major health issue? On paper that may make sense, but many people are not able to see it that way. The thought of change remains scary and therefore it gets avoided.
What is happening while we avoid change? Well, the title of this article says it all. If you don’t make a change, you will see other changes occur. The changes that you will see are not positive. They are the things we fear and never want to see happen.
This happens in all areas of life, but in health it just feels more cut and dry.
If you don’t exercise, you gain weight. If you eat fast food every day, you gain weight. If you smoke, you damage your lungs and your body is constantly full of toxins. All of these things lead to more serious illnesses. They lead to problems that none of us want to deal with.
I would think that these problems would be enough to help us change. Avoiding the change may be easier, but that doesn’t mean it is easy to deal with. Heart attacks are no fun. Aches and pains are no fun. Buying fat jeans is no fun. There is a whole list of things that are not fun. You get to deal with all of them if you try to avoid dealing with change. That’s life.
The title of the article came from a quote. That quote really hit home because I am talking to people every day that are dealing with this issue. They are looking at two options. One feels easy because it is what they have been doing for a long time. The other feels difficult because it requires them doing something different. The problem is that they aren’t seeing the entire picture. They see the immediate changes, but they don’t see the consequences of not making them. In reality, they are not seeing the worst part. They are letting the initial challenge of changing a habit be the scary part, when the real fear should come from the results of not changing that habit.
Don’t fear change. Fear what will happen if you don’t make change. The quote says it all: “Create change, or it will create you.” It is true. We are a product of our habits. Our health, our success and all of the results in our lives come from change. We either make changes to create the outcomes we want, or we let things happen and deal with the consequences. We always have a choice. What choice are you making?
When you think about your health, it is easy to think that changing is going to be a challenge. Many people are dealing with this dilemma by doing just that. They are thinking about how hard it will be to change. When you do this, it is even more difficult.
The difficulty often comes in the anticipation. The thought of change is worse than change itself. Think about the prospect of changing everything in your life in order to improve your health. We all know that you don’t have to change it all at once, but this feeling is common.
When you have been doing something for many years, it is hard to even imagine not doing it. Likewise, when you have not done something for many years it is hard to imagine doing it.
When you turn on the news and hear about the risks of not changing your lifestyle, how can change be scary? By comparison, isn’t changing a small habit easier than dealing with a major health issue? On paper that may make sense, but many people are not able to see it that way. The thought of change remains scary and therefore it gets avoided.
What is happening while we avoid change? Well, the title of this article says it all. If you don’t make a change, you will see other changes occur. The changes that you will see are not positive. They are the things we fear and never want to see happen.
This happens in all areas of life, but in health it just feels more cut and dry.
If you don’t exercise, you gain weight. If you eat fast food every day, you gain weight. If you smoke, you damage your lungs and your body is constantly full of toxins. All of these things lead to more serious illnesses. They lead to problems that none of us want to deal with.
I would think that these problems would be enough to help us change. Avoiding the change may be easier, but that doesn’t mean it is easy to deal with. Heart attacks are no fun. Aches and pains are no fun. Buying fat jeans is no fun. There is a whole list of things that are not fun. You get to deal with all of them if you try to avoid dealing with change. That’s life.
The title of the article came from a quote. That quote really hit home because I am talking to people every day that are dealing with this issue. They are looking at two options. One feels easy because it is what they have been doing for a long time. The other feels difficult because it requires them doing something different. The problem is that they aren’t seeing the entire picture. They see the immediate changes, but they don’t see the consequences of not making them. In reality, they are not seeing the worst part. They are letting the initial challenge of changing a habit be the scary part, when the real fear should come from the results of not changing that habit.
Don’t fear change. Fear what will happen if you don’t make change. The quote says it all: “Create change, or it will create you.” It is true. We are a product of our habits. Our health, our success and all of the results in our lives come from change. We either make changes to create the outcomes we want, or we let things happen and deal with the consequences. We always have a choice. What choice are you making?
Monday, October 10, 2011
Injuries Really Hurt
During a conversation with my coaching client, the topic of injuries came up. They were dealing with a few nagging injuries that made it very difficult for them to continue with their routine. The frustrating part about this for them was that they were not able to do as much as they wanted to do. The frustrating part for me was that the injuries were nagging.
I found myself getting frustrated because the injuries just wouldn’t go away. Why wouldn’t they go away? Well, they kept coming back, or really, they never fully healed because my client refused to give them time to do so. I can understand wanting to get out and go. I can understand not wanting to rest. I can even understand thinking that an injury is better, when it is not fully healed yet.
I’ve been there. I have dealt with injuries. In my athletic career, I dealt with injuries from head to toe. Thankfully, they didn’t all occur at the same time, but it seemed that there was always something wrong that I had to rest. Unfortunately, many of the injuries couldn’t be rested, so I just had to push through. But there were some injuries that I couldn’t just push through.
When there was a more serious injury, I simply couldn’t play. That was the reality. A trainer or doctor would say: if you continue to play, you will cause more damage and you will be out even longer. That was a pretty clear message. Basically, the lesson for me was: the sooner you stop and rest, the sooner you will heal and the better thing will heal. This wasn’t always an easy lesson to take, but it was better than missing more games in the future or dealing with more pain as an injury kept coming back.
My clients have gotten this lesson when things were more serious. The problem is not with serious injuries. The problem is with minor injuries. Things that they can simply fight through were the ones that they tried to ignore. The problem when they didn’t want to take time away from their routines is that eventually these minor injuries can turn into major injuries.
It doesn’t happen overnight. I’m not trying to scare anyone off the road or away from the gym. I’m simply reminding you that even little aches and pains can become serious issues if they are not taken care of. Taking care is the key when it comes to injuries. If you don’t do it, you can be out much longer than you think.
Often taking care of an injury is the difference between a minor set-back and a major hurdle. One of my clients thought they were just dealing with a minor strain. Months later, he was still dealing with it because he wouldn’t give it time to heal.
Time isn’t the only thing that helps injuries. The following ingredients may be what you need to keep on track, even if it means staying off until your injury has healed:
Ice it- Icing your injured area can help you recover more rapidly. The cold provides short-term pain relief and also limits swelling by reducing blood flow to the injured area.
Wrap it- Ace bandages or braces can give you added support during movement. Compression is a great way to limit swelling while you are resting.
Elevate it- holding the injured area above the heart can help reduce swelling as well
Stretch it- doing movements that simulate your exercise or sport can help you assess the severity of the injury and help you get back to it by easing into it. Stretch the injured area lightly and slowly so you don’t feel any pain. Keep the range of motion within your limits too, so you don’t re-aggravate it.
There is no magic cure for injuries. Major injuries need medical attention and even surgery. Minor injuries often just need time to heal. The key to remember is that the longer you are out, the more the injury will hurt you. It may not cause more physical pain, but injuries can make it very difficult to reach goals. Not reaching your goals can hurt a lot.
I found myself getting frustrated because the injuries just wouldn’t go away. Why wouldn’t they go away? Well, they kept coming back, or really, they never fully healed because my client refused to give them time to do so. I can understand wanting to get out and go. I can understand not wanting to rest. I can even understand thinking that an injury is better, when it is not fully healed yet.
I’ve been there. I have dealt with injuries. In my athletic career, I dealt with injuries from head to toe. Thankfully, they didn’t all occur at the same time, but it seemed that there was always something wrong that I had to rest. Unfortunately, many of the injuries couldn’t be rested, so I just had to push through. But there were some injuries that I couldn’t just push through.
When there was a more serious injury, I simply couldn’t play. That was the reality. A trainer or doctor would say: if you continue to play, you will cause more damage and you will be out even longer. That was a pretty clear message. Basically, the lesson for me was: the sooner you stop and rest, the sooner you will heal and the better thing will heal. This wasn’t always an easy lesson to take, but it was better than missing more games in the future or dealing with more pain as an injury kept coming back.
My clients have gotten this lesson when things were more serious. The problem is not with serious injuries. The problem is with minor injuries. Things that they can simply fight through were the ones that they tried to ignore. The problem when they didn’t want to take time away from their routines is that eventually these minor injuries can turn into major injuries.
It doesn’t happen overnight. I’m not trying to scare anyone off the road or away from the gym. I’m simply reminding you that even little aches and pains can become serious issues if they are not taken care of. Taking care is the key when it comes to injuries. If you don’t do it, you can be out much longer than you think.
Often taking care of an injury is the difference between a minor set-back and a major hurdle. One of my clients thought they were just dealing with a minor strain. Months later, he was still dealing with it because he wouldn’t give it time to heal.
Time isn’t the only thing that helps injuries. The following ingredients may be what you need to keep on track, even if it means staying off until your injury has healed:
Ice it- Icing your injured area can help you recover more rapidly. The cold provides short-term pain relief and also limits swelling by reducing blood flow to the injured area.
Wrap it- Ace bandages or braces can give you added support during movement. Compression is a great way to limit swelling while you are resting.
Elevate it- holding the injured area above the heart can help reduce swelling as well
Stretch it- doing movements that simulate your exercise or sport can help you assess the severity of the injury and help you get back to it by easing into it. Stretch the injured area lightly and slowly so you don’t feel any pain. Keep the range of motion within your limits too, so you don’t re-aggravate it.
There is no magic cure for injuries. Major injuries need medical attention and even surgery. Minor injuries often just need time to heal. The key to remember is that the longer you are out, the more the injury will hurt you. It may not cause more physical pain, but injuries can make it very difficult to reach goals. Not reaching your goals can hurt a lot.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Medicine and Health are Very Different
I was giving a seminar at a school and I asked a group of students what they thought of when I said the word health. When asked what health meant to them, some said healthy as in doing healthy things. Others had specific ideas about what things can lead to health. Some said some things that actually disturbed me.
The most disturbing of the answers was: medicine. The fact that medicine and health were associated isn’t what made me think. That actually makes sense. The disturbing part that made me really think about our current state was something that came on the follow-up questions I asked.
When I asked them to elaborate on what “medical” meant to them, I was shocked to hear the answers. I heard: “Medicine that you need to get your health.” I also heard: “Medicine is what you get when you need to get healthy.” One student simply put it this way: “Medicine is what you get when you get sick.” When I asked about health, this student went right to sickness.
The more I think about this, the less surprised I am about the answers I got. Kids today are seeing the worst in health. They are actually seeing the best in medicine. As a nation, we are continually advancing in the field of medicine. We are doing things now that we would only dream of doing just a few years ago. I am impressed and even grateful for our medical advancements. We are doing great things. That isn’t the problem.
The problem is not our advancement in medicine. The problem we have is the reason that we have needed the advancement. We are becoming more and more dependent on these advances in order to live normal lives. There are people today that have more access to education and technology that can help them prevent illness, but instead, we are just giving them more drugs and using different technology to treat the symptoms that are brought on because they refused to use the education or technology to help them stay healthy in the first place.
The Difference Between Medicine and Health
The biggest difference between medicine and health is the time that it is utilized. Medicine is used to primarily to treat issues that are already happening. The body has become weak and medicine is used to get it back to full strength. More accurately, medicine is used to treat a symptom. When something is wrong on the outside, medicine helps change how it looks and allows you to feel like the symptom is gone. The symptom may be gone, but the root cause may still be wrong internally. Until that is fixed, the symptom will come back. It may come back as a different symptom.
What is the solution for this situation? You guessed it: another medicine. There is a medicine for every symptom and you can continue to take more and more as your symptoms continue. You may even get a medicine to counteract what another medicine is doing to you. Most medicines cause symptoms of their own.
Health, when done right is proactive. Health is the habit of doing things that help the body and mind. The more you do these things, the healthier you will be now and the healthier you will be tomorrow. Many of the needs that arise are simply things that we should’ve taken care of. Most medicines are given to reverse symptoms that are caused by lack of health. In other words, health allows you to take care of problems before they become problems.
The problems that we are dealing with are real, but they are coming up with more and more ways to administer medicine. There are many conditions that are serious and that people don’t have much control over, but that is not the norm. The norm is to spend more money and commit more research to drugs and procedures that can help bring people back from the brink of symptoms caused by their own choices.
Take a look at the commercials that are on TV or the ads in magazines. Not only will you find countless drugs and reminders that you “need” to take them in order to be healthy, but you will even find new conditions that you didn’t know existed. I’m not saying that there aren’t serious issues out there that medication is helping, but we have started putting more effort into finding the problem and throwing another medicine at it than we are putting in trying to solve the problem.
The scariest part about the entire medicine vs. health debate is that we have known for years what we need to do to keep health going strong. In fact, we are only in this situation now because we have not taken care of our health. I don’t know which came first, the chicken or the egg. We’ll call the lack of focus on our own personal well-being the chicken and the emphasis on the latest and greatest drug the egg.
No matter which came first, we have a problem. We have a big problem. People are no longer taking care of their health because medicine will “take care of them” when something goes wrong. This is true, medicine will take care of you when you are sick.
It will also cost you, your family and your company more and more money while you have more problems. You can just take more medicine as you add problems, so no worries, right? Wrong.
The only way to live healthy is to do healthy things. You can’t simply take a pill or have a surgery and become healthy. You can take a pill and mask a symptom. You can have a surgery to fix a problem. Without healthy habits, that problem is only going to come back, just as the symptom will return.
Medicine is great. We have seen incredible advancement that saves lives and allow people to do things that they wouldn’t have been able to do in years past. I’m not saying we should throw out all the technology. I am saying that we need to wake up. Our health is not dependent on medicine. Our health is in our hands. It always has been and it always will be in our hands.
Remember this: Avoiding problems is easier, less expensive and just plain smarter than waiting for them to appear and trying to fix them. Health is not just something you think about when you need medicine. Health is something you think about so you don’t need medicine.
The most disturbing of the answers was: medicine. The fact that medicine and health were associated isn’t what made me think. That actually makes sense. The disturbing part that made me really think about our current state was something that came on the follow-up questions I asked.
When I asked them to elaborate on what “medical” meant to them, I was shocked to hear the answers. I heard: “Medicine that you need to get your health.” I also heard: “Medicine is what you get when you need to get healthy.” One student simply put it this way: “Medicine is what you get when you get sick.” When I asked about health, this student went right to sickness.
The more I think about this, the less surprised I am about the answers I got. Kids today are seeing the worst in health. They are actually seeing the best in medicine. As a nation, we are continually advancing in the field of medicine. We are doing things now that we would only dream of doing just a few years ago. I am impressed and even grateful for our medical advancements. We are doing great things. That isn’t the problem.
The problem is not our advancement in medicine. The problem we have is the reason that we have needed the advancement. We are becoming more and more dependent on these advances in order to live normal lives. There are people today that have more access to education and technology that can help them prevent illness, but instead, we are just giving them more drugs and using different technology to treat the symptoms that are brought on because they refused to use the education or technology to help them stay healthy in the first place.
The Difference Between Medicine and Health
The biggest difference between medicine and health is the time that it is utilized. Medicine is used to primarily to treat issues that are already happening. The body has become weak and medicine is used to get it back to full strength. More accurately, medicine is used to treat a symptom. When something is wrong on the outside, medicine helps change how it looks and allows you to feel like the symptom is gone. The symptom may be gone, but the root cause may still be wrong internally. Until that is fixed, the symptom will come back. It may come back as a different symptom.
What is the solution for this situation? You guessed it: another medicine. There is a medicine for every symptom and you can continue to take more and more as your symptoms continue. You may even get a medicine to counteract what another medicine is doing to you. Most medicines cause symptoms of their own.
Health, when done right is proactive. Health is the habit of doing things that help the body and mind. The more you do these things, the healthier you will be now and the healthier you will be tomorrow. Many of the needs that arise are simply things that we should’ve taken care of. Most medicines are given to reverse symptoms that are caused by lack of health. In other words, health allows you to take care of problems before they become problems.
The problems that we are dealing with are real, but they are coming up with more and more ways to administer medicine. There are many conditions that are serious and that people don’t have much control over, but that is not the norm. The norm is to spend more money and commit more research to drugs and procedures that can help bring people back from the brink of symptoms caused by their own choices.
Take a look at the commercials that are on TV or the ads in magazines. Not only will you find countless drugs and reminders that you “need” to take them in order to be healthy, but you will even find new conditions that you didn’t know existed. I’m not saying that there aren’t serious issues out there that medication is helping, but we have started putting more effort into finding the problem and throwing another medicine at it than we are putting in trying to solve the problem.
The scariest part about the entire medicine vs. health debate is that we have known for years what we need to do to keep health going strong. In fact, we are only in this situation now because we have not taken care of our health. I don’t know which came first, the chicken or the egg. We’ll call the lack of focus on our own personal well-being the chicken and the emphasis on the latest and greatest drug the egg.
No matter which came first, we have a problem. We have a big problem. People are no longer taking care of their health because medicine will “take care of them” when something goes wrong. This is true, medicine will take care of you when you are sick.
It will also cost you, your family and your company more and more money while you have more problems. You can just take more medicine as you add problems, so no worries, right? Wrong.
The only way to live healthy is to do healthy things. You can’t simply take a pill or have a surgery and become healthy. You can take a pill and mask a symptom. You can have a surgery to fix a problem. Without healthy habits, that problem is only going to come back, just as the symptom will return.
Medicine is great. We have seen incredible advancement that saves lives and allow people to do things that they wouldn’t have been able to do in years past. I’m not saying we should throw out all the technology. I am saying that we need to wake up. Our health is not dependent on medicine. Our health is in our hands. It always has been and it always will be in our hands.
Remember this: Avoiding problems is easier, less expensive and just plain smarter than waiting for them to appear and trying to fix them. Health is not just something you think about when you need medicine. Health is something you think about so you don’t need medicine.
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