Minor Details, Major Impact

Many things we do on a day to day basis are done without thinking. We do them so often that they become automatic. This is how we form habits. It’s that simple: when you do something enough times, it becomes part of your routine.

These habits become engrained in the routine and we no longer have to think about them. Often they are big, significant actions that take some time such as showering, shaving or even going to the gym. These habits, while they can become automatic, still take some planning and time to accomplish. They are important, so we put in the effort needed in order to make them part of the routine.

I want to talk about the less significant details in our routines. These activities don’t take as much time and often don’t even require a conscious thought to get done. While the little habits may get forgotten, they still get done. Why do they still get done? They still get done because they are every bit as important as the bigger things, they simply aren’t as big.

What habits fall into this category? The first things that come to mind are putting on your seat belt or brushing your teeth. Neither of these habits takes much time. They don’t require a lot of effort. In fact, you may not even think about doing them at all, but you still do them. You do them every day.

Why do you just brush your teeth first thing in the morning? Why do you put your seatbelt on before you take off in your car? You do both because they are important. They both make a significant impact on your day and even your life.

Health has a major impact on your life too. You don’t have a life without health. The life you do have is not the one you want if your health is poor. For that reason, we spend time discussing options for keeping health where you want it…up and good.

If we don’t keep our health up, we know the consequences. I guess knowing the consequence just isn’t enough when it comes to our health. We continue to ignore advice and refuse to care for ourselves despite knowing what is best for us. This doesn’t make sense to me as we clearly get it in other areas.

It is enough when it comes to wearing our seatbelts. We know that we could end up seriously injured or dead if we don’t wear them. No one wants that. So we wear our seatbelts. We also honor the connection with brushing our teeth and the consequences of not doing it. We don’t want to walk around with green, rotting teeth and breath that arrives before we do. So we brush our teeth.

The key to living healthy is to honor the connection between habits and the consequences they bring. It is always about action and results. Actions yield results. If we want certain results, we need to get in the habit of certain actions. It is that simple.

It is my mission to have everyone saying the following: “I don’t want to feel like crap every day, so I will take care of my health.” Or “I want to feel better, so I will change my diet and exercise.” Even these statements sound simple and obvious when you see them in writing.

What isn’t so simple is the fact that little actions can lead to big results. Just like the simple act of putting on a seatbelt can save your life, other minor details can have major impact on your life. I suppose that means that the real key to living healthy is more than just action and results.

Or maybe it’s less. Less meaning the size and significance of the action can be minor while the impact or result can be major. When you put it that way, it actually makes it feel simpler. Tying this into your health routine is a great way to start moving in the right direction. Sometimes it can feel like you aren’t doing anything significant by making one little choice. Sometimes it can feel like the little things don’t matter. Despite this feeling, they do matter. Every action has a result, no matter how significant (or insignificant) it feels.

As much as it can feel like they don’t mean anything. Just remember that each little thing you do can have a big impact. If you know that (and think about it regularly) it will be easier to keep going. It is easy to forget the little things and their impact, but it will help you succeed. As you continue to do the little things or minor details, you will make them part of your regular routine.

As you know, the actions will lead to results. The more you continue the action, the more you continue to see the results. Even if the actions are small and feel like minor details, they can still have big results and a major impact.

Do you have an example of a minor detail that has had a major impact in your life? Share your comments and help others see how they can progress too!

Holiday Survival: Model to Help You Enjoy the Holidays

The holidays are here. For many of us this can be a season of stress. It’s a shame that we have to look at such a fun and festive season as stressful, but when you are trying to manage your health, it can quickly feel that way.

The average person puts on a pound at Thanksgiving alone. The scary part is that they don’t take it off during the rest of the year. That’s right, the average person gains a pound every year. That doesn’t sound like much, but where does that put you in 5 years…10 years…20 years? You can do that math and see that it puts you somewhere you don’t want to be.

So how do we cope with “stress season”? I call it the PLAY model. The PLAY model is the key to getting through the “stress season”. By focusing on these steps, you can actually enjoy the coming months!

The PLAY Model

Planning

Planning your events and obligations can make it more manageable. Many of us try to be everywhere and do everything. Before committing to going everywhere or doing everything, take a look at when and where things are taking place. Often, by making some decisions or even just minding the order of your events, you can make life much easier on yourself. Plus, once you know you plan on going to an event, you can make adjustments to the rest of your week or day to make sure that you aren’t overwhelmed.

Listing

Once you’ve decided which events you will attend, list them or put them on your
calendar. Seeing them in an organized (planned) way can feel less overwhelming. Armed with the list of your obligations, you are better equipped to handle the season. Have you ever felt like you were never done? Or you always had another place to be? If you put together a schedule and stick with it, you won’t feel this way. In fact, just seeing the events can help you feel more in control. And when you are in control, everything is easier.

Attending

This seems odd, I know, but by attending is the next step. It sounds automatic to be there, but this is taking it to another level. By attending, I mean truly being present the events. When you are consciously and making an effort to enjoy yourself will remind you of why you are going in the first place. Some people like to list all of the positives of attending events before they go in order to focus on the positives. This can help you stick with diet goals by enjoying a conversation instead of going back for more pie.

You

It’s all about you. This should probably be the first step, but that would ruin my
acronym. YOU can decide what is realistic and what’s not. As you look at your goals, you can decide what you want to do. Making sure you stick to your plan through busy times will help you stay energetic and feeling good. If you are feeling good and taking the time for yourself, you will be able to prevent unnecessary stress from ruining your holiday season.

Stay tuned for the next step in the process. It's called The STAY Model and it can help you keep your routine on track during and after the holidays.

Have a Happy and Healthy Thankgiving!

You Only Get One Body

Your body has to last your whole life. I recently met with someone that gave me this great analogy. I really like analogies that help you picture your health in a logical way. This particular analogy made me think and helped me go into more detail on how we can take better care of ourselves:

Picture yourself buying a car. It’s your first car and you get to select the car of your choice. You choose the make, model, color and every detail down to the cup holders.

Now, picture that you are trying to make this car last the rest of your driving career. It will be the only car that you own and it is up to you to make it last as long as you can.

Think about it. How well are you going to take care of this car? Are you going to keep your car in to shape? Are you going to get the required maintenance done? I’ll bet that you are going to do all of the above. In fact, most of us do this on cars that we don’t have to make last more than a few years.

If it is so natural to maintain our cars, why don’t we treat our bodies the same way? After all, your body has to last the rest of your life. No matter how long (or short) it is your body as to last your whole life. Let’s take a look at some scenarios that sound ridiculous, but most of us are still doing (or not doing).
Fuel grade

When you buy your car, you look at the type of fuel that it needs. You fill it with gasoline every time, because that is what it needs. You wouldn’t put some cheap blend of gas made at an unauthorized station or in someone’s garage. If you did, you know that your car wouldn’t run well. Even if the person who sold it to you said that it would only hurt performance a little or you that it would be cheaper more convenient to use this fuel, you would not do that to your car.
Scheduled Maintenance

When your car is due for an oil change, you don’t hesitate to take it in to get that done. When you hear a strange noise it doesn’t have to go on for long before you take the car in for maintenance. Why are you so quick to mind these signals? Not because you want to spend more money at the mechanics, but because you know that by not tending to this maintenance, you will incur much bigger expenses when they lead to larger problems. Not only are the expenses greater, but it’s just not good for the car.

I don’t understand why we don’t treat our bodies this way. We know that when we put sub-par food in our bodies that we are causing damage. Granted, poor nutrition doesn’t cause issues instantly, but think about the difference between feeling energized and feeling sluggish on a typical day. The sad part is that most of us don’t remember what it feels like to be energized since the sluggish days have become the norm.

As for the maintenance, we know that exercise is what the body needs to perform as it should. We would never choose not to change the oil in our car because we didn’t have time or because we are tired. We would think about the alternative (problems and expenses) and do what we know is the smart thing to do.

I hope this analogy sheds a new light on how we care for our bodies. To be honest, I like these analogies because they help me picture my own health in a logical way. Most of my conversations are due to my own thinking and vice versa. If it makes sense to me and helps me keep things moving in the right direction, hopefully it can do the same for you. I think we can all use any chance to simplify things for us.

I also hope that we can all take a good look in the mirror and start caring for ourselves. We are constantly abusing our bodies through lack of sleep, poor nutrition and inactivity to name a few. For some reason, it is easier to care for our cars that it is to care for ourselves. We spend more time and money on vehicle maintenance yet virtually none on self-maintenance.

This will eventually catch up to each one of us. In fact, the effects are happening now, many of us just choose to make excuses or ignore them altogether. Next time you have a choice (which is every day) remember that your body has to last your whole life.

Uncertainty got you worried? Certainty could be worse for you.

Being a business owner, I have to stay up on the economy. It is important for me to know the latest concerns in the business community as they affect my business as well as my clients and partners. One common theme over the past few years has been uncertainty. The financial collapse and housing market woes lead to many other problems for us. Most of these problems have led us to feel uncertain about what to expect in the coming weeks, months and years.

As I work with individuals, I see more uncertainty. The state of our healthcare system is uncertain. We don’t know what will happen. There are debates, threats and even ultimatums flying around from Washington all the way to our living rooms. We know that there is change on its way, but we don’t know what that change will be.

While uncertainty can feel uncomfortable, I know another feeling that is far more difficult to deal with. It’s called certainty. Now, certainty seems like it should be comfortable and safe. We think that certainty is automatically good considering the negative feelings associated with uncertainty.

But this is not always the case. What about when problems are certain? How do we handle certainty when we know that it is a bad thing? That is where the exception comes into play. I talk to people about their health every day. As we discuss their goals and challenges, I continue to see the fear of uncertainty come into play. While I understand the concerns and often have some of the same concerns myself, I have trouble with a plan of action that seeks certainty and only certainty.

Why do I have trouble with this? I have trouble because certainty doesn’t mean it’s a positive outcome. In fact, I have seen a frightening trend toward certainty. There is a great deal of uncertainty that we are trying to avoid. The problem is, there are many certainties that are even worse.

When it comes to people and their health, there is one thing that is very certain. Health is declining and costs are rising. Healthcare has become very expensive in the US. Healthcare is used more and more every day. We continue spend more now than we ever have before. What’s worse, the costs continue to increase so we keep breaking our own records. We are hitting record highs for spending and record lows for overall health.

With this trend, you would think we would look for some uncertainty to help avoid this. It would be logical for us to start looking for new ways to live healthy, change the way we do things and create a NEW certainty.

My programs do this. My clients and their employees are already thinking this way. I wish I could say that we are all thinking this way. Unfortunately, the majority of people are still doing things the old way. Letting their health happen to them and depending on the doctor to fix things when they go wrong is the old way, but it is all too common. The process is certain and of course the results are certain. The old way yields the same old results- poor health and less happiness.

It is my mission to help businesses and employees create a new process that yields new results- better health and more joy as you control your own life. I know that it is uncertain in the beginning, but it’s all worth it when you avoid the problems that we know come along with the old process. That is the alternative when you seek certainty and only certainty. Problems are the only certainty when you don’t take charge of your health.