Living Healthy vs. Just Living

We all know what health is. We’ve all heard from a young age that health is good. The older we get the more we start to see how important health really is. There is a clear progression that takes place with our health awareness as we move through life.

Think about it:

- When we are young, we don’t think about health, we just do what comes natural to us- Running, playing, moving around as much as our parents and teachers will tolerate. We eat what is put in front of us and when we are full, we usually stop because we can’t eat anymore. Then it is right back to running around again. This continues for most of our school-age and often into early adulthood. We don’t have to think about health, we just do healthy things by default.

- When we get out of school and join the workforce, things change. Health becomes more of a challenge. That exercise that we naturally took part in is now extra and doesn’t fit in as naturally. The food we eat is still the food in front of us, but now it’s no longer placed by a parent. The food we eat is now the quickest and easiest option to fit into our busy schedule. We move less and eat more as we cram as much as we can into each day. We are still young, so health doesn’t seem like something we need to worry about now. We won’t have to deal with any health issues for a long time, right? Wrong.

- Age 40 hits, or maybe age 30, some people even see a change at 25 or younger. Now those things that you didn’t have to worry about are becoming part of your life. Extra weight, poor energy and medication are now routine despite you feeling like you had years before you needed to think about these things. What happened? The years of declining movement and increasing calories caught up to you. On paper it is easy to see how it happens. In life, it is a challenge that very few see coming. But it always comes.

- Now the next 20, 30, 40 years are spent trying to figure out what we can do to keep things on track. “I want to get back to a certain weight.” Or “I want to keep my weight here.” Is what you’ll hear many say. Others may just say, “What the heck, it’s all just part of getting older. I guess this is the way it is.” If you believe that, you’re right, that is the way your life will go. It will be a slow decline until death.

The problem with this timeline is that we have decided to make it this way. Clearly the big problem is the whole decline and death part, but it’s the cause of those things are what have me concerned. The cause of our problems is us!

Again, if you believe that you get slower as you age and health declines no matter what you do, you will take that path. If you don’t believe that, you can live long and happy AND have the energy to do the things you want to do.

The solution is to focus on health from a young age. It’s that simple. Health is something we do. If we don’t do it, we don’t have health. If we don’t have health, we die. I don’t want to be an alarmist, but clearly the fear is not enough to motivate most people to take care of themselves.

As a society we are not making health a priority. Fear is a motivator for most of us. We fear that we will be late or that we don’t have enough time. We fear that the project isn’t good enough that we won’t make the sale. We fear that our family won’t be safe or that there will be disaster. We fear that the economy will collapse and our home will crumble underneath it.

Fear helps us stay in the rat race every day. Fear is what keeps you getting up on time. Fear is what keeps you cramming more and more into your day. Why doesn’t fear motivate us to ward of certain death. I know that everyone will eventually have their day when it ends, but why not enjoy the time we have?

There is a big difference between living and dying. It sounds crystal clear, but I don’t think it is as clear as you might think. Technically, we are all dying from the day we are born. The problem is that most of us have taken this quite literally. If you are just getting from task to task without any regard for your own goals, you are dying. If you are telling yourself that “someday I will focus on my health, but I don’t have time right now”, you are dying.

There is an even bigger difference between living and living healthy. Living doesn’t take much. In fact we all live for years without even trying. All you have to do is be here, breathe and you are living. Well, we discussed above, you may actually be dying if this is how you are living.

What does it take to live healthy? It only takes a single goal. If you have one thing you want to accomplish and you do it, you are on your way to living healthy. If you keep putting that goal off and finding other things to do in its place, you are just living.

I know there are a lot of important things to do out there. I know that we are all busy. But I also know that we all have the same 24 hours in each day. We also have the same life. No two lives are exactly the same, but they are all similar. Every life begins, ends and is impacted by the same things. Every life can all be cared for and enjoyed. At the same time, every life can be neglected and be miserable.

The choice is yours. That choice is as simple as living healthy or just living. What will it take for you to start living healthy? What will be the reason that you decide that just living or dying is not enough for you? It’s all in our hands. We decide how we want to live. What will make you take control and start living the life you want?