Personal Pride

When it comes to health, it is easy to let external influences get in the way. There are many obstacles to living healthy. Just take a typical day for example: you have to get ready for work, go to work, you are busy all day at work, you have to get home from work and do any number of household and family activities before getting to bed so you can get up and do it all over again.

If you are anything like me, this routine takes its toll on your mind and body. We all have a routine that we are in. It may be more or less hectic that what we have described, but no matter what you are doing, it is important.

This is your life. You have to do what you are doing in order to make a living and support your family. You have to keep everything organized so your family can do what it wants to do and sometimes you just have to make sure you don’t go crazy.

There are many reasons we do what we do every day. There is money, respect, entertainment and many other factors that drive our activities. As I see health take a back seat, I wonder why. I wonder why people can justify running themselves ragged on a daily basis without even considering their health.

When most people describe a typical day, it looks like above with a million things going on. I know how it is because I am dealing with a schedule like that every day too. I have to balance many things just like everyone else. I have to prioritize and decide what I have time for and what I don’t. More accurately, I have to decide when I have to do things to make sure that they fit.

But how do you know what you want to fit? I use a few things to gage how important something is. We are all motivated by different things. You can talk about money, fear or personal fulfillment. You can talk about any number of things that will get people to do something, but I think we need to think about one in particular.

Personal pride is what keeps me focused on my health. No matter what I have going on, there is time for health. I make time for workouts, for buying and preparing food, managing my stress and many other things during a typical day. The reason I do this is because of personal pride.

There are few ways that pride comes into play for me, so let’s discuss what it means to be proud to live healthy. Pride comes from many places and here are the places I get mine:

Success

When you set a goal and reach a goal, you are successful. The more goals you set and reach, the more successful you are. No matter how big or small a goal is, if you reach it, you are experiencing success. This habit has become part of my daily life. I set goals every day and I take pride in reaching the goals I set. I take pride in being successful.

Results

The results you get from your day to day life depend on your actions. The goals I set are clear and the results I get by reaching them are too. I take great pride in controlling those results. I control results by controlling my actions. It’s that simple and I will always do it. When I am deciding what actions I want to take, I think about the results and I remember that my personal pride will be greater when I take action and get those results.

Control

Health is in our hands. I can decide how I will live and I decide how I feel each day. When I wake up in the morning, I am tired. I feel like the day just started, but I wasn’t ready for it to start. I feel like the night wasn’t long enough. My routine is designed to stop that feeling and help me get on track for a successful day. My morning workout is what gives me the energy to have a good morning. The goal of getting up and going is all it takes (most days) to take action. I take pride in accomplishing that goal to start each day and the rest of my day is on track because of it.

There are many other decisions that I make on a daily basis that determines how healthy that day, week, month, year will be. As these add up, I am determining how healthy my life will be. I have decided that I want to be successful; I want a certain result- to be healthy and feel good every day and have the control to do all of this.

I am proud of my accomplishments day in and day out. I am proud of the clients that have been able to do the same thing. They aren’t doing it so I will be proud of them. They do it because they have their own personal pride. Anyone that is living healthy has decided that their pride is strong enough for them to set goals, take action to succeed and maintain control over their lives.

The same can be said for those that are not living healthy. If you are not able to find time or make decisions that will support your health, you are not finding pride in being healthy. It’s no surprise. It would be difficult to take pride in being healthy when you are not doing it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do it.

Living healthy may not be easy, but if you are willing to start with one step, you can take pride in that one step and keep doing it. The more success you have with that step, the closer you are to taking another. Step by step, you will be successful, see the results you want and realize that you are in control of your life. You won’t stop because you will have something that you didn’t have before you started taking these steps. You’ll have something very powerful that will keep you going. You will have personal pride.