When I speak to health club owners they will typically tell you that there is a spike in memberships near the beginning of the year but within a few months the parking lot and gym floor are nearly empty. So let’s get real – although everyone values health, not everyone has health as a top priority. As a health professional, I frequently would ask patients about why they are only committed when they are in pain but not committed to prevention, health and wellness.
Most people wait for a wakeup call before they make health a top priority. Why is that? Well some just don’t enjoy the things that are required to make one healthy. In addition, these same people may also have jam packed schedule with other important life items such as raising children, caring for an elderly family member, or work. So what can you do to love yourself enough to work a healthy lifestyle into your life?
Firstly, don’t ever expect to do more of something that you don’t consider important. If you don’t value it, you won’t make time for it. Period. If something is not important to you, you won’t find the energy to do it. Secondly, don’t think that just because you are inspired by someone else who is health conscious this will mean you will adopt the same attitude for an extended period of time. Many engage in sports, fitness or nutritional approaches for some period of time because someone has advised them to do so or because they were inspired by someone, only to find this is unsustainable. Why is this so? Because when you are influenced from the outside in, it is not the same as being driven by the inside out.
So how can you become driven from the inside out and how can you make a healthy ambition important to you? Here is a step by step solution.
Step 1 – consider the one thing you would like to do to increase your health potential. Many try to make too many changes at once. They take on a new yoga routine, pilates, see a health professional, change their diet and exercise all in one go. Unless health is on the top of your priorities this routine will cave in quickly. So pick one thing.
Step 2 – whatever it is that is top priority in your life (consider Dr Demartini’s Value determination process at drdemartini.com to figure out what that is), make a list of how making that one health change you identified in step one is going to fuel it, until you feel a shift in your ambition to get healthy.
Step 3 – consider what it costs your top priorities in life if you don’t get healthy again, until you feel a noticeable change in your ambition to get healthier.
Step 4 – measure what you are doing because I’m a firm believer that you are more likely to master what you measure.
So love yourself enough to turn getting healthy into fuel for what is currently your top priority in life.