A HEALTH SPAN THAT EQUALS A LIFESPAN

When you think about goals in life what are the most common goals you think about? Are they about family, jobs, careers or money? How do you approach these goals? Is there a game plan with incremental reviews to make certain you are on target to achieving your goals? Are they really goals or more likely dreams? There is nothing wrong with dreaming and dreaming big, but it is important to recognize a dream without a game plan is nothing more than a WISH, a desire.

I once read a story by a gifted writer named Karen, (Healing Your Grief) asking the reader to list all the things in life they loved. It then asked the following question, “how many things did you list before you placed your name on the list?” In many cases our names never even make the list. This either means we don’t truly love ourselves or we take ourselves and our lives for granted. In either case this proves the existence of a void in many of our lives.

As I have attempted to help people understand the effort required to becoming healthy, I realized that without truly loving and respecting oneself attaining this goal was unlikely. Until the need to love oneself was truly recognized as an ESSENTIAL NEED, the emptiness behind this current state of emotion was aligned more closely with a dream or wish than a goal.

Do you love and respect yourself? PROVE IT (not to me,) but to yourself. What steps do you take to make your life more complete? What steps do you take to adapt to the stresses listed as the goals in the first paragraph of this article? These would include family, jobs, career and money. Until you are ready to change the mindset and view your life from a different perspective, life will remain volatile. This automatically places your health in a compromised state REGARDLESS OF HOW YOU FEEL!

If you would rather have a health span that equals a lifespan it is time to WILLINGLY accept some changes that will reinforce the message about self love. These changes will improve your ability to re-energize and commit to a game plan that will ultimately put you on the emotional, physical and spiritual path of success. To succeed, however, you can’t approach this new idea unless you are 100% committed to self love and self improvement. This does NOT mean each and every day will be limited to positive affirmations.  It means you are willing to accept life’s challenges and do what it takes to overcome all its obstacles. You may experience several failed attempts, but persistence and self commitment will result in achievement. It is this type of attitude that must be realized in order to begin the process.

The following are a list of action steps. These are ideas to incorporate into your game plan. ONLY YOU CAN CREATE THE ACTUAL GAME PLAN. A game plan is defined as, “organized steps needed to create a tangible direction that will LIKELY require adaptations to ultimately achieve the goal.” Remember, it’s not an easy journey, but it’s not supposed to be. If it was easy EVERYONE WOULD BE FOUND ON THE SAME PATH.

ACTION STEPS:

1. Create personal time for yourself EVERYDAY. It doesn’t matter if it’s only 5 minutes because the commitment to yourself is crucial to owning the concept of self love.

2. RESPOND rather than REACT to life’s situations. Look at the situation as if it was an “out of body” experience. This will help provide a clearer picture rather than attempting to create a solution while standing in the middle of a problem. If you have enough time, run your solution by someone you trust for a second opinion. Do NOT ask someone else UNTIL you have come up with a possible solution. This adds a level of self confidence to the equation and creates an increase in self respect.

3. Create a list of priorities. Do NOT overwhelm yourself by making the list too long. Place about 3 items on the list and create a game plan to accomplish these priorities. Do not add or subtract from the list. If it is a true priority, be patient with yourself and work diligently until the list IS ACCOMPLISHED.

4. Recognize that your health is essential for ANY GAME PLAN! On a weekly basis, decide on changes you are willing to implement to improve the quality of your health? This list is as much (if not more) a priority than the previous action step because without your health, it won’t be possible to achieve the other goals. A partial list to achieve this action step includes: (1) better food choices, (2) exercise, (3) increased water intake, (4) better quality sleep, (5) stress reduction outlets (we will always have stress; we need to find outlets and learn how to channel our stress in a POSITIVE MANNER.)

These action steps will provide a good starting point for most people ready to commit their lives back to themselves. Experiencing a life of self love and self respect creates greater choices and opportunities. These include the love of family, the successful job or career and the ability to achieve financial security. Notice that taking care of personal needs in an organized meaningful fashion brought us full circle back to the original goals listed in the opening paragraph of this article. This is not a coincidence. Finally, it will help you achieve:

A HEALTH SPAN THAT EQUALS A LIFESPAN!

Tags: attitude, emotions, happiness, health, positive thinking, purpose