We all know that our health is one of the more important investments we can make. It will save you time, money, and effort down the roads by taking better care of your health and wellness today. Yes, yes, we know! Then why is it that we struggle to implement the change we need to make and then stick with them?! Well here are three reasons we don’t. By knowing and understanding these in our own lives, we can begin to work toward getting around these very common problems, and finally, make the healthy changes you need!
We don’t know how! There is so much information out there – Spend 28 seconds on google, and you can find all sorts of advice: “EAT this not that,” “DO this not that,” “This is the best approach for women, men, families, one-eyed-one-horned-flyin’-purple people eaters.” Well, the reason for this is humans are all different! Your body is a unique makeup of lots of systems, throw in any health issues, diet needs, or allergies, and you have a completely unique set of guidelines you need to go by. Before you know it, you are overwhelmed, frustrated, confused and either don’t start the new thing or give up.
Change is hard. We know how to go about life the way we currently are. When making major lifestyle changes you have to put in a lot more effort in all the things you do. Learning to cook a new dish, shop a new way, find time for exercise. All of these things usually take renegotiating how we engage in a large percentage of our lives. Boy, is that a lot of effort! I talk about hard-good and hard-bad a lot. Short version, when everything is kinda hard, choose the hard-good choice because things get less hard as you keep at it.
We self-limit. Sometimes we get in our way when trying to make important changes. Thoughts and feelings around those changes can sometimes be the first and last obstacle in your way. Thoughts like “I’ll just fail at it, like last time.” “I don’t have the time.” “This will be too disruptive.” Limit you before you have the opportunity to really work though what these changes might provide positively.
So, I encourage you to think about these three common reasons to not take better care of your health, talk them over with your family, your team, and yourself. Walking into life changes fully understanding that you are going to have to put in the extra effort until you get used to the changes and begin to see results. Then, your hard-good efforts will become, good, then easy-good!
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