Tag: health

Healthspan vs lifespan

Work to improve your healthspan, not just your lifespan.

Why would you want to live to be 100 years old if your health was poor for the last 30 years of your life? Is it really considered “living” if you can’t do the things you want to do based on physical or mental limitations?

“Healthspan” can be defined as the period of one’s life that one is healthy. Focus on eating the right foods, exercising your mind and body regularly, stretching, breathing, drinking enough water, and getting enough sleep. And just as important as adding positive actions is removing negative ones too. There are things you can limit or avoid doing that can shorten your healthspan such as drinking too much alcohol, smoking, not wearing a seatbelt (if you get into an accident), over consuming food, etc.

Keep these things in mind everyday. Yes, you should enjoy yourself every now and then. And moderation goes a long way. But the more often you treat your current self, the more likely you are actually hurting your future self. Make conscious decisions on if your actions are worth the potential consequences.

Choose your mood

“Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” – Abraham Lincoln

Have you ever noticed something that triggers one person and puts them in “a mood” for the rest of the day, but a similar event has no affect on a different person? Why is that?

It seems like some people are predisposed to being angry at the smallest things – letting everything around them affect how they’re feeling at that moment. But it really doesn’t have to be that way. In most cases, it only takes a mindset shift to live a happier, less stressful life. Obviously there are things that happen to us that are very serious. Thinking positively doesn’t necessarily make the situation all better, but it’s still the better choice to make rather than dwelling on the negative. Regardless of how do you think about the situation, you probably can’t control those outside events and you can’t change the past. But you can control how you respond to them.

Choose to be happy and see the good in every situation. Why would you want to choose to be anything other than happy?

How bad do you want it?

There’s a difference between wanting something if it comes to you and wanting to make it so bad that you are willing to put in the effort to make it happen.

For example, I want $1 million. It would be nice if I somehow won $1 million. But that’s not likely. So if I really want it, am I willing to put forth the effort to earn it?

I want to set personal records for strength and conditioning, but I am I willing to push myself hard every single day in the gym, eating the right things, focusing on flexibility and mobility work, and get enough sleep and recovery.

I want to have the perfect family life. But I have to want it badly enough to balance between personal care (where I am making sure I can still be the best version of myself), and spending quality time, helping out around the house, showing the kids great work ethic, respecting and loving my wife/their mother, etc.

Everyone “wants” better, but how badly do you want it? Are you willing to do the work? Everybody wants the best, but not many people are willing to put in the required blood, sweat, and tears to make it happen. Are you going to just be a daydreamer? Or are you going to take massive action to live your best life?

Focus is the key to progress, not balance

“To make progress, you must be FOCUSED, NOT BALANCED.” ⁃ Robert Kiyosaki

You can make a little progress while loving a balanced life, but to make the biggest gains, you have to focus an inordinate amount of attention on one specific goal or task. When you focus on one thing, you’ll be amazed at the strides you can make.

There is no such thing as a perfectly balanced life. Our lives are more like waves in the ocean, going back and forth. Sometimes we have a big project with a deadline to meet, so we have to put our energy in that, while other times we have the ability to focus more on our family, our health, etc.

We can try to be perfectly balanced, but will most likely frustrate you as you aim for the impossible. Instead, spend time in great focus on one aspect of life while maintaining other aspects, then ebb and flow to the next major category.

Power, choice, and feelings

Don’t let others’ words control how you feel or react. ​
Don’t let others’ words control how you feel or react.

I saw this quote on LinkedIn and decided that I wanted to talk about it a little more. I completely agree with this sentiment…

If you allow other people’s words or actions determine if you are happy, sad, mad, or anything in between, you’re in for a roller coaster of emotions in life. You can’t control what they say or do, and if you react to everything, you’re giving them the power to “make” you feel a certain way.

But the truth is, only you get to decide whether or not you feel happy or not. Keep that power for yourself – do not give it away to others who may or may not be thinking about how their actions might affect you physically or psychologically.

Practice what Viktor Frankl (Holocaust survivor, neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, and author) called SPR – Stimulus, Pause, Response. He said, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Be free. Choose to be happy or choose to be mad. But make sure it is you who is making that choice, and not someone else choosing for you.