ACT How You Want Your Life To BE!

November 26, 2011 by

It’s All About Mickey Mouse

I just returned from a week-long family holiday at Disney World in Florida. Surprisingly, I returned refreshed, relaxed, and recharged heading into the Christmas craziness. Being away from work and in a different setting always helps me to think and see things a bit differently. So, this article is essentially my “What I learned on my Disney vacation assignment.”

Health Obsessed

The first thing I noticed reading the newspapers, watching the news, and eavesdropping on conversations is that Americans are even more obsessed about their health than Canadians are. This is interesting because we also know that overall Americans are a bit LESS healthy than we are. It was obvious to me that people’s waist lines were significantly larger (kids included) and the quality and quantity of food consumed poorer than what I am used to observing here.

What does it mean that we have 2 extremely health obsessed countries, yet poor levels of health? My only answer is that while we do all of this obsessing and debating and arguing over health care, most people aren’t actually doing anything about it!

BE – DO – HAVE

It is really quite simple – if someone wants to BE healthy, they have to DO healthy things. This is true of any aspect of life. If you want to be wealthy you must conduct yourself as wealthy people do. If you want to be a good student you have to do the things good students do. Same goes with relationships, hobbies and athletics. How have we missed this universal truth when it comes to health?

Treatment does NOT equal Health

One of the reasons is that we have fallen under the illusion that having treatments available to us will make us healthy. This is particularly true in Canada where there is an unsaid feeling that universal access to medical care will save us. No disease treatment can ever make you healthy. No drug, no surgery, no MRI, no herb, and no chiropractic “treatment” will ever make you healthy and it is not their job to make you healthy. Of course, any of those things may save your life or get you out of a crisis – which is great – but it is not their intent to create health.  In fact, most pain and disease treatments actually decrease your overall health, sacrificing it to save you from the crisis. So, if your health care plan is high quality disease care you are unlikely to experience great health in the long term.

What are you REALLY willing to Do?

Another reason health obsessed North Americans aren’t very healthy is that I really question how important health is to most people. What are you willing to do to be healthy? Are you willing to change your lifestyle, or would you rather just wait until you get sick and get someone to fix you? There is no wrong answer but I think it is important for everyone to acknowledge this for themselves.

I see some people in my office who truly don’t care about their overall health and only come in for episodic care when they have pain or a health challenge. These people tend to experience a slow decline in their health over time, but they understand and accept this fact and our relationship is great. Sometimes they change their minds and turn their health around.

Other people are really committed to a healthy life and their reasons for receiving NSA care are much different. While they may sometimes have a health challenge they get regular care to enhance their health, vitality and quality of life. These individuals also tend to make healthier choices in other aspects of their lives and I have observed that in contrast to the first group their quality of life tends to continue to increase over time – even into their golden years.

Know What You Want, Then Act!

How do you want your life to be? What do you want it to look like? These are important questions everyone should answer for themselves. Once you know don’t waste your time debating and arguing over it – take ACTION! It is the only way to get there.

Just in case you need some motivation to get started, Click HERE to watch a great 1 minute video.

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