Begin with the End in Mind

In the last article applying Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to your health, we looked at how to apply Habit 1 – Being Proactive. Proactive people consistently look to add to their health as opposed to waiting for a crisis to look after themselves. As a result, they are not only healthier, more vital and have more energy, they typically face fewer costly health crises as well.

This week we continue our journey and will delve into Habit 2 – Beginning with the End in Mind. Habit 2 is about knowing where you are ultimately going in the short and long term, taking a BIG PICTURE view of your health, and asking yourself what is REALLY important when it comes to your health.

Being clear on what end you have in mind is important for several reasons. First, it will prevent you from going down avenues that either don’t help or actually hurt your big picture goals. Second, it will provide you with motivation and inspiration when challenged. Finally, it will serve as your guide when faced with choices about what to do or not to do.

Let’s say you want to lose some weight. Nothing wrong with that goal if it is important to you. A short-sighted approach would ask, ‘how much weight?’ If we begin with the end in mind, several other questions need to be asked.

“What is the purpose of losing the weight? Why do I want to lose it? What value will losing the weight provide me? Opportunities as a result? What other benefits will I get? How will the weight loss impact those I care about? Is this consistent with the Ultimate vision for my life?”

Do you see the difference? The first approach MAY produce a transient short term change that may or may not have an overall benefit to your health. The second approach is much more likely to succeed in both the short and long term and actually get you what you really want.

If we took the short sighted approach to losing weight, there are many ways we could go about it. For example, starting to use heroin could be an effective strategy for achieving your goal.

‘Ridiculous!’ you say? Absolutely, yet this is why it is important to begin with the end in mind. Along the same lines as heroin – but less ridiculous – doing a fad, crash diet, working out incessantly, taking a diet drug or herb or looking for any one of the many quick fixes out there can help you with the short-sighted objective without moving you towards what you really want.

If you begin with the end in mind you know WHY you want to lose weight. Perhaps it is to have the energy and vitality to achieve other goals. Maybe you want to look more attractive. Live longer and healthier so that you can play with your grandchildren and watch them grow up. Maybe you just want to be healthy enough to dance with your spouse.

You see, if you know WHY you want to lose weight, now it becomes much clearer HOW you will go about doing it. In any of the examples in the above paragraph, taking heroin (or following any of those options) is inconsistent with what you really want and are therefore really NOT options. Different focus, different destiny.

I invite you to all spend some time to look at your goals from the perspective of Beginning with The End in Mind and I will leave you with some homework before next week. Again, feel free to apply this to ALL areas of your life – not only your health.

While this may sound a bit morbid, the first part of your homework is to write your own eulogy. Imagine you are sitting at the back of the room at your own funeral. Write the script for what you would want your eulogy to say about you and your life. What will you be remembered for? What did you value? What did you contribute? Who did you inspire and how? Spend some time on this exercise.

Once your eulogy is complete, I would like you to write a personal mission statement in regards to your health. A short paragraph with 2 or 3 sentences is plenty. When it comes to your health, what are you about, what are you committed to and what are you creating. Make sure your mission is consistent with the life vision you created with your eulogy.

Please, do this homework and next week we will be ready to Put First Things First!

BE PROACTIVE!

In the last article, I introduced some of the principles underlying Stephen R. Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which we are repurposing here to apply to your health. Please keep these principles in the background of your mind as we begin the journey through the 7 Habits that can help make 2014 the Best Year of Your Life.

The first habit is one that is particularly important (and commonly deficient) to the area of health. That is the habit of BEing Proactive. Being Proactive is one of the amazing gifts possessed by humans. When something happens to us, or we are in a particular situation, we always have a CHOICE in how we will respond.

When we are faced with a health challenge, we have a choice in what we will do about it. We can choose interventions that may temporarily make us feel better but ultimately hurt our overall health, or we can choose to take action that will get to the underlying problem and thus improve our long-term outcomes. We can choose to cover up the surface, or work on the source.

If you listen to the languaging most people use regarding their health you will notice that they are REACTIVE, as opposed to PROACTIVE. They say things such as, “I had to have that surgery…my kid made me sick…my back is out…my doctor won’t let me play golf anymore.” These are examples of reactive language.

PROACTIVE language sounds like this, “I have been having a health challenge and therefore I am looking for ways to live a healthier life…I have allowed my immunity slip and am sick, time for a change…what is underlying this pain I am experiencing and how can I address it?”

Reactive language focuses on what you have or don’t have that is separate from the person living the life. Proactive language focuses on the person with the problem and the choices they can make. Reactive people’s health essentially comes down to luck. Proactive people influence their own outcomes.

Covey says in his book, “Any time we think that the problem is ‘out there,’ that thought is the problem.”

Central to being proactive is focusing on what is called your Circle of Influence, NOT your Circle of Concern. Your COI is what you have control over and what choices you can consciously make in regards to it. COC contains many things that we have no involvement in and cannot do anything about.

In regards to health, people have MANY concerns – just eavesdrop in any coffee shop and you will hear people talking about them (as they eat donuts)! Unfortunately, many people are not even aware that they have a Circle of Influence and do nothing until they feel like they have to go into pure reactive mode. These people go from crisis to crisis, their overall health typically gets worse as they age, and they feel like they are victims of circumstance waiting for the next problem.

Proactive people don’t wait for crisis to take action. They understand that their choices and lifestyle (while not bulletproof) have a massive influence on their present and future health. Most of their time, energy, focus and money go to PROACTIVELY improving their health, not reacting to crisis. If and when a crisis arises, they are typically well equipped to handle it, and their level of health typically gets better with age.

People utilizing Neurospinal Optimization care in my office use it both for Proactive and Reactive reasons. Most enter the office in pure reaction; in order to undergo care must come to an agreement to at least look to correct the underlying problem. We simply DO NOT patch up surface problems – there are others who are real good at that.

Neurospinal Optimization is designed to be Proactive and many of the folks we have been working with for some time are walking examples of a proactive mindset and lifestyle.

So, for the next week notice where you are proactive and reactive in your health and life. Pay attention to the words you use when speaking about your health. Where can you start focusing more on your Circle of Influence and less on your Circle of Concern?

Next week we move onto Habit II and don’t forget that we are having a workshop on Tuesday, January 28 at my office to go even deeper to Make 2014 the Best Year of Your Life. Phone Adele at the office to reserve a seat. This workshop is open to both patients and non-patients so will fill fast.

We are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

            -Aristotle

I had a good laugh with one of my long-time patients this week when we were talking about our upcoming Best Year of Your Life workshop that I will be presenting at the end of January and the series of articles I will be posting starting with this one. She remembered workshop and articles with the same name each of the last several years and was joking about each year being the best. I pointed out that this was EXACTLY my point.

When we make sustainable progress in any area of our lives, it means we can build on it. When we create more awareness, learn new strategies, build new structures, and develop more wisdom we OWN those things and we can use them to take the next step for a lifetime. In this way – if we do a job of this – each year CAN be the best year of our lives regardless of external circumstances.

For this year’s series of articles I have decided to use Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and apply them to your health. Of course any and all of these habits can be used to improve your relationships, career, finances, or any other important part of your life.

There are several key concepts that run throughout Covey’s 1989 classic and will be important to keep in mind as you progress through this series.

This process is one that is, “Inside-out.” This means that in order to be healthier (or happier, or wealthier) you have to start by focusing on YOU. There is perhaps no other area that the average person is “Outside-in” than in the way they see their health. To be healthier, don’t start looking for it in a pill, a diet, a workout, a doctor (even an amazing chiropractor!). We will not start with anything outside of you. Starting on the inside will allow us to not only be more effective in choosing and using the tools we have available to us, it will also make the results much more sustainable.

Another principle is developing all 3 parts required to form a new habit. These are Knowledge(what to, why to), Skill(how to), and Desire(want to). Without all 3, our progress will be temporary at best as we will fail to fully ingrain the new habits we require – hence most New Year resolutions that rarely last into February.

The next principle is that of the Maturity Continuum. This continuum moves people from dependence, to independence, and further on to interdependence. A dependent person requires help from other people – it is a matter of survival, not thriving. Many people are dependent on a certain drug or doctor in order to stay alive or get by – while this may be necessary and is great to have available it can severely limit the level of health we can achieve.

An independent person takes things into their own hands and gets good results, while an interdependent person knows how to work symbiotically with others to get the greatest results possible. Habits 1, 2, and 3 will help people move from dependence to independence. Habits 4,5, and 6 will lead to Interdependence and the real fruits of your labour.

The final principle running through this series is that of P/PC balance, with P representing Production and PC representing Production Capability. This concept is famously illustrated by the story of the farmer whose goose(PC) laid a solid gold egg(P) each day. When the farmer focused too much on P, he slaughtered his PC in order to get more eggs. As a result he literally killed his capability to create wealth. The same applies to our health. How often do you go after a result in a way that actually hurts your ability to be healthy in the future?

I am looking forward to the next 7 or 8 articles and if you are in the area and would like to attend our in-office workshop on Tuesday, Jan. 8^th at 7pm, give Adele a call and reserve your seat. This workshop is open to patients and non-patients alike.

‘For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root.’

–       Thoreau

Many of you know that I just returned from a weekend NSA technique seminar in Gatineau with my chiropractor and mentor Dr. Pierre Bernier. For those of you who have been around Gault Family Chiropractic for awhile know that I attend programs like this on a regular basis. In fact, I have been to so many technique seminars and workshops that it has become a bit of a joke to ask me “haven’t you got IT yet?”

So, in case you were wondering no, I am not slow or stupid! Actually, I pick up technique quite well and quickly which for me makes attending regular seminars even more relevant and exciting.

Why Do YOU Keep Going?

I know some of our long term practice members get the same inquiries from their friends, family and coworkers. “Aren’t you fixed yet?” This brings up an important point about our health and life. Don’t the most important aspects of our life deserve constant attention and refinement? Do you show your significant other love and affection for a little while and then stop because they are “good?” Do you get your teeth really clean and white one day and then stop brushing? Do you learn the basics of a musical instrument you love and then stop practicing? I hope you are starting to get my point.

Sharpen Your Saw

Stephen Covey, in his bestselling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, talks about sharpening the saw. This means that we consistently take the time and energy to practice, improve, nurture and refine those parts of our lives that are most important to us. For me, the ability to deliver Network care to as many people as I can at a high level is extremely important. It is part of my mission in life. As a result I consistently invest my time and money into attending programs that will help me to always be improving. When will I stop this? Never, obviously!

What is Important in Your Life?

What is important in your life? What is your mission in life made up of? Where do you need to consistently improve and what do you need to invest to make sure that happens? Perhaps it is as simple as focusing on being a better and better parent. Maybe a relationship could use consistent TLC. If finances are important to you, constant attention is required to be successful. If you are an athlete truly dedicated to your sport you must continue to sharpen your saw.

Health is Wealth

Health is an area that can undermine all other parts of our lives if it is not optimal. That includes physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health. When we are not healthy it makes it extremely difficult to refine anything else. In order to be healthy in the above realms we must have an excellent ability to be aware of our internal and external environments and then be able to respond effectively.

Network Care

Network Spinal Analysis entrainments – through the body – help you to become more aware and more resourceful at responding to the world. Because the focus is on greater awareness and developing new strategies that you never had before – as opposed to fixing something – there appears to be no limit in how refined you become.

People who receive regular NSA care over extended periods of time do so because they think it is important to refine their ability to respond to and experience life. I can’t think of anything much more important. This is the same reason I go to lots of seminars – not because I am stupid.

I invite you to decide what is important to you and commit to sharpening your saw. You will quickly see that the effort is more than worth it.

Thank you for reading this far. Click Here to see a funny 20 sec. video.