Really. We cut our hair every 6 weeks, change the filters in our water systems every red light, change our oil every 3000 miles, pressure wash our tires, rotate our tires. We take better care of our things than of ourselves
Why is it so hard to get off the couch and go for a walk? Or go to the gym? Or hire a health professional?
What prevents us from taking better care of ourselves?
Actually, in many ways, it’s not our fault.
Part of the reason is that our brains are wired that way. Our brains are predictive and always bent on efficiency. So whatever patterns of behavior we have created for ourselves, like being stuck behind a desk for 8 hours a day, are the patterns we automatically adopt. And the more we practice them (40-50+ hours a week x how many years?), the deeper the patterns become, making them even more difficult to change.
Another part is a simple law of physics: a body at rest remains at rest unless an external force acts on it. Our brains just won’t use energy unless they have to. An external force could be any number of things: a bad dog chasing us down the street, an upcoming wedding, family reunion or vacation, or bad news from the doctor. Anything that is perceived as necessary for survival, unconsciously or eventually consciously, will be the action we take.
But I think there is more.
We humans are always telling stories, most of them to ourselves. But are they the truth? When it comes to improving our health and fitness, stories often aren’t. They are scary and like the danger they imply, they take the form of a question. We know the answer, but ask anyway: If I get in better shape, will I lose all my friends who didn’t? Do I deserve to be successful? What will people think of me? What happens if I improve my health but my partner does not? What happens to our relationship? If I change my appearance, I’ll draw a lot of attention. How will that make me feel? I’ll enjoy it? What kind of people are these new fans? Why didn’t they listen to me before? And the biggest: What if I suck at it? What happens if I fail?
But aside from the scary stuff, getting this kind of help is a unique process. First of all, fitness is a service, but the work is not done for you or on you. You have to do it yourself. You also have to be clear about what is needed and know how to get it, or maybe just know that it is possible to improve. Our health can decline very slowly and silently. Most of our chronic conditions (heart disease, type 2, high blood pressure) require 12-15 years of poor decisions to show up at the doctor’s office. That doesn’t really provide that “outside” force to get it going until it’s too late.
If you’ve tried to get fitter and healthier in the past, but have reverted to your old behavior, that failure makes it that much harder to try again, even if the failure wasn’t your fault (and it usually isn’t). . It’s actually normal. On average, he takes 7 tries before succeeding).
None of this means we can’t change. It simply means that it is more difficult than we think. When we’re young, we take our strength, fitness, and good health for granted because our poor decisions won’t register for years and we think it’s okay. But sooner or later, if we choose to age well, not simply decline, we have to take action. If you’re ready now to embrace health and wellness, get off meds, get stronger, then this is the perfect time to start. Understand that it is a lifelong commitment. Work on training your brain with new patterns. At first, it’s hard, but it gets easier. To move forward, I always remind myself of a one-line sentence I heard years ago: “Don’t let me die while I’m still alive.”