The Secret to Fitting a Healthy Lifestyle into your Busy World-Part 1

business person meditating in a field

Entrepreneurs, business owners, and professionals often lead very busy lives. Being one myself I can relate to wearing many different hats, starting early, ending late, and seeing the impact on my healthy lifestyle.

So many of us get into an unconscious pattern that just becomes our normal way of being. Unfortunately, over time, our health may diminish and we may find ourselves on a path where we may not be able to realize all we’re working so hard to attain come retirement time. At the very least our quality of life along the way leads us to wish things were different. One question is what do we do about it? Another is how do we fit it into our busy world?

Ideally we choose to work less, delegate, outsource or automate any task not essential to ourselves and simplify our world. Then we’d have the time, would reduce the stress and can key in on what really matters.

Your immediate reaction might be… “ya right!”

If you’re not able or ready to take those significant measures then there are steps you can take to make an immediate and positive impact on your health and well being right now while you begin to move towards integrating more and more of a focus on your health and well being over time.

Change takes time and effort. All the best things in life require effort. Of course the pay off makes it worth it in the end.

In the mean time here are 3 strategic steps you can make right now to make a difference.

Strategic Step #1: Start with WHY

Why make a change to your life and your lifestyle?

When you are able to answer that at a deep enough level you will have something meaningful enough to motivate and inspire you into action when the game of life tries to take over once again. As you go about your daily life and business there are thousands of influences on you and your likely default is work as a priority with health coming well down the list.

If your health and well being is not elevated to near the top of your priority list it will continue to get bumped whenever other things become urgent.

So ask yourself “what do I want as a result of making changes to my lifestyle?” You may come up with one thing or a list of things all seemingly important to you.

One client of mine answered as so many do, “I want to lose weight.”

By itself that is simply not a deep or meaningful enough reason to achieve and sustain change. It’s why most diets fail.

Then I asked… “why is that important to you?”

The answer… “my doctor said I need to?” Still not meaningful enough.

Again I asked… “why is that important to you?”

The answer… “it’s got me worried about my health?” More meaningful but still not enough.

Again I asked… “why is that important to you?”

The answer… “they said I’m at risk of getting diabetes and my mother had it and I saw what it did to her.” More meaningful but is there more?

Again I asked… “why is that important to you?”

The answer… “ I really want to be alive and healthy to see my daughter grow up. I want to be a good role model to her. I want to do things with her for a long, long time.”

Now that’s a compelling, inspiring, motivating reason WHY to make healthy lifestyle changes that last.

Of that initial why I asked you to identify, as the question “why is that important to me?” Answer then ask it again of the answer you give. Do it 3-5 times to get to your deep why. You’ll know when you’re there.

Connecting with your deep why is a vital first step but it’s not enough. Having it is good but it must remain front and centre in your consciousness to be of real tangible value. When life gets busy it will easily get marginalized and forgotten. Here’s what to do next.

Create your Thriving Health Compass

  1. Find an image that represents your deep why and carry it with you everywhere. Look at it often and let it reconnect you to your why. Let it shift your actions in the moment towards healthier ones. In my example it could be a picture of the daughter kept on a phone wallpaper, in a purse/wallet, at a desk, etc.
  2. Find a symbol that represents your deep why and carry it. It could be on a necklace, kept in a pocket, etc.

By reconnecting to your deep why often you can interrupt old habits and patterns and choose new ones that support you better.

Click here for part 2 of this article which will talk about strategic steps #2 and #3.

If you would like more information or have any questions, feel free to contact us at 780.466.6204, or click here to send us an email.

Thanks to Brent Haydey of Fit4Results for providing this article and for giving us an in person presentation on this topic.

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