Today Matters, Decision #3 HEALTH

3. Decision #3 HEALTH: “Today’s health gives us strength”
Know and follow healthy guidelines daily.

Don’t take your health for granted. Many people mistreat their bodies and don’t find out that they are in trouble until it is too late.
Your health impacts you emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.
You can’t get away from your body, so if you make unhealthy choices it will affect you the rest of your life.
It is easier to maintain good health to regain it.
Young people are willing to trade their health for wealth, but the elderly would gladly exchange their wealth for health.
If you think you have good health it is easy to become arrogant about it and think that because you feel good that you are healthy.
I will take good care of myself by exercising and eating right.

Helpful guidelines and practical steps:
1. Have a purpose worth living for. A sense of purpose helps you make a decision to change and follow through. Make your craving for life greater than your craving for unhealthy foods.
2. Do work you enjoy. Stress is often caused by jobs you don’t enjoy.
“The problem with the rat race is that even if you win you’re still a rat.” Lily Tomlin
If you do work that adds no value to yourself or others, you quickly become demoralized. To remain healthy, your work must be in line with your values.
Others are stressed because they do jobs that keep them in an area of weakness. You can’t do that for long and succeed. When you work in an area of your strengths you are actually energized. Pay attention to how you respond to your failures: Mistakes that challenge you show your areas of strength; mistakes that threaten you show your areas of weakness.
3. Find your pace. Find the pace that is right for you. Go slower than your energy level you will become lazy; go faster than your energy level you will burnout. You need ot find your balance.
4. Accept your personal worth. Your self concept affects every area of your life. If your negative self-image is affecting your health, get help.
5. Laugh. Everyone dies, so learn to enjoy life. Don’t take life too seriously. Laugh at yourself loudly and often.

New discipline: Every day eat low-fat food and exercise at least 30 minutes. Stick with it for the rest of your life. Keep your commitment at 100% and don’t let your program slip,

Life Lessons 9

The ninth life lesson is Play. Play is what matters at the end of life. Often people say on their deathbed: "I wish i hadn't taken life so seriously." Play is our life-force: it keeps us young, it revitalizes our work, it energizes our relationships. When we get too busy to play, we hurt ourselves and those we love. We often leave our loved ones behind when we try to get ahead.

Play is doing what brings us pleasure for pleasure's sake. Burnout happens when you stop doing what you love. Play is underappreciated in our culture, but it has great value. It helps reduce stress and pumps endorphins into our blood. It heals disease and renews the body. It is essential to a healthy life.

Find ways to have fun. Enjoy the small things in life. Find fun in your work but don't turn fun into work. Leave your work in the office and be fully engaged with your family when away from the office. If you have no fun, you will have nothing of value to give to others.