The future of your health

Hold onto your hats, it’s going to get metaphysical.

Each of us has a current health status. We are where we are.

If your health status isn't as crisp as you would like it to be, then that's cool, you have the capacity to change.

We usually are where we are due to the environments we find ourselves in. As well as the actions those environments and our past experiences elicit.

A challenge that people face when trying to make positive change is playing the "blame game". We blame; circumstances, other people, the governments, and most often ourselves. Research shows that beginning from a place of blame rarely creates sustainable improvements. It encourages us to play the victim and give up agency - even if it is to our past self.

Play the change game not the blame game

We have one past (unless you get deep into a quantum physics debate). Our past actions have happened and our health is what it is. If we want to live a more healthful life, the first step is accepting that. Wherever we are on the continuum of our life, we have only one past.

The exciting (and sometimes overwhelming) thing is that we have many potential futures.

Many times during our days and weeks we come to a "choice point". The choice point is a moment where we have many potential future paths we can take. To use a health example, we could eat the cookie, we could eat the apple, or we could choose to eat nothing in that moment.

A single choice is likely to have minimal immediate consequences, other than something stuck in your teeth. The single choice may not even have any long term consequences in your life. When we repeat choices over time they change the trajectory of our life. And because us humans are creatures of habits, once we've made a choice once, we're more likely to make it again. That cookie, or apple, or no snack can compound over time.

(To clarify, a single health choice has minimal impact so don't be afraid to eat that cookie every now and then, just not at every choice point).

Health happens in the moments

To change our health trajectory we must take agency over the choice points. At each choice point we have many potential futures in front of us. We get to choose our own adventure and decide which path to follow.

Next week we'll look at the factors that influence our ability to take healthful action. But for this week our focus is on applying our agency over the moment.

Become aware of choice points - many of these choice points pass us by without us noticing them. We're embedded into our routines and take the path that we usually take. The first step is paying attention to the health actions we take during the day. I find it's often helpful to record these as you build awareness so you can audit them later. Research shows we're likely to overestimate our positive health actions, and underestimate the unhelpful. Every few months I track what I eat for a week or two just to bring my awareness back to it and highlight if I need to make any changes.

Identify healthful options and attempt to make the healthful choice. The possible actions available to us fall on a spectrum of healthful to unhealthful. Some of these actions are more nuanced than they might appear at first glance. A burger and fries when eaten while enjoying connection with good mates is more healthful than the same burger and fries eaten mindlessly on the couch in front of Netflix.

Begin to identify ranges of actions that you could take at each of your choice points. As you build awareness of the options available, you can be more conscious of the choices you are making

The services I offer.

For Individuals

One on one health coaching for leaders and change makers. With so many conflicting priorities health often gets squeezed out to the side. AND if we aren’t on top of our health then it’s harder to show up at our best. Please feel free to book in a time for a 30 minute introductory chat https://calendly.com/healthmentors/30min

For Organisations

• A range of wellbeing and resilience talks, webinars, and workshops
• Health coaching for your key people to perform at their best
• Group health coaching for your teams
• Manual handling training and injury prevention education
• Workstation assessment and education? - both in the office and remotely

Please feel free to book in a time for a 30 minute introductory chat https://calendly.com/healthmentors/30min

Grab a copy of our “My Health Plan - dial in your health and improve your performance in the midst of a chaotic world” e-book. Simply send me a message and I’ll fire it through to you.

Listen to “Uncomfortable is OK” a mental wellbeing and performance podcast helping us get better at navigating challenge https://uncomfortable-is-ok.castos.com/ ?