Sometimes, in our culture, it seems like we make a lot of intentionally wrong choices.
We may:
- Binge drink
- Eat a bunch of junk food
- Fail to maintain a regular sleep schedule
- Sit down and live a sedentary lifestyle all day
- Smoke
- Do other types of drugs
- Get into relationships with people who don’t treat us well or value us
And yet, the most destructive part of it all is this:
We often see these types of things as ‘normal,’ because they ARE normal.
It’s so sad to say, but this is just how a lot of people choose to live.
They choose to do things every day that simply aren’t good for them.
Now, it’s obviously not reasonable to think that we’re all going to live perfectly optimized lifestyles.
Health and wellness are important things. But obsessing over them to the point where you don’t do anything fun or exciting probably isn’t the recipe for success.
Instead, we should probably be focused on something more akin to taking responsibility for prioritizing our health and wellness in life, to the point where we perform the vital functions needed for better overall health and wellness—and make sure that we tip the scales at least mostly in a favorable direction.
This isn’t necessarily easy—especially if you’re like most people and struggle to motivate yourself to stay on track with healthy habits.
But it is doable. And the better we get at it, the better off we’ll tend to be.
And of course, we don’t need to do it all at once.
We can make progress in short, controlled, manageable steps—and move ourselves gradually in a positive direction.
Here are just a few habits that can make a big difference.
- Limit alcohol consumption to one drink per day
- Count calories (using a calorie calculator) to stay within your healthy range for your height, weight, and age
- Try to eat more nutritious foods and less junk food (think whole foods instead of processed food)
- Go to bed at a reasonable time every night instead of staying up late and getting a poor quality of rest
- Get up and stay active! Try to engage in at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise on a daily basis
- Try to quit smoking
- Don’t abuse dangerous drugs (or put yourself at risk with dangerous drug delivery methods)
- Have standards for your relationships, and learn how to enforce your boundaries in life so that people don’t tear you down, slow you down, or otherwise derail your efforts to care for yourself
Obviously, some of these are larger hurdles than others.
But it matters.
And here’s the thing.
If you don’t take responsibility for changing your life and adopting healthier habits, nobody else is going to.
That’s the thing about life.
We just have one—and we are, for the most part, completely in charge of what we do with it.
And it really all starts with making small, healthy choices on a day-to-day basis.
You don’t have to go crazy and revolutionize your life overnight.
- Tomorrow, eat a healthy breakfast instead of that donut.
- The next day, go to bed at 9:30 pm instead of 2:00 am if you have to get up at 6:00 am for work.
- The next day, jump rope for 20 minutes instead of watching another show on TV.
It really all adds up.
And the great thing about it is this—the more we do these good things, the easier they’ll get; because they’ll eventually turn into habits.
And that’s awesome.
