There is an uncomfortable truth about health that most of us would rather avoid: The choices you make today are creating the future you will eventually have to live in.
Not someday.
Not when you’re finally motivated.
Not when life gets less busy.
Today.
After nearly 30 years of working with people and their health, I’ve come to appreciate how easy it is to convince ourselves that the consequences of our choices can simply be dealt with later. We know we should exercise—especially the spinal corrective exercises I’ve prescribed if you’re one of my patients! We know we should eat better. We know we should get enough sleep. We know we should address health problems rather than continually putting them off.
These everyday health choices can affect how we feel, how we function and how well we maintain our health over time. Yet knowing what we should do and actually doing it are two very different things.
I regularly hear: “I’ll deal with it when I have more time.” “It’s not that bad.” “I’ll get serious about my health when things settle down.”
The problem is that time doesn’t stop while you’re waiting for the perfect circumstances.
Your body continues to age. Your mobility can change. Your joints (especially spinal joints) continue to experience the effects of how well or how poorly they’re functioning as you use them. And a health problem you’re ignoring doesn’t necessarily stay the same simply because you’re not ready to deal with it.
The Problem With “Later”
We can easily confuse the absence of an immediate consequence with the absence of a consequence altogether. You can make a poor choice today and feel perfectly fine. You can postpone something important and nothing dramatic happens tomorrow. So you convince yourself it didn’t really matter. But the consequences are simply delayed.
Think about almost anything worthwhile you’ve accomplished in your life. Most success doesn’t come from one extraordinary effort. It comes from making relatively small, intentional choices consistently over time. This is a truism that works in both positive and negative directions.
The same is true of your health.
If you continually choose what is easiest today, you’re making a choice. If you continually postpone taking care of your health, you’re making a choice. Thankfully, If you choose to invest time and effort into maintaining your health, you’re also making a choice. Eventually, you live with the accumulated effects of those choices.
Where Are Your Choices Taking You?
Instead of asking whether what you’re doing today will have an immediate effect, ask yourself:
“If I continue making these same choices, where are they likely to take me?” One missed workout probably doesn’t matter much. One poor meal probably doesn’t matter much. One postponed appointment probably doesn’t matter much. But what happens when those decisions become a pattern?
That’s where the real consequences begin. Your health isn’t determined by what you intend to do someday. It’s influenced by what you consistently do starting today. Yes, it starts with intention, but intention is nothing without action. Consistent action. Not perfect, just as consistent as possible.
So how do you move from ‘I would like to’ intention to ‘I am doing it’ action?
DECIDE! What are you going to do and when (time of day and for how long)? Write it down. Keep it broken down to the absolutely smallest step you know you can complete today. Then—do it! If possible, immediately. Remember, action that’s imperfect and messy is 100% better than perfect inaction. As I’ve said to many patients: “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly!” You have to convince yourself that you’re capable of making a change. So keep it so small it would be impossible not to complete it. Decide and do it!
The road to your future is paved with your habits.
And that raises another important question:
If motivation is what we’re waiting for before we take action, what happens when the motivation disappears?
That’s what we’ll look at in Part 2 of this 4 part series.
Dr. Derek Haughton