The pace of life has swelled to a fever pitch and between work and family commitments its almost like you have no time for yourself in that 168 hour week. We are always striving for just one more percent or to get more efficient to then add more to that TO DO list. Then the sense of guilt hits us that ‘we should do something for ourselves’. The research starts on ‘what to do’. This is a marketer’s dream with the promises of the life you want, along with a free set of steak knives at the end of the next ‘big thing’.
How about we just pause for a minute before signing up for those steak knives and the life changing gizmo and agree that the likelihood of the next ‘thing’ changing everything will probably be fairly low. Let’s look at the things that won’t change. What exists now and next week and next year and 5 years time. You’ll still have the same name, you’ll hopefully have that same heart, 2 arms, 2 legs and that funny hip unless you do something about it, well it will probably be cranky by next year. If you have responsibilities, they will likely grow. Insert kids names here will age by that amount, perhaps you will add one or 2 more, your career will still have a part to play in the system and you have to figure all that out and be the best possible you while doing it!
The more we learn about quality of life at the individual level, researching the blue zones and hearing from those still powerlifting in their 70’s or running into their 80’s it’s the daily living piece that sets us up for success. How you go about your day to day, the game you play and win every day, week, month and year. This is where persistence arises as an essential ingredient in the YOU recipe.
Persistence is the continued existence of action, the perseverance despite fatigue or frustration.
What can you persist at when it’s hard?
When you don’t feel like it?
When it’s no longer the cool thing?
Down hill skiing is fun but your quality of life long term is probably more about the moments when you're hiking up hill. When it’s boring and it feels like one step isn’t getting you very far, do you take another step?
Do you compare yourself to others?
Do you compare yourself to unrealistic expectations?
Do you enable or disable the next step?
Do you sprint in a burst of inspiration only to collapse in a blaze of glory before the hill is out?
Do you operate at a fever pitch with no rest only to realise you never took a breath. Never enjoying a single moment or found any beauty in the process?
Did you operate at a pace and intensity that made you dread tomorrow rather than welcome it?
This last point is the one that I often ponder? Tomorrow can we do it again? Or increase the effort by 10% or am I killing any joy that this process brings by pushing too hard? For you reading this, if you want to do something special, something for you, something you’ll be proud of, start at a pace that will allow you to come back tomorrow. Let’s build a you that persists not breaks through a paralysing start or unrealistic expectation. That you that exists beyond that negative comparison, YOU deserve that!
Yours in health
Sean Cornish
