WHAT IS THE GREATEST INVESTMENT IN YOUR LIFE?

by Paul Kindzia in Health, Longevity, Personal Finance

July 20, 2018

Nobody really wants to spend their hard earned money on anything that doesn’t bring some level of immediate satisfaction or gratification.  But anyone in his or her right mind DOES want to avoid the misery of being sick and feeling completely exhausted with life, unable to chase their dreams as they slip on down the road to a multitude of chronic diseases.  Ignoring the realities of the long-term damages that they are doing to themselves due to unhealthy lifestyle choices (smoking, overuse of alcohol, bad food choices, chronic stress, and lack of physical activity) can lead to an early death related to chronic diseases. The most common and most preventable chronic diseases are: heart disease, stroke, cancer, type 2 diabetes, obesity and arthritis. Seven of the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States are due to chronic diseases.

• In 2015, 50% of adults aged 18 years or older did not meet recommendations for aerobic physical activity. In addition, 79% did not meet recommendations for both aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity.¹
• More than 1 in 3 adults (about 92.1 million) have at least one type of cardiovascular disease.² About 90% of Americans aged 2 years or older consume too much sodium, which can increase their risk of high blood pressure.³
• In 2015, more than 37% of adolescents and 40% of adults said they ate fruit less than once a day, while 39% of adolescents and 22% of adults said they ate vegetables less than once a day.⁴
• An estimated 36.5 million adults in the United States (15.1%) said they currently smoked cigarettes in 2015.⁵Cigarette smoking accounts for more than 480,000 deaths each year.⁶ Each day, more than 3,200 youth younger than 18 years smoke their first cigarette, and another 2,100 youth and young adults who smoke every now and then become daily smokers.⁶
• Drinking too much alcohol is responsible for 88,000 deaths each year, more than half of which are due to binge drinking.^7,8US adults report binge drinking an average of 4 times a month, and have an average of 8 drinks per binge, yet most binge drinkers are not alcohol dependent.^9,10

Is that how you want to live your life?

Our culture and society have tricked you and that trickery comes with grave consequences if you don’t pay attention.  70% of our population is on track to suffer from chronic diseases, many of which could have been avoided with appropriate and positive lifestyle choices.  Are you one of the 70%?  The majority of our citizens have been led to believe that the less you spend on healthcare, the more financially prudent you are being.  After all, why spend a dollar on yourself when it could be either avoided or passed on to another entity such as an insurance company or the government? What if I told you that most of you need to flip your approach to healthcare on its head?

Have you ever found yourself feeling sick, tired, worn-out, out of shape, self-conscious about your body, lazy, lacking motivation, depressed, with an inability to think clearly or creatively?  There have been a few times in my life where I’ve felt all of those things and a few more for extra credit in the, “I don’t have my sh!t together” category.

When I have been in poor physical shape, it resulted in me feeling unworthy and incapable of ever escaping the state that I was in.  It also cost me plenty of money as I wasn’t as productive as I could have been.  To think that it wasn’t showing in my day to day behaviors and that others didn’t notice would be a lie.  Who wants to promote or do business with that person? At the same time, I also had the feeling that this just wasn’t the way my life was supposed to go and I had to figure out a way to break through to the other side.

“Your greatest investment is YOU!” Paul Kindzia

The reality is, when we don’t have our sh!t together on our own health, it costs us dearly in the long run.  Your greatest investment is YOU!  It’s not your house.  It’s not your 401k plan.  It’s not your shoe collection or your fishing boat.  Your greatest investment is your ability to live a productive life that allows you to contribute your talents to the world as long as possible while finding fulfillment along the way.

Investing in your own health can offer the greatest returns over a lifetime.

• How much money and wealth can you accumulate when you are sick and laying in a bed?
• How many people can you help if you are sick (or dead)?
• How competitive can you be in the workplace when you barely have the energy to get out of bed in the morning?
• How much fun do you think you will have if you are battling cancer, diabetes, heart disease, or working around a pickled liver?

But the mindset of most individuals is counter to this approach regarding their greatest investment.  Their approach is to spend the least amount of money to improve their current health or on disease prevention.  Let me tell you that it is much easier to prevent a chronic disease than to treat a chronic disease and in the long run must less expensive. Have you ever caught yourself thinking or doing the following?

• Cancelling a gym membership to save money.
• Buying prescription drugs (that all have side effects) to avoid working on the underlying physical problem that your body is suffering from.
• Purchasing and consuming packaged and processed foods rather than natural organic meats, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds because, “pre-packaged food is so much cheaper.”
• Not wanting to buy vitamins because they are too expensive and unneeded (because your frozen dinners loaded with preservatives and chemicals should be a great substitute.)
• Consuming recreational drugs and alcohol to fill the voids in your life. This allocates money away from your health and towards items with a terrible long term return on investment.
• Spending too much money on your house but not wanting to spend extra on a mattress and quality sheets to improve your sleep.

“Never Sacrifice Your Health To Build Your Wealth”  Paul Kindzia

If you are exhausted from not sleeping well, experiencing daily brain fog, high blood pressure, overweight, on the verge of Type II Diabetes do you really think you will get the promotion against the other person who is full of energy and vigor?  Do you really think you will have the mental clarity and creativity to solve problems while jacked up on energy drinks and sugar which puts you on a roller coaster of energy throughout your days? Do you really think that you will have the energy to follow your dreams, chase your goals, and live a life of personal excellence when your body is just treated as a human junk yard?

If you want to achieve the greatest heights, accomplish your wildest dreams, and pursue personal objectives that are most fulfilling and do this for any extended period of time, it would be wise to invest in your greatest investment.  This means allocating the financial resources required to operate at an optimum level for personal excellence.

Most of us were handed a body that is the equivalent of a biological Ferrari.  Our bodies are an amazing creation capable of accomplishing mind-blowing feats.  Yet, most of us take this gift of the Ferrari and treat it is as if it was a used and abused 1972 Chevy Nova.  And then they wonder why the car doesn’t move fast, makes all kinds of weird noises, and emits all kinds of foul emissions.  And who wants to show up on a date or at a job interview driving a 1972 hunk of junk Chevy Nova anyway?

Maybe instead of trying to figure out how to reduce spending on your healthcare or pass the maintenance on to some other entity like an insurance company or the government, start thinking about how much you can invest in your health to run like a Ferrari and forget about buying the actual Ferrari.  And then you actually follow through and spend the money to run at optimum health.

Good habits lead to good behaviors.  Good behaviors lead to good decisions.  Good decisions lead to a good life.  Live by principles and choose wisely.

1. US Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy People 2020: Physical Activity. https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/physical-activity/objectives. Accessed June 9, 2017.
2. Benjamin EJ, Blaha MJ, Chiuve SE, et al. Heart disease and stroke statistics—2017 update: a report from the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2017;135:e1–e458.
3. Jackson SL, Coleman King SM, Zhao L, Cogswell ME. Prevalence of sodium intake in the United States. 2016;64(52):1394–1397.
4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity: Data, Trends and Maps. https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/data-trends-maps/index.html. Accessed June 7, 2017.
5. Jamal A, King BA, Neff LJ, Whitmill J, Babb SD, Graffunder CM. Current cigarette smoking among adults — United States, 2005–2015. 2016;65(44):1205–1211.
6. The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: US Dept. of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2014. http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/reports/50-years-of-progress/full-report.pdf.Accessed February 7, 2014.
7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Alcohol and Public Health: Alcohol Related Disease Impact (ARDI). cdc.gov/ardi. Accessed June 1, 2017.
8. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Binge Drinking. https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/binge-drinking.htm. Accessed June 1, 2017.
9. Kanny D, Liu Y, Brewer RD, Lu H. Binge Drinking — United States, 2011. 2013;62 (Suppl):77-80.
10. Esser MB, Hedden SL, Kanny D, Brewer RD, Gfroerer JC, Naimi TS. Prevalence of alcohol dependence among us adult drinkers, 2009–2011. Prev Chronic Dis.2014;11:E206.