Wealth is a great accomplishment. It can add a tremendous amount of opportunities and experiences in a lifetime. It can also help you control the most precious of assets; your time. But let me ask you a few questions for self-reflection;
- Are you killing yourself to get ahead?
- Are you a giant stress ball bouncing through your day?
- Are you on track for an early demise because of a heart attack, diabetes, or other self-inflicted health issues?
One of the greatest challenges in life is to proceed with balance. This is especially hard for over-achievers as they stretch and push to extract out every ounce of personal productivity from the same 24 hour period as everybody else.
If you are putting so much energy and effort into building and preserving your wealth, it is equally (if not more) critical that you put in ample energy and effort into preserving your health. After all, what good is the money if you can’t do the things that you wanted to do once you accumulated the money?
The relationship between the two should be thought through carefully and strategically. If done correctly, you can actually build wealth faster if you are healthy. There are a number of reasons for this. First, you will have more energy to be productive. Unhealthy people often don’t have the physical skills to work as hard and as focused as healthy people. Second, healthy individuals have lower medical and health expenses compared to others who are unhealthy. If you think heart attacks, cancer, diabetes and other diseases are inexpensive endeavors, think again. Health issues are very expensive and are one of the leading causes of personal bankruptcies.
We all intuitively know what we should be doing and should not be doing. The emphasis should be on personal improvement, not just for us but also for our loved ones. We all influence each other whether we realize it or not. We can and should encourage, motivate, and influence each other on our way to making positive changes to our daily behaviors. Our health is fragile and will eventually diminish on its own. There is no need for us to expedite the inevitable. Get to the gym or get active. Monitor your inputs and the outputs will follow.
“It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.” – Mahatma Gandhi
The two factors are more closely related than most people care to realize. Financial problems can lead to health problems (anxiety, migraines, sleep deprivation, heart attacks). Health problems can lead to wealth problems as personal productivity plummets and you incur the cost of medical care.
Finally, I remind people that one of the key factors of building wealth is in fact “time” due to the time value of money and the compounding of interest. The more time we have to build wealth, the easier it is to see exponential gains on the back end of that growth curve. Poor health cuts our life expectancy down, thereby reducing the number of years we have to compound and build (and enjoy) wealth.
In the same way we live by the principles of wealth, we should be equally as diligent in living by the principles of health. Our SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF HEALTH;
- Eat healthy
- Exercise your body
- Exercise your mind
- Get sunshine and fresh air
- Get adequate sleep and rest
- Reduce stress
- Avoid harmful substances; drugs, alcohol, chemicals, tobacco/smoking, artificial ingredients
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.