In the past 72 hours, I have had a significant amount of different feelings about my life and what I’ve been able to accomplish recently. I routinely overcommit myself—I want to accomplish my goals and achieve my purpose I have set for the year and my life. My goals are centered around my family, my health, the clinic, to help as many people as possible, and what I want to accomplish for my life. It’s extremely important to me to keep myself and my family healthy before anything else gets my attention.
Last Thursday I caught some sort of virus and literally slept from midday Thursday through Friday. This stressed me significantly to cancel a day at the clinic, not be able to care for my family, or work out. Already feeling behind, here are some variables in my life right now: I continue to focus on my half-Ironman triathlon and 7-mile open water swim in April—my training is on track. My dietary goals are on track for my increased physical activity. I have a corporate consultant certification I am behind on by about 3 weeks—my kiddos and wife got a cold, and I didn’t have any free time to maintain it, but will catch up soon. The clinic is growing and we have growing pains, this is my normal and is okay.
I consistently feel like I have no time to do all that I need to get done. Facing all of my over-commitments and regular stressors, I do feel there’s progress at a turtle’s pace—at least I’m moving in the right direction. What keeps me from wanting to give up is having goals that support my bigger-than-life purpose. I look at these goals in times of stress & happiness and rewrite them annually. My health and goals are why I will succeed even when it looks like success is moving at a slow pace.
My success in any aspect of my life is grounded in my health—there’s no way I could even accomplish 1% without it. My half Ironman and swim race push me to make sure my food intake is honoring my health and performance. Having a packed, organized schedule gives me absolutely no wiggle room to procrastinate. My point in writing this post was to give the understanding that all people have stressors and problems that arise in their lives. The only way to overcome the good and bad stress in your life is to have a plan for your life.
Build healthy relationships. Research shows that if you “do life” with quality relationships, you truly will be happier and more fulfilled when you die.
Implement fitness goals bigger than what you think is possible to accomplish. This will reduce the frequent procrastination of “not wanting to work out.” It is also an extreme stress reducer and you’re usually able to perform 80% more than what you think you can do. If you have fitness goals, your diet has to be focused on whatever performance you will have to do. This makes diet choices pretty select of what you can and can’t eat.
Wrapped up in all the craziness of life is keeping your body functioning optimally. If you have pain, symptoms, or something in your body doesn’t feel right—seek guidance. Learn how to resolve the issue you’re having. Professional help will make this happen easier and faster. The longer you procrastinate with a problem it will only get worse. Most Americans believe that if their symptoms disappear or go away the problem is gone forever—this is completely false.
90% of the time when people come into our clinic with a problem (whether the problem is acute or chronic), they have had a similar problem in the past. Typically, they have been dealing with it for years whether they were symptomatic or not. We as humans accumulate problems as we age. We tend to have one problem early in life and it will reduce symptoms pretty quickly, falsely making us assume the problem is gone. As life goes on we tend to have a second, third, fourth problem with our bodies with whatever reasons we injure ourselves. As we age, all of these problems accumulate and overlap. For the patient it can be extremely confusing—why they do not feel like they used to, their energy is chronically low, they have frequent migraines, they want to lose weight, etc.
The human body has a finite number of problems that can happen, the difficult part is finding a healthcare provider that can differentiate between what is what and begin to get the patient well. A lot of “getting patients well” is knowing everyone is unique. Most importantly, the patient needs to know they have a highly skilled, knowledgeable team in place to help through the many ailments of the human body. Most humans go through their life without a plan, without goals for their health. Many people believe that health is simply attained by losing weight, consistently going to the gym, running a 5k, or getting off their medications. There is so much more to your health and life than just settling for the removal of symptoms of an achy, old, or dysfunctional body. You were built perfectly.
No matter the state at which you were born, the number of unfortunate events that may have caused damage to your body, or the condition your body is in now, you have the power and choice to make a change. You have a choice—you can change the outcome of your life until you die. It is crucial you continually put good clean foods in your body and get your blood work checked by a functional nutrition doctor. You need exercise or movement on a daily basis—yes I said daily! The reason multiple days of exercise hurt you is that you’re probably doing the wrong exercise or have an inept coach. Lastly, are you putting man-made crap in your body? You shouldn’t even if it’s convenient. If it doesn’t mold on the counter in 3 days, don’t eat it.
These simple foundations of health have awarded me to have the healthiest body I’ve ever had. I continually strive to have the healthiest, most optimal functioning body possible. I truly am my healthiest every year. I walk my talk and it shows. I’m not bragging or arrogant, but I can guarantee more days of proper healthy decisions will make sure I have significantly less chance of disease and dysfunction. There will be no excuses that I can’t do something as I age, I will PLAY with my grand and great-grandchildren! Just like you, I have daily stress in my life and I feel overwhelmed regularly. It’s important to understand all of this is normal, it depends on how you process this information. It depends on how many other areas of your life are dysfunctional. The more aspects of your health you get in order, you can focus on achieving a life of fulfillment and purpose.
I know my purpose will not come to fruition without stress of all kinds, a healthy functioning body, a map to achieve my life’s purpose, and most important of all the relationships I have built around me will surely help me give this world the best I have. I hope this has helped, encouraged, and informed you. My purpose on this earth is to help as many people as possible.
Be Well
Dr. John Palmer
If you are looking for a partner in regaining your health, or just want to maintain your health in a better way, please schedule an Chiropractor appointment. Our services include chiropractic care, car accident injury care, nutritional consultation, and muscle manipulation
