Know your health like you know your business

You know your business. You know what needs to be done to accomplish the goals you’ve set for yourself. You realize that you can’t do everything that your business requires, so you seek out people who are good at doing things that you may not have the time or desire to do. It’s a basic principle of business.

We tap into this division of labor in numerous other areas of our lives too. One of those areas is our health. We exercise a great deal of control over our business, but when it comes to our health we defer to the medical system- our doctors, nurses, PAs, and nurse practitioners. They’re the experts, so we do what they tell us to do. I mean, who has time to learn all that stuff?

But you’re not feeling as good as you would like. Your energy doesn’t seem to be what it used to be. You’re starting to get larger around the middle. Even though you’re trying to do everything your healthcare provider is telling you, it seems like your weight is increasing, your blood pressure is going up, and your routine labs earn you a lecture from your doctor. Is this decline in health inevitable? Many doctors would say yes- yours may already have told you, “This is just part of getting older.”

In business, when things aren’t going the way you expect them to, you look for ways to get back on track. That’s what you have to do with your health.

Unfortunately, the medical system, which most of us rely on to maintain health, has the wrong focus. Your doctor’s goal is to help you deal with whatever ailment you come in with. The objective is not to help you achieve optimal health, it’s to get you back to “not being sick,” or for most chronic conditions, to reduce symptoms as much as possible. Absence of symptoms is not the same as optimum health.

The reason for this is that helping you become as healthy as you can doesn’t generate revenue like recurrent appointments, labs, tests, prescriptions, and surgeries do. After all, the people who work in the medical business are doing it to make money. If they can’t sell you tests, drugs, and procedures, there is little incentive to change their approach.

That’s why when it comes to your health you owe it to yourself to take charge. This means learning as much as you can about your body, how it works, and what kinds of foods, exercise, and recovery give you the best results. It means learning which of your habits have brought you to this point in your health journey, and what you can do to improve or change those habits to start improving your own health. It means not settling for a system that makes more money the sicker you get, and working instead to improve your own health.

In your business there are things that you do yourself because no one else can do the job like you need it to be done. Look at your health the same way. If that job is not done right, it can change your course in ways that can prevent you from enjoying everything you’ve worked so hard for. The medical system doesn’t have the right incentives when it comes to your health, but you do. Your business is successful because you know everything there is to know about it. Achieve success with your health the same way- by learning everything you can about the things your body requires to function well. You’ve done it in business. You can do it with your health. Your health is your business- so treat it that way. Just like with your business, at the end of the day it’s up to you.