Strategic Health

The best action plans—personal or professional—always flow from well-developed clarity around a goal (“what” you want!) and a strategy (“how in general” you plan to get it!) Too often in the arena of wellness, we react to our emotions or the latest fads and don’t necessarily take the time to properly incubate goals and strategies that can emerge into sensible, impactful day-to-day action steps (or “tactics,” if you will, which are simply more concrete, detailed expressions of big picture strategies).

 

Consider the arena of nutrition, for example, and in your mind visually scan the food (not like a cashier does!) and beverage items you’ve consumed or shopped for during the past few days. How many of those choices were driven by a holistic goal? How many were spontaneous, incited by emotions or the senses? Did someone else talk or pressure you into eating or buying such-and-such; and, if so, what are the trends you have noticed that lead you to ignore or compromise your own goals for the favor of someone else’s? What role does expediency play in the success or failure to reach your nutritional goals?

 

Now let’s tackle fitness. Do you have a regular cardio, strength training and stretching routine, and how intentional is that routine? Regular days, times, places, etc., or haphazard? What external factors help or hinder your success in executing your fitness action steps on a given day—weather, the health of the family, staying up late the night before, depression, distraction, schedule overload, etc.?

 

So, considering nutrition and fitness as the two core foundations of overall healthy living, what threads or connections do you see between factors that impact one foundation or the other? Are you more goal driven in the area of nutrition or vice-versa, or are you equally purposeful and disciplined in both areas? And have you written down your goals, strategies and daily tactics for each of these two foundations of a vibrant physical life?

 

I have noticed an integral link between the quality of my work, the quality of my relationships and the quality of my health. One lagging area impacts the other in this symbiotic interplay. Consider today if any of these three spheres are getting in the way of the others, and ask yourself afresh, “What is my goal? What is my strategy for reaching my goal? And what must I do today in order to make progress?”