Health and Its Role In Success

Sometimes when business fills our mind and things get overwhelming, we are so caught up in the tasks at hand and we lose track of our health.  Being overly busy results in us being stress and even the strongest among us will eventually experience negative health effects. Being busy has become a way of life for many of us and we find ourselves forgetting an important aspect as we strive for success, our HEALTH. We are living in a very fast paced life and perhaps at some point if we keep ourselves busy, all our efforts will bring success. It takes away our time from other things and from other people. We feel pressured, annoyed and stressed because we feel that we are no longer in control of our own time and we are working to the demands of others. Many of us are afraid to slow down because we feel uncomfortable if we find we’ve got nothing to do. Therefore, we try to think of ways to look busy! So chances are we don’t pay attention to the food we eat and we do not have time to go to the gym for some exercise. For some people, high degree of stress in their life gives them the justification to turn to alcohol or drug abuse. Sometimes you may have the appearance of being powerful and successful but that doesn’t mean you are healthy. Usually, being busy has effects upon ourselves that we do not realize.

In “Today Matters” by John Maxwell, he said “People are funny. When they are young they will spend their health to get wealth. Later, they will gladly pay all they have trying to get their health back. “This is usually true. There are many highly successful people suffered from serious health problems that even caused their death because of lapses in health. Some died of heart attack, lung cancer and other major diseases. These people work hard to earn money working toward their own success but lost its purpose. Some people can be tempted to deal with stress by turning to alcohol and drugs like a variety of famous people who have battled addiction.

Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is important but maintaining success in life can involve a good deal of stress. Success is useless if your health is at stake. Have a sense of purpose to help you make a decision to change. Embracing this will not only help you see yourself and your goals but also a chance to improve a positive self-image. Remember, you cannot get back what you have lost. 

It All Starts At Home

It’s been said many times, we can choose our friends but we can’t choose our family. Many have difficult family situations and believe we have no choice in that matter while others grew up with a loving family that provided the foundation needed to succeed. Some successful people were raised well by their parents and started getting into business at an early age. They took advantage of the privileged to learn - fearlessly embracing failure and learning from the experience. While some are fortunate to have this kind of family not everyone has that luxury. Others label themselves unfortunate or broken and life can be a never-ending road of enduring feeling of not being good enough. Maybe they grew up in a broken family, convinced they were not capable of being all that they can be. If that’s you, it doesn't need to stay that way. Sure you cannot choose your family but, you can embrace hardship from the past and use it to help shape your future and positively impact your family.

There are so many inspiring rags to riches stories and some of them did not even grow up with their biological parents yet achieved great success. I’m sure you’ve heard of Steve Jobs. He was widely recognized as a businessman, designer and investor known for his influential career as the co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple Inc. His biological parents were unmarried and still in college so they gave him up for adoption. He was adopted at birth by Paul & Clara Jobs. Paul was working as a machinist for a company and because of that, he taught Steve how to work on electronics and how to work with his hands. In their family garage, he would show him how to disassemble and rebuild electronics. This is where Steve developed his hobby of technical tinkering. Although it was known to many that Steve was dropped out of school because Reed is an expensive school which his parents couldn’t afford, his dreams did not end there. He had several jobs to make ends meet. Steve Jobs along with his friends started their dream in the garage of Job’s parents, the making of Apple computer and the rest is history.

Quality time with family is a big factor of a happy family unit. Although sometimes it’s difficult to pull away from our careers to simply hang out, have a conversation, play and love on each other, they are moments you’ll never get back. Business may still be there, but your children won’t ever be that age, at that moment ever again. The values and traditions you pass on to your children will definitely influence them as they grow. The behavior of growing children is influenced by many factors that include their parents and the community. And it all starts at home.

Many businesses are born out of inspiration and this drives us to do many things. As we all know, family life forges character and is our primary environment that influences our choices and habits. Home is the best place to learn, fail and to grow to know yourself. When the going gets rough and you have to deal with a lot of pressure, home should always be your source of strength and security. Never forget the importance of family in your success and how you impact the success of your family.

Priorities Gives Us Focus

Have you ever found yourself wanting to do more with your life but things don’t go as planned? Take a moment to reflect and think about the things you do in an average day. Does your time allocation reflect the priority of your goals? Most of us never even think about what we spend our time doing. We get up, we go to work, and we come home at the end of the day. We’re just going through the motions never really thinking about what we do or how we do it or even why we do it. It’s a bit more difficult to choose to do the important things if you have a lot on your plate. Instead of designing the life that you want, you end up living your life doing your work that you don’t want that could lead to disappointment or failure. Setting your priorities is one of the best ways to become successful. Even if you’re a wealthy man or financially challenged, what you decide to do can say a lot about your priorities in life. It gives you focus and you should live it every day. In “Today Matters” by John Maxwell, my favorite line is “time is our precious commodity.” It’s true that we can spend all the money we want and lose it but if we lose time, it’s gone forever. Time is always moving forward and we can’t stop it. If we missed something, instead of thinking ‘what if’ or what could have been done, we should plan our time carefully and live our lives by priorities that we set for ourselves.

I’ve observed that most people want to do more with their life because they think they can do everything. They’ve been working so hard without knowing they’ve compromised something. A good example we are familiar with is a story of a business person working long hours at the office as his work demands so. He’s occupied with business meetings, swamped with work and other social gatherings. As a result, he comes home late and he rarely spends quality time with his family. Little did he know that he’s losing his relationship with his son. He missed his football game, school’s family day and so on. Pressures at work caused uncongenial atmosphere at home. That is when he realized what he’s missing. Then he started making a positive transition in his life concerning priorities and luckily, he learned to prioritize his family.

There will always be time to go to work and there’s always room for the things that are truly important. Working to provide comfort for your family is good. Too often we tend to forget to pay attention to the things that are critical to our well-being and our family. Instead of doing certain things all at once, delegate your tasks, evaluate your strength and focus on that. Make the transition to planning and act your priorities daily because your decision concerning priorities will positively impact you in the future.