Will your Warranty last?

How invested are you?  Do you have stocks, bonds, real estate, currency, or a 401K?  These investments are important to you and your future, right?  You need to plan for your retirement and be prepared for the unknown.  So where did you go wrong?  You never invested in yourself!

You can live in a nice home, drive an expensive car, wear designer clothes, and get your hair and nails done, but that is just a cover up.  What is really going on inside? I am speaking of your health.  You can dress it up however you choose but it doesn't change what is underneath.

You pretend, you justify, you persuade, you convince yourself you are doing the best you can. But the reality is quite the opposite.  You are weak, pathetic, lame and lying to yourself. Putting garbage into a pretty box wrapped in beautiful paper and tied with a bow is still garbage on the inside. It rots over time and gets stinky and requires more and more effort to cover up.

So why are you willing to invest in your material future but not your physical future? One is more important than the other because if you're dead, you won't be around to enjoy the material things you worked so hard for.

Your poor health is costing you more than you think.  It's easier to just grab lunch at the nearest fast food restaurant because you're in a hurry to get to your next big sales meeting.  You deserve those happy hour drinks and appetizers because you put in a long hard day at the office.  You earned another night on the couch because you worked a 12-hour day closing yet another multi-million dollar deal. You're just too tired to go for a walk or get to the gym.  The kids have so many activities and homework that you just can't be selfish and workout.

Admit it, you have used these excuses time and time again to justify why you have not invested in your health.  How many medications are you taking to control your high blood pressure, your anxiety, your cholesterol or your depression?  You blame your genetics or your life stressers.  You justify because you must provide for your loved ones. You convince yourself you are a good person because you are putting others before yourself.  You persuade others to follow your lead because you feel guilty for not investing in yourself.

Guess what?  You are wrong.  You are doing a disservice to everyone. You are setting a poor example for your children, family and friends by continuing to eat unhealthy, not exercising and working yourself to death.  If you keep on your path of self-destruction, you won't be around to enjoy your home, your family or your material possessions.

There is nothing more important than your health.  If you're healthy, you're happy.  You're happy because you're alive.  More than likely, the average person will not make a living being at an optimum level of health, but it will save you time and money.  You will sleep better, feel less stress, need less medication, won't need to keep buying bigger pants, and there will be fewer trips to the doctor's office.

We all need to earn a living.  That is a fact of life but what's the point if getting to the finish line comes sooner than you want it to?  Step back and evaluate what type of race you have chosen to participate in.  Will it be a race full of hurdles you can jump? Will it be a race where you have to use a pole to vault yourself over the bar and hope you make it?  Or will you just tread water and hope you can hang on long enough?

The choice is yours to make. It does not have to be one extreme or the other, but you must find a balance.  Do you want to teeter on the cliff's edge not knowing when the rocks will give away or walk the tight rope with a safety net below?  There are no guarantees in life, as we all know, but you can make a choice to prolong your warranty so how much are you willing to invest in yourself?

Rachel