The Courageous Pursuit of Taking a Step Forward

One of the top three reasons that people don’t seek out the health changes they want, need or could benefit from comes down to vulnerability.

We’ve all grown up with a set of premises surrounding our health and its outcomes.  Premises that sound like the following: 

“Life is short”

“Life’s a bitch and then you die”

“No news is good news”

“Don’t fix it if it’s not broken”

“Ignorance is bliss”

“Why reinvent the wheel?”

These premises become deeply ingrained by the time we’re 7 years old and they make up our set of false “truths”

The crutch that universally holds us back is FEAR.

We’d like to start something new like…a new exercise program but we don’t because we’re afraid to fail OR more precisely,  we’re afraid of what people will think of us if we fail.

Many of us have quietly bold and audacious daydreams of the things we’d like accomplish but never will,  because “what will people think if we fail?”  “What will people think if we succeed?” and“What if we fall flat on our faces?”

When it comes to making decisions for the betterment of our health and well being, we often have failure to launch, despite the fact that we know we should. 

The reason for this is that we’re afraid to look under the proverbial rock that’s been comfortably sitting in the same spot since the beginning of time.  We’re afraid of what we’ll find under all that moss. 

It definitely takes courage to look.  Asking questions and finding answers is often a very vulnerable place to go.  We’re comfortable with our status quo because we know it like the back of our hand.  We’re more comfortable with what we know, even if something new could revolutionize everything.

My observation in all this is that when people do look under the rock, when they let others see what they eat, what their X-rays and their spine look like, what their health measurements are, they never regret having had the courage to look in the first place.  Simply looking is a step toward better health.  It can be and usually is uncomfortable, but discomfort is often the catalyst to growth.  You’ve never been so close to meeting your goal as you are right this second.

A rolling rock gathers no moss.  What will it take to get your rock rolling?  Take a step forward, it might be scary but you owe it to yourself to at least look and see all of your potential hiding in plain sight.