Congratulations!! You've made it to a New Year! This is the time of year when you may be reminiscing about 2008 and making plans for 2009. This can be both exciting and frustrating.
Have you made any resolutions? Resolutions are all about change. I like to think of it as being all about GROWTH. (Change is more difficult and sometimes feared, where as growth is a natural process of living.)
Have you struggled with your resolutions in the past? If so, we'll take a look at change (growth) together in this newsletter and hopefully, you'll be able to implement the steps needed at the end to realize your potential in 2009. Let's get started...
++ Change is Hard!
I bet you already knew that change was hard but I bet you don't know just how hard it is.
Change or Die
What if that was your choice for 2009? Really. I'm not joking here. What if you had to change or you died? I'm talking about life and death - YOUR life or death. What if a super-smart, trusted authority figure approached you and said you had to make difficult and permanent changes in the way you think and act or your life would end soon, would you be able to do it?
"Yes", you say?
Really? Try again.
"Yes!!", you say with more emphasis as if I didn't hear you the first time.
The truth is you are probably deluding yourself. You wouldn't change. Not if it was too uncomfortable or difficult.
Don't believe me? Let's look at the statistics:
Let's look at patients with severe heart disease who have undergone coronary bypass surgery, a traumatic and expensive procedure that can cost more than $100,000 if complications arise. About 600,000 people go through this procedure every year in the United States and another 1.3 million patients have angioplasties - all at a cost of about $30 billion. These procedures temporarily relive chest pains but rarely prolong lives or prevent future heart attacks. Many patients could AVOID the need for repeat surgery or repeat chest pain - not to mention changing the course of their disease and adding years to their lives - simply by switching to a healthier lifestyle. Yet, very few do. Their lives are at significantly greater risk unless they exercise and lose weight, and they clearly see the value of changing their behavior. But, after just two years, over 90% of them don’t follow through. Even though they know they have a very bad disease and they know they should change their lifestyle habits, for whatever reason, they don't.
There are people in the legislative and executive branches of the US government who preach about improving healthcare in the US. Yet, for the last 50 years, even with all the advances in technology and medical care, the US is still plagued by the same five issues that it had back in the 1950's. Eighty percent (80%) of the healthcare budget in the US - estimated to be $2.4 TRILLION dollars annually = 15% of our economy = over 50% of the US Federal Budget (minus the bailout money) - is spent on these five issues.
If you could change these 5 problems, you would solve all of the healthcare issues here in the US. That's amazing, isn't it. So, what are these 5 issues? They are all behavioral and VERY preventable...
- Too much smoking
- Too much drinking (alcoholic beverages)
- Too much eating (including high calorie beverages)
- Too much stress
- Not enough exercise
Have you ever tried to change any of these things in your life? Are any of these things on your list of changes (again) for 2009?
++ Change is Pain!
To read more, click here.
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