If you have been reading recent articles on this topic, you probably have an answer already: exercise, or maybe diet…
WRONG!!
The most important thing you can do is to find your passion, and to hold on to it. Then orient your life around it and dream as big as you dare, and then much, much bigger.
Why? That is simple.
If you know your passion and you dare to dream, then you do what you need to do to stay healthy. You respect this body, and this mind, because they are the instruments of your effectiveness in the world.
In studies of people who enter very old age with their health intact, one of the factors seems to be “remaining engaged with life”. The other factors are exercise, a healthy diet, not smoking, and having a large and varied social circle. These factors are independent of each other, meaning that the reason they are important is not just because people who do one also tend to do the others. Presumably, they each have their part to play in maintaining our health.
There is magic in these studies. We don’t fully understand the results. Why a social circle? What hormones are affected? What difference does it make that we are engaged with life? How do you bottle that so we can all get a dose?
As a physician, I give this advice sometimes, but always a little jokingly. It just doesn’t sound scientific.
But as a coach, I can tell you this has to be basic. Everything works that way. If you know your passion, your dream, the universe conspires to help you. Goethe said so:
“All sorts of things occur to help one
that would never otherwise have occurred.
A whole stream of events issue from the decision,
raising in one's favor all manner of incidents
and meetings and material assistance
which no one could have dreamed would come his or her way.Whatever you can do or dream, you can begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Begin it now.”
Magic then. But as far as your body is concerned, it is quite simple. There are hormones that react to your thoughts and feelings. Their levels rise or fall in response to signals from your brain. If your brain says, “life is a bore, depressing, really frightening and horrible”, the levels of a hormone called cortisol rise. This causes increases in blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, decreases in immune function, memory and mood. It also causes increased storage of fat in a “central” way – in the abdomen, around organs. You could be on your way to cancer or a heart attack.
How do you find your passion, how do you dare to dream? That is why I am focusing on coaching at this time. As a physician, I watched people lose their zest for life and there was little I could do about it. With coaching skills and tools, there is a good chance I can help.
Here are some ideas to get you started. The rest of this post was taken verbatim from the e-zine written by Robert Middleton of Action Plan Marketing. Please visit Robert's web site at http://www.actionplan.com for additional marketing articles and resources on marketing for professional service businesses.
“Wait, don't stop reading because you think that stuff is airy-fairy. It's the most practical thing in the world. It's the source of your fulfillment and your success. It's what keeps you smiling and what keeps you going no matter how hard things get.
Your vision and your purpose are not things you achieve. They are the means to achieving everything else. They are not something you get to some day. They are where you come from. They are not something to figure out. You already know them.
What is your vision and purpose? I promise you, they're in there, but they may not be completely clear to you. And even though they are there, it's as if they are hidden behind seven veils.
You unlock the power of your vision and purpose by *expressing them.* And the easiest, fastest and most effective way to do that is to write them down. As you write or type, it will be as if your vision and purpose flow through your fingers.
So don't just discard this, "Sounds kind of weird to me," or even agree with me, "Yeah, that's really true." Actually do it, write down your vision and purpose. There is more than one way to do this. Here are some approaches that have worked for me.
Express your vision and purpose (which, by the way, are essentially the same thing) as those things which you are deeply committed to, such as the contribution you make in the world.
"I am committed to making a lasting difference to my professional field and to the people who work in this field. I bring, clarity, insight and expertise that makes a lasting difference."
Express your vision and purpose as a statement of your innate talents and abilities.
"I am someone who is a great teacher, mentor and coach. I have the ability to empathize with those I work with and then to provide the guidance, direction and support they need."
Express your vision and purpose as how you see the world being a better place with the contributions you make.
"The world is a better place with me because I am constantly giving. I put my attention and efforts towards helping people be their very best."
OK, hopefully that gives you an idea of what I'm talking about. You'll only really understand however, if you take a few minutes to write down several of these vision/purpose statements yourself and notice what happens.
You don't have to force them. They are right there. But once you've written them down, I promise you'll experience a new sense of energy and understanding about who you are, what your life is about and how your business is a vehicle to realize your vision and purpose.
The key to the vision and purpose exercise is to write it down.
* Writing helps you focus and clarify your ideas. If you're just thinking these ideas, they tend to go around and around in your head without resolution. What you think of for hours can often be captured and resolved in minutes.
* Writing gets your ideas organized and prioritized. To be physically organized you have a place for everything and everything in its place. When you write, all your jumbled, messy ideas start to take a form that you can then do something with.
* Writing something down creates space for the next idea. You can only hold so many ideas in your head at the same time. By getting them down on paper, it leaves room for more ideas to flow in.
* Writing increases your ability to verbalize. I've noticed when clients write down a marketing message, an executive summary or an article, they find themselves speaking about these ideas with more clarity and conviction.
* Writing quiets your noisy mind. Ever have trouble going to sleep at night because you kept thinking of all the things you had to do? Then you got up and wrote a list of those things - and you discovered it was really only two or three things? And then you were able to sleep soundly.”
And now, what will be your action step for this week?
Let me know how it goes!
All the best,
Myrto Ashe, M.D.
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