Do you put 'Money' before your 'Health?'
What are your goals in life? Do you aspire to earn as much money as possible so you can live a comfortable life? No limitations or boundaries? Yeah me too. However, what is your step-by-step plan to get to that ‘ultimate financial goal?’ Lets take a look at what your usual day might look like.
Alarm goes off – ‘Rise & Grind!’ – Time to work hard during every minute of the day to get one step closer to our goal. There is no time to cook and prepare a wholesome breakfast, so packaged and refined cereal will do (or drive through McDonalds does the trick too). Get to work, and gosh it’s time for a coffee, need that caffeine hit to get that mental clarity. Work for a few hours, now it’s time for lunch, wasn’t organized enough to pack anything from home so I suppose a quick takeaway option will have to do. Time for the afternoon slog, need another coffee and something sweet to kick that sweet craving, a chocolate brownie will go down nicely. Knock off time has finally come and it’s time to go home. It’s been a busy day and we are exhausted, couldn’t be bothered to cook anything so we will grab that pre packaged frozen meal from the freezer and stick it in the microwave – easy! Dessert time!! Chocolate, ice cream and should probably have ‘some’ fruit today, so we will add a banana in there for good measure. Time to go to bed, set the alarm and get ready to repeat the grinding process all over again tomorrow. That’s what we need to do to make the money we want to make, right??
So what was wrong with that scenario?
In today’s day and age people are putting their health on the back burner to focus solely on making money. However, at the end of the day we will not be able to live and enjoy a meaningful and joyful life if we are not in ‘good health’.
So what can we do to improve our health, wealth and happiness?
Prepare your lunch and snacks the night before (for the following day). These will not only help you save money on take away foods, but you will be consuming fresh, homemade and nutritious meals/snacks.
Get up that little bit earlier in the morning to do 30 minutes of exercise. It has been proven that exercise improves mental clarity and performance (not to mention the physical benefits of exercise). So you will get to work and perform more efficiently.
During a long workday it is important to give yourself a ‘mental and physical’ break. Leave the office, get outside and get some fresh air and sun. 15 minutes of sunlight a day is essential to obtain our daily vitamin D.
After you finish work, if you do have the energy, perhaps try and get some more exercise in (especially if you didn’t get the opportunity to do any in the morning). It is recommended to complete at least 30 minutes of physical exercise five times/week.
Dinner – No pre packaged freezer meals here. If you aren’t big on cooking every night, prepare a big batch of food on the weekends and freeze in containers for you to eat throughout the week.
Dessert – Obviously it is not ideal to be eating ice cream and chocolate EVERY night. Choose ONE night/week for this indulgence; otherwise, consuming a piece of fruit, yoghurt and tea is a good substitute.
Sleep – Ensure you try and get between 6-8 hours of sleep/night. Your body needs adequate amount of sleep to undergo major cellular repair.
Family time – It is important to foster positive relationships with family and friends. So allocate time to put away the phones, turn off the tv and have a face to face conversation with your family/friends/housemates etc.
These are just some simple strategies of ways to ensure you take care of your physical health. If you put your general health and well-being first, the ‘wealth’ will naturally follow. So take a step back, analyse your life and make sure that you are making the right choices to a healthier, happier and wealthier you.
