Monday, April 20, 2009

Anything Worth Having is Worth Working For??

Is that true? Can you have something you appreciate and value without working very hard to get it?

What about with wellness? Do you work hard to maintain your current wellness and try and reach higher goals?

I've been thinking about this, and I guess I believe it all depends on your perspective. I personally would rather have things just come easily and effortlessly. I believe I would still appreciate those things---but maybe I just think about things more that I do have to work for.

For example, have you ever heard the saying about how you don't know what you've got till its gone? Sometimes I think that's true. Like, you don't think about having legs or a sense of smell or hair until something happens to take it away. Maybe that's because we didn't work hard to get our hair or legs or sense of smell in the first place.

But maybe with things that we had to work to get initially, we are hyperaware of their existence and our posession of them. Conversely, we also seem to be hyperaware of the things we have that we don't want (extra weight, a bad ankle, a poor outlook on life).

I think where I'm really going with this is to suggest that maybe we could look at and appreciate the things we have that we didn't work for a little more. Maybe we could unfocus on the things we have that we didn't want or ask for, and flip it to concentrate on the positive.

Let's say you find out you have a condition that limits what you can eat (i.e. gluten allergy, diabetes, etc). You can feel bad about all the food you'll be missing---or you can be thankful for the incentive to improve your health. Then get excited about what new things you can try. Either way, you have to change (or in the case of a decision to change to improve your wellness---you've committed to changing). Won't it be easier if you're not dreading it and feeling bad about it? You can also take the opportunity to remind yourself of all the things you do have that you like and benefit from that you don't normally acknowledge.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree that I take for granted all that I am lucky to have/never worked towards ... thanks for the reminder to remember that not everyone is so fortunate.