Do You Care?
by David S. Williams III, Founder & CEO, Care3
In this post you will learn:
The 3 Actions of Caring (“Care3”)
Why it’s important to be persistent with healthy behaviors
The financial and wealth-generating advantages of adopting healthy behaviors
Do you care?
This post might get you a little bit in your feelings, but we have to answer this foundational fundamental question. That moment when you learn that you or someone you love has a chronic condition, it defines a new stage of your life. Managing health becomes a lifestyle. Behaviors need to change in order for you (or your loved one) to live your best.
Let’s be clear. Caring is not about feelings. You can feel sorry for yourself or someone you love who has a condition. You can feel angry, resentful—but then do nothing to improve the situation. Caring is making changes to achieve an outcome. Caring is about action.
Do you care enough to make those changes?
What are those changes?
Attitude. You have to get out of fantasy and into focus.
Lifestyle. You have to change your lifestyle. You have to go from behaviors that are harmful to those that are helpful.
Persistence. You cannot revert to unhealthy behaviors. You have to repeat behaviors that are helpful in this new lifestyle.
Attitude, lifestyle and persistence.
To answer this question, do you care—the only way the answer is “yes” is if you take action to make life better given your situation.
Let's talk about the 3 Actions of Caring. You answered “yes” to the question, do you care? You're willing to take action in your care journey. You have to take on the behaviors that lead to living your best. We call these behaviors the 3 Actions of Caring.
Adjust Your Attitude. Fall away from fantasies. Focus on the new reality. Focus on what will work best and set your attitude to receive all of the benefits that will come your way. When you adjust your attitude, think about abundance, think about all of the things that are going to be going well for you even with these health challenges. Think about if you make these changes in yourself, in your attitude, how much easier and less stressful your life will be.
You want to fall away from fantasies. What does that mean? The fantasy is that I'm not going to do anything and my condition will go away. You see a lot of people do this. They get diagnosed with a condition that requires some lifestyle changes . But they think, “you know what? That's not going to be me. I'm going to be fine.”
That's a fantasy. When you live in those fantasies, your health spirals downward, your quality of life declines. We want to take our attitude into focus.
Live the Lifestyle. Don't do harmful, do helpful. Understand what is needed to get the best results and embrace them. Find the positives in the new routine. Don't do harmful, do helpful. We all know somebody who has diabetes and when people are told that they have diabetes, they realize they have to change their lifestyle. There are certain foods you just shouldn't eat anymore. You need to exercise a little bit more. Embrace this lifestyle!
But if people don't do number one, which is adjust your attitude and they live in fantasy land. They think the negative outcomes that can occur won't happen to them. “Those things won't happen to me. I won't lose a limb. I won’t go blind.” I can tell you it happens all the time. It's happened in my family and the reason why is those people did not live the lifestyle. They did not embrace what really is a positive lifestyle change. Exercising and eating right are positive behaviors we all can do.
You have to find replacements for that pleasure, right? That's living the lifestyle. That's embracing the new. If you don't, then you're doing harmful, not helpful.
So number one, adjust your attitude. Number two, live the lifestyle. What's number three? This is something you probably have never heard before.
3. Pay for Persistence. What does that mean? Here's the reality. And in our diabetes example, this is 100% true. It's hard not to revert to known behaviors to your previous lifestyle. You should pay for the support that makes you persistent. That's worth paying for. Why?
There is an extra financial burden that will befall you if you do not embrace the lifestyle. More visits to the doctor, more visits to the hospital, more dollars spent to try to maintain quality of life. Pay for persistence because the more persistent you are with living the lifestyle, the better the health outcomes will be. The better your health, the less you pay for extra healthcare to maintain.
There is an economic advantage to living the lifestyle. It's cheaper! Pay for things that will help you be persistent. Saving the money you would have spent on healthcare will build generational wealth. It's in your life interest and your financial interest. To repeat the most beneficial behaviors, pay for persistence.
If you have embraced the 3 Actions of Caring, you've adjusted your attitude, you live the lifestyle and you pay for persistence. Now, maybe you've read this post and say, that's already me. I'm already doing those things. Great. Good for you. Share this post with someone else because maybe they need this. And for yourself, use it as a reminder and a motivator to continue the behaviors because sometimes we falter.
Take care!
Learn about how Care3 can help you with the take action.