Intentionality - Stop winging it!
Periodically, I don’t like what I see in the mirror. It really stinks when you are someone who speaks publicly about character and you realize you’ve been a hypocrite about something. That is me. This is my confession to any one who has been to our keynotes and workshops or read our books or these blogs before. I am in the process of making changes that promise to change some things in my life for the better.
I often tell people, “You don’t drift your way into excellence in anything.” I’ve truly tried to live that way in most areas of my life. But I have ignored my own advice in one important area of my life - my health.
Since December of 2023, I have been involved in a group that has me applying the truths I promote in my leadership classes, to my personal health and wellness. I read about this group in the book The Comfort Crisis (author Michael Easter). The book challenges our society’s desires for comfort and proves the damaging effects the constant pursuit of comfort has on our physical, mental, and emotional capabilities and health. I loved the book! Especially since I always say things like “Your comfort zone is your mediocrity zone!”
But in Chapter 8 of The Comfort Crisis, I was introduced to a guy named Trevor Kashey*. He was a childhood prodigy who got a PHD at an age when most of his peers were thinking about going to college. He has an approach to nutrition that is changing lives. That approach has changed mine and my wife’s lives as well.
What Dr. Kashey preaches from his unique pulpit built on a combination of science and psychology is intentionality. You need to have a plan YOU can stick to implementing. You can’t just float from one meal to another without a plan and expect to get to your health goals.
Before meeting Dr. Kashey, that is exactly what I was doing. I was drifting and wondering why my weight yo-yoed up and down in a 15-20 pound range for the past thirty years. I would buckle down for 3 months, 6 months and sometimes for a year. I’d lose 15-20 pounds, but over time, that weight slowly came back.
I did not have a plan that worked for me. I was not intentional. I would blame the scale, my travel, and even my family for my fatigue, health issues, or diet breakdowns. When in fact, the problem is me, the guy who makes the choices about what I put in my mouth each day.
I tell leaders, “You can’t just show up at work and survive the day and expect your team to reach its goals. You need a vision! You need a plan! You need to be intentional about achieving that vision and the plan you put in place.” Yet I never really applied that same thing to my nutrition.
I truly believe the main thing that will keep me from being active with my wife, crawling on the floor with grandchildren (when they come), and having a full life for as long as possible is my health. And the number one predictor of living a full and healthy life is what I put into my body on a day to day basis.
I tell leaders to stop winging it when it comes to being a leader or building a culture. Well my confession to you is that I was ignoring my own advice in my own life. I have created habits through years of unwise choices when it comes to my body.
I want to be clear, I am not trying to equate anyone’s physical health and the choices they make to the character issues I talk, write, and speak about. But the habits that determine our health are established in the same way the Six Habits of Character are embedded into our lives.
We need to have a plan and consciously choose that plan daily, until those good choices become the habits we need in order to have the healthy bodies and the healthy character we claim to want.
Thus endeth my confession. I am a work in progress. But, I am trying to be more intentional about my work.
How are you doing with being intentional with the two most important and controllable things in your life - your character and your nutrition?
Question:
● Where do you use intentionality in your life already?
● Where else could it help you?
* Nobody from Trevor Kashey Nutrition approached me about writing this blog. I am just thankful for the wisdom they have shared with me and my wife. https://www.trevorkasheynutrition.com/
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Warning: If you are not going to be honest with yourself this is a worthless assessment.
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