INTRODUCTION

Over the years, I have collaborated with an eminent Australian scholar (Dr Grant Donovan of Perth) in conducting research on lifestyle changes. Our work has focused on understanding whether adults have a greater than 50/50 chance of benefiting from efforts to improve their lifestyles. Our double-blind, crossover, horizontally randomized, dignified trials have explored a simple but profound question that others have taken for granted, namely, can humans do it? That is, can individuals convince themselves to change their lifestyles and, what is more important, to maintain the healthy habits they wish to adopt over time? If not, it is clear that the frustrations of failure and increased learned hopelessness make attempts to improve lifestyle highly unlikely to be very successful and beneficial. Repeated failure to change lifestyle is worse than ever trying to live healthy, as frustrations and disappointments lead to loss of interest in change, lower self-esteem, and therefore poor health. more deficient.

Our studies have shown, we believe conclusively, that most people cannot do it. We refer to this phenomenon as I can’t do it or I CAN NOT DO IT. Once the nature of this reality is understood, those who still wish to attempt positive lifestyle changes will have a better chance of success, as few can do so, if somewhat gifted by favorable circumstances and aware of the consequences. difficulties. Everyone should be willing to pay attention to ways that increase success rates.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS

We found that healthy living is too demanding in large part because most are unprepared for the bumps in the road. Make no mistake: if everyone could make and stick with healthy choices, they would. Who wants to be sick and die prematurely? Who wants NOT to look good and have lots of energy and live life to the fullest? If it were easy, everyone would accept responsibility for a high quality of life by choosing to exercise regularly, vigorously, eat well, manage stress, think critically, and do everything in between. After all, wellness is, as I have long preached (secularly), fun, romantic and modern, sexy and free. It is a rich way of being alive. Live this way and you will be stronger and more handsome, have higher morale, a superior bowel movement, and more antibodies to resist pandemics.

You’d be a little crazy if you didn’t live this way, IF YOU COULD. However, the unfortunate situation we discovered is you probably can’twhich we abbreviate as I CAN NOT DO IT.

Napoleon Hill, author of Andrew Carnegie’s famous formula for making money entitled, Think and Grow Rich, he studied several thousand people and concluded that 98 percent of them were failures. This might be a bit harsh and an overestimate. Still, it was interesting to think about the top thirty reasons he thought so many fail.

When Grant and I analyzed Hill’s explanations for failure to make money, we concluded that twenty of Hill’s reasons also apply to attempts to live healthily, along the lines advanced by lifestyles. wellness life.

Here are the twenty factors so identified:

1. Unfavorable Hereditary History. Many people are born with an intellectual capacity deficiency or lack of physical capacity, and there is relatively little they can do about it.

2. Lack of ambition to aim above mediocrity. People lack ambition and are unwilling to put forth the considerable effort required for success.

3. Insufficient education. Hill discovered that the best educated people are often those who are self-taught and get what they want in life without violating the rights of others. Many people have school-based knowledge, but lack the ability to apply their learning effectively and persistently. As Hill points out, Men are paid, not only for what they know, but more particularly for what they do with what they know.”

4. Lack of self-discipline. Most people fail because they lack the discipline for self-control. Hill: If you don’t conquer yourself, you will be conquered by him. You can see both your best friend and your greatest enemy at the same time, by standing in front of a mirror.

5. Poor health. Hill: No person can enjoy outstanding success without good health.. Most of those Hill studied he ate excessive food that was not conducive to good health, lacked sufficient physical exercise, seldom breathed fresh air, and generally had bad habits of thought. Sounds familiar?

6. Unfavorable environmental influences during childhood. Most people pick up bad habits from poor surroundings and inappropriate associations during childhood. They spend the rest of their impoverished lives blaming others because cantdoit

7. Procrastination. Hill’s research led him to conclude that people are always waiting the ‘good time’ to start doing something worthwhile. It almost goes without saying that the time is never right.

8. Lack of Persistence. Most people start off well but end badly. They fail early because they are prone to giving up at the first signs of defeat.

9. Negative personality. Most people don’t like each other. Hill argues that success comes through the application of power, and power is gained through the cooperative efforts of other people. A negative personality will not induce cooperation.

10. Uncontrolled desire for something for nothing. Most people have a gambling instinct and a desire to get rich effortlessly, hence the worldwide success of casinos and lottery groups.

11. Lack of a Well-Defined Power of Decision. Hill believed that successful people make decisions quickly and change them, if at all, slowly; most people, on the other hand, make decisions slowly and change them frequently.

12. Incorrect selection of partner in marriage. Bad relationships consume energy and destroy most ambitions.

13. Superstition. Superstition is a sign of ignorance. Most people believe a lot of nonsense without the support of evidence or reason.

14. Incorrect selection of a vocation. The chances of success are not good in unpleasant work environments.

15. Lack of Concentration of Effort. Most are easily distracted. They fail to focus their efforts on a definitive goal.

16. The Habit of Indiscriminate Spending. This is the big one in western society. Most people risk financial instability by spending (not investing) more than they can afford.

17. Intolerance. People often fail to lead a quality lifestyle because they are narrow-minded and religiously, racially, and politically intolerant.

18. Inability to cooperate with others. People miss opportunities in life because they lack the ability to work effectively with others.

19. Guess instead of thinking. hill suggests, most people are too indifferent or lazy to acquire facts with which to think accurately. They prefer to act on opinions created by guesswork or snap judgments.

20. Lake of the Capital. Most people start out and travel through life without enough capital to absorb the impact of mistakes.

Donovan and I do not hold that these twenty factors are tea most critical variables for everyone regarding changing lifestyles for the better. However, these twenty do explain why so many find it difficult to maintain good intentions to live healthy.

By familiarizing yourself with this list, you can develop a greater appreciation of the seriousness of the barriers or obstacles to wellness, and thereby increase the scope of your commitment. It takes a lot of devotion and intention to continue over time to invest the energy needed to maintain your wellness lifestyles.

THE RESEARCH SUPPORTS THE FINDINGS OF THE THESIS

A non-rigorous and uncontrolled study published in the satirical magazine Onion revealed a trend that shows that there is no reliable set of factors that allow a person to take better care of themselves, or to alter their behavior in a significant way. Dr. Janice Carlisle, author of the report, concludes that we are all wasting time here. She added….long-term health education meant nothing last year, and it won’t mean anything this year or any year after that until you die, so forget it. Just do what you want. The article, titled A new study finds nothing that really convinces you to change your lifestyle, so forget it, is one of the best, if not reliable sources of lighthearted news. (See The Onion, April 30, 2013.)

Think about all this and decide if you really are ready to pursue a REAL wellness lifestyle.

Good luck and don’t underestimate how hard it can be to stay focused on the positive side of life.