Why make resolutions on January 1st?
Every January, people make a list of New Years resolutions. They figure that they screwed up last year, and this year is going to be different. A change in the calendar does not change your personality. If we are destined to break some bad habits, it shouldn't matter what time of year it is. The best time to make a resolution is when you have the personal motivation to do it...January 1st may not be the right day.
I am no different than other people. I have some significant health concerns of my own and struggle every day in making the changes that I know will prolong my life and the quality of my daily living.
So, what motivates us to make health care changes? Vanity? Health? Fear? Money? Basically, many things motivate us, but every one of us has a "button" that is the big motivator. Many years ago, I took care of an obese woman who was having extreme difficulty sticking to a strict weight loss regimen. She wanted to lose weight for her daughter's wedding, but that wasn't doing it. Her husband promised her a new wardrobe, and apparently that was not the big motivator. One day in the clinic, I notice her wearing an anti-Richard Nixon campaign button. I ask her about it, and she went crazy over her dislike for this controversial President. Then, it hit me. This was the great motivator. I asked her if she would like an incentive to help her lose weight. Of course, she agreed. I ask her to write me a check to the "Re-Elect the President" campaign for $500. I told that unless she reached her weight loss goal in time for her daughter's wedding, that I would mail the check in her name. Guess what? She not only reached her goal, but exceeded it! Her second biggest reward was tearing up that check!
When I was in family practice, I saw some real "train wrecks"...One sedentary man was a diabetic, a hundred or more pounds overweight, a smoker, hypertensive, and had a strong family history of heart disease -- a heart attack in the making. His health frightened me so bad that I wrote him a personal letter telling him how worried I was about his health risks. He missed his next appointment and I didn't hear from him again for months until I visited him in the hospital after his heart attack. The first thing he said to me, with tubes sticking out of every body orifice, was that he was NOW serious about making some lifestyle changes. Perhaps a bit too late, but at least the heart attack got his attention.
Smoking is probably the greatest health hazard created by man. I often wonder why smokers even wear seat belts, or check their cholesterol. Hell, they are going to die from cigarettes anyway.
Anyone can stop smoking, but often there are some "mismatched strategies". I will ask a person if they would stop smoking for a million dollars in cash. They say, "You bet". Then I will ask them if they will stop for a dollar and they just stare at me. Everyone apparently has their price, but his was somewhere between a dollar and a million. If you can do it for a million, you can do it for a buck.
This strategy is very similar to the rich man who asks a woman if she will sleep with him for a million dollars. She thinks about it for a moment, then agrees. He wavers a bit, and then reduces his price to $500,000 cash. Still a lot of money, the woman still agrees. Then, he offers her $20. Insulted, she says, "What do you think I am?" He replies, "I think we have already established what you are, we are just dickering on the price."
For smokers, the fear of cancer is NOT a motivator. However, creating a fear of emphysema may be a motivator if you present it properly. Get a few drink straws from a fast food place. Anytime that you deal with a smoker, ask them to put a straw in their mouth, pinch their nose, and breathe through it for a while. When they tell you they can't, then tell them this is what advanced emphysema from smoking will feel like in a few years. They better get used to it. I chastised a friend for smoking. His answer? "Anyone can stop smoking, but it takes a MAN to face lung cancer." I didn't have a snappy response to that one.
It is truly unfortunate that it takes a serious health crisis for people to get serious. Maybe we are all a bit lazy...a bit oblivious...or "too busy" to make those changes now. Maybe we have failed so many times in the past that we are afraid to try again. Regardless of our personal barriers or excuses, the ravages of our lifestyle risks will continue, often silently as we procrastinate. At some point, we will all die. Basically, good health is the slowest form of dying. Personally, I would like to live long enough to get all of my Social Security money back!
I am no different than other people. I have some significant health concerns of my own and struggle every day in making the changes that I know will prolong my life and the quality of my daily living.
So, what motivates us to make health care changes? Vanity? Health? Fear? Money? Basically, many things motivate us, but every one of us has a "button" that is the big motivator. Many years ago, I took care of an obese woman who was having extreme difficulty sticking to a strict weight loss regimen. She wanted to lose weight for her daughter's wedding, but that wasn't doing it. Her husband promised her a new wardrobe, and apparently that was not the big motivator. One day in the clinic, I notice her wearing an anti-Richard Nixon campaign button. I ask her about it, and she went crazy over her dislike for this controversial President. Then, it hit me. This was the great motivator. I asked her if she would like an incentive to help her lose weight. Of course, she agreed. I ask her to write me a check to the "Re-Elect the President" campaign for $500. I told that unless she reached her weight loss goal in time for her daughter's wedding, that I would mail the check in her name. Guess what? She not only reached her goal, but exceeded it! Her second biggest reward was tearing up that check!
When I was in family practice, I saw some real "train wrecks"...One sedentary man was a diabetic, a hundred or more pounds overweight, a smoker, hypertensive, and had a strong family history of heart disease -- a heart attack in the making. His health frightened me so bad that I wrote him a personal letter telling him how worried I was about his health risks. He missed his next appointment and I didn't hear from him again for months until I visited him in the hospital after his heart attack. The first thing he said to me, with tubes sticking out of every body orifice, was that he was NOW serious about making some lifestyle changes. Perhaps a bit too late, but at least the heart attack got his attention.
Smoking is probably the greatest health hazard created by man. I often wonder why smokers even wear seat belts, or check their cholesterol. Hell, they are going to die from cigarettes anyway.
Anyone can stop smoking, but often there are some "mismatched strategies". I will ask a person if they would stop smoking for a million dollars in cash. They say, "You bet". Then I will ask them if they will stop for a dollar and they just stare at me. Everyone apparently has their price, but his was somewhere between a dollar and a million. If you can do it for a million, you can do it for a buck.
This strategy is very similar to the rich man who asks a woman if she will sleep with him for a million dollars. She thinks about it for a moment, then agrees. He wavers a bit, and then reduces his price to $500,000 cash. Still a lot of money, the woman still agrees. Then, he offers her $20. Insulted, she says, "What do you think I am?" He replies, "I think we have already established what you are, we are just dickering on the price."
For smokers, the fear of cancer is NOT a motivator. However, creating a fear of emphysema may be a motivator if you present it properly. Get a few drink straws from a fast food place. Anytime that you deal with a smoker, ask them to put a straw in their mouth, pinch their nose, and breathe through it for a while. When they tell you they can't, then tell them this is what advanced emphysema from smoking will feel like in a few years. They better get used to it. I chastised a friend for smoking. His answer? "Anyone can stop smoking, but it takes a MAN to face lung cancer." I didn't have a snappy response to that one.
It is truly unfortunate that it takes a serious health crisis for people to get serious. Maybe we are all a bit lazy...a bit oblivious...or "too busy" to make those changes now. Maybe we have failed so many times in the past that we are afraid to try again. Regardless of our personal barriers or excuses, the ravages of our lifestyle risks will continue, often silently as we procrastinate. At some point, we will all die. Basically, good health is the slowest form of dying. Personally, I would like to live long enough to get all of my Social Security money back!
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2 Comments:
Great pieace there, make a lot sense when you hear it has happened to others and makes you fell fortnate, yhea.
I read your story and yes it is true I'm only 36 as of 1-13-07 and already been told that I have copd I still smoke alittle cut down alot but still have not been able to quit working on it it is just so hard it shouldn't be but it is and that's a shame you know these people out there who want us to stop but they make the meds so high even if i did quit buying the cigs it would still take me awhile to be able to buy the meds but I and anybody else out there who is trying to stop we do have the best meds we need and all it cost is a little prayer up above and I know in my Lord's time he will have me quit. Thanks for your piece it was informative. dede1971!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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