Health Goals -- What?
I recently posted the question — When is the last time you Doctor asked you, “What are your health goals?” In a few conversations since, I am reaffirmed in how little many of us think about our health. Initially in these conversations, people are not sure what the question is asking — what does it mean to set a health goal?
We are a culture of goal setters, so the issue is not the idea of goals. The problem is we have no imagination for our health. Imagination forms meaning and we have been conditioned to think about or health only when necessary — the complexity, the expense, the hassle, the impersonal nature of the experience all have resulted in us thinking about our health only when it is interrupted by illness or injury.
Additionally, once a year when we do think about health care, we are actually only thinking about health insurance. We think about Coverage, not Care. We think about Risk, not Reward. We make an expensive and confusing decision and think we have made our “health care decision” for the year. When we need something though, who should we call? And we never move to next step from our health needs, to our health wants. What does it mean to set health goals?
Do you feel like you are operating at optimal currently? What choices are you making that are affecting your health today? How do you want to feel in 5/10/20 years from now and what choices are you making to get there. When you think about how you want to live then, it will all be for nothing if your health is not letting you really live. Small consistent choices made with an informed counsel can change the trajectory of you health and your life. Imagine how it would feel to . . . feel well. Time to set some health goals. Come on in and let's get started.
