Trades

If you trade your health for wealth, you have neither or will lose both.

Health is not just physical, of having a certain appearance or level of performance. Health is also internal, and mental and emotional and spiritual and yes, financial.

Elite athletes often trade a more balanced lifestyle for world-class abilities and or earnings. They make these trades for specific reasons and, relative to their lifetime, a limited period of time. While perhaps their abilities would be enhanced by prioritizing "health" a little more, they often get where they are because their inputs are off the charts, and their abilities are unattainable and ambitions unfathomable to most. 99% of people are not and will not be elite athletes.

You do not have to be elite to better yourself but you are always making trades whether you know it or not. Your blood work does not care about your paycheck. Your biomarkers do not care what the internet says you should feel about them. How long and well do you want to be there for your kids and grandkids? Are you wanting your horizon to be the television set or front door or hospital bed, or deeper connections and adventures and experiences?

What you do now affects both how you feel right now and who you will be 10 years from now. Who you are in 10 years and 10 years from then is much harder to change if you are not caring for yourself now. And, depending on the trades you have been making, you may not even be with us in 10 years.

Health is different than any product or commodity because you cannot download or upgrade to next year's version just because you mistreated the one you have or you have the wealth that lets you buy most everything else. Health can include wealth and vice versa and each supports the other. But you get one body and one life — there are no redos or respawns or actions without effects. Prioritize accordingly.