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 worthy horizontal, randomized, crossover, double-blind trials have explored a simple yet profound question that others have taken for granted, namely, can humans do it? That is, can individuals convince themselves to change their lifestyles and, more importantly, maintain the healthy habits they wish to adopt over time? If not, then clearly the frustrations of failure and increased learned helplessness make attempts at lifestyle improvement highly unlikely to be successful and beneficial. Repeated failure to change lifestyle is worse than ever trying to live healthily, as frustrations and disappointments lead to loss of interest in change, lower self-esteem, and therefore poorer health. more deficient.

Our studies have shown, we believe conclusively, that most people cannot. 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 they are somewhat gifted by favorable circumstances and aware of the 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 practice and stick to healthy choices, they would. Who wants to be sick and die prematurely? Who wants to NOT look great 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 engage in regular vigorous exercise, eat well, manage stress, think critically, and do everything else. After all, wellness is, as I have long (secularly) preached, fun, romantic and modern, sexy and free. It is a rich way to be 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 titled, 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 that, in his opinion, explain why so many fail.

When Grant and I analyze Hill’s explanations for failure to make money, we conclude that twenty of Hill’s reasons apply to attempts at healthy living along advanced lifestyle lines as well. of wellness life.

Here are the twenty factors thus identified:

1. Unfavorable Hereditary Background. Many people are born with a deficiency in intellectual ability or a lack of physical ability, 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 in the considerable effort necessary 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 over-consumed food that was not conducive to good health, lacked sufficient physical exercise, seldom breathed fresh air, and generally had poor thinking habits. Sounds familiar?

6. Unfavorable environmental influences during childhood. Most people acquire bad habits from poor backgrounds 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 ‘well time’ to start doing something worthwhile. It almost goes without saying that the time is never right.

8. Lack of Persistence. Most people start out good 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 pools.

11. Lack of a Well Defined Decision Power. 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 choice of partner in marriage. Bad relationships drain 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. Wrong choice of a vocation. The chances of success are not good in unpleasant work environments.

15. Lack of Effort Concentration. 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 quality lifestyles because they are narrow-minded and religiously, racially, and politically intolerant.

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

19. Guessing 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. Capital Lake. 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 with respect to changing lifestyles for the better. However, these twenty do explain why so many find it difficult to maintain good intentions to live healthy.

By becoming familiar with this list, you can develop a greater appreciation of the seriousness of the barriers or obstacles to well-being and thus increase the scope of your engagement. 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, non-controlled study published in the satirical journal Onion revealed a trend showing that there is no reliable set of factors that allow a person to take better care of themselves, or to alter your behavior in a significant way. Dr. Janice Carlisle, author of the report, concludes that we’re all wasting time here. She added...long-term health education didn’t mean anything 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 trustworthy sources of lighthearted news. (See The Onion, April 30, 2013.)

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

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