One of the things that people say to me as a justification for not living healthy is “I don’t want to have to be perfect all the time”. And that’s fair, neither do I. But I’d like to say 2 things on the matter.
You don’t have to be perfect all the time in order to get results and live a long and healthy life. So don’t self-defeat yourself thinking the bar is unreasonably high.
Perfect wellness isn’t perfect wellness anyway... I'll explain.
It’s impossible to have perfect wellness. First we would have to know every single thing about the body there is to know, and we don’t. Next we would have to execute on that knowledge with a god-like planning, accuracy, luck, and discipline never before seen. Point is, it’s never going to happen. We get closer as a species every year, but we’ll never fully get there and that’s ok.
So where does that leave us? It leaves us with a life where things don’t go as planned. Unforeseen chaos enters our lives at every turn, and when it does our sleep, food, exercise, and everything else gets disrupted.
Now this is where it gets interesting.
When your wellness does not go the way the body would prefer, it is forced to adapt. Poor sleep, water, food, mental health, etc are all things the body has to endure. So here is the first big point: when our body has to endure non-perfect wellness conditions it becomes more resilient to them. The classic “what does not kill you makes you stronger” but it applies to literally ALL of wellness! Nice right?
Now people like that little phrase so they run with it. But there are 2 very important follow up points to the that phrase that I wish people would understand:
Yes, “what does not kill you makes you stronger”, but these “killer” events should be few, far between, and in moderation. Otherwise “what does not kill you” will just straight up actually kill you, with no “get stronger” part.
These “killer” events should also be followed up with a proper wellness recovery, because that’s how the “makes you stronger” part is even possible.
Now let’s get back to this “perfect” idea shall we!?
You can’t be perfect and that’s ok, we know that now. We also know that we should not give up on living well just because perfect is not obtainable.
So what should you do? This is your Actionable Advice of the day:
You should apply as many wellness practices as you possibly can, starting with the most easy and impactful ones first, like sleep and water.
You’ll need to have an abundance of both patience and humility for yourself, as you’ll find that even simple lifestyle changes are easier said than done.
You’ll need to be tenacious. Never accepting that this is “as good as it gets”, yet tempering your expectations at the same time.
So there you have it, perfect is not the goal even though you should be making your way closer to it every day if you can. Once you feel you are as close as you can get without eliminating things like work, family, and you-time you will have what is considered “perfect imperfect wellness”, aka “reasonable wellness”. And THAT is what you should be shooting for.
Thank you for reading.
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May your wellness be exactly everything it can be for you. Good luck.