Sounds like a new Netflix show…maybe it could be?!
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how being “healthy” is no longer normal.
Look around you:
Over 60% of the UK population are overweight of obese
Excess mortality rates are currently some of the highest we've seen
There's been a spike in heart attacks over the last couple of years (even in children)
More than 1 in 10 have diabetes
Men's testosterone levels have dropped by 1% per year over the last 30-40 years
Almost 40% of people never exercise or play sport
Data from 2016 showed 48% of the population had taken a prescription medication within the previous week; 24% had taken 3 or more. Those numbers will have increased. (Prescription drugs are the 3rd leading cause of death in America)
⅓ of children and young adults rated their mental health as “much worse” since Covid
The “norms” are going down and down so to compare ourselves to our peers and think we're doing OK is setting ourselves a lower and lower bar.
Imagine the impact of all of this on quality of life?
Not only is this about physical health - it's about mental health and mindset too: now imagine what this is doing to productivity, how effective people are, their capacity to “work” in any sense of the word, their ability to operate under pressure and their levels of resilience…?
We've all witnessed the recent challenges to our health as a population. Like every disease I can think of, the fittest and healthiest have fared better.
People often respond with stories like “I knew a guy who was as fit as a Butcher's dog and he was in intensive care for 3 weeks”
Sad as that maybe, it's an exception rather than a norm.
The way this is all heading I can envisage a future where the majority of the population are ill, weak, drugged up, dependent on others…barely surviving.
Doom-mongers talk about a dystopian future with a return to “survival of the fittest” and whilst maybe we can't rule that out, for the meantime “survival” isn't enough for me.
I want to thrive. I want my family to thrive and I want to help our clients thrive too.
And I'm 100% convinced that the way to do that is to prioritise and focus on our health.
To take personal responsibility for it and to buck the trend.
Let's be the ones performing at a high level in every area of life.
Who's with me?
