You know you really should be doing what’s good for you, but you just can’t seem to get the motivation to do it! Whether it be choosing the healthier food option, getting off the couch to go the gym or doing your exercises the physio gave you. Of course, all of these things are clearly the right decision because deep down we know we should. We know it will be good for us. Yet there just seems to some motivation missing.

Having been a health professional for close to 20 years, I’ve been presented with 1000’s of excuses about why the exercises prescribed have not been done. The best one is “I havn’t had time”. The classic comment is “I havn’t done as much as I should”. It’s usually presented with down-turned eyes and a look of shame. As if to say, “I’m paying you to help me but not doing what you tell me!”.

And once upon a time I would get frustrated with this. I thought to myself that this person didn’t care and was wasting their time and mine. But then I realized that WE ARE ALL CUT FROM THE SAME CLOTH. We all face these challenges in life. We can all think of a time where we lacked motivation to do what we know was the “best thing for us”. I realized that I’d probably come up with the same excuses about food, going to the gym and doing my quad stretch.

And then it dawned on me. It wasn’t that us humans don’t care. It wasn’t that we have bad intentions. We aim to make the right decisions and do the things that are best for ourselves. But sometime we just don’t value the outcome enough.

And that’s when I realized I needed to become a physiocologist. To not only give exercises but to know my client well enough to get them to “buy-in” to what we were aiming for. To be a HEALTH professional I needed to promote HEALTH as a top priority… to explain the value of healthy choices. Be specific about the consequences of not choosing good health. Advocate with my last drawn breath just how important it is to make your own health the TOP priority in life. Because let’s face it, sometimes we don’t value ourselves and our health enough. We have busy lives that can easily get crowded with unhealthy choices.

I realized that talking about wellbeing, healthy choices, aiming for quality of life were things that were all so important. When discussing these things we create value for them. Communities talking about the same thing create even more strength toward those values. That’s why a group of people sharing fitness goals benefit so much by being connected. Because those values are constantly reinforced.

So my message today is to acknowledge the power in conversation about healthy choices. Talk it, post it, represent it, and applaud it. Because you will be contributing to your wellbeing and those around you.  Add to your community a sense of value around staying fit, eating your broccolini and doing your quad stretches. Because if you value it enough, you will find it’s easy to get done!

Paul Michael – MWE physio – Robina town centre and EMF