There are no secrets
I was on a road trip with friends recently and stopped at a VERY fancy gas station store. Not your typical 400 square feet of chips and soda, but it almost a supermarket sized shop and filled with all kinds of goodies.
Road trips are when I indulge in my guilty pleasures. It’s when I get the kinds of snacks I don’t normally buy at home. And I eat them gleefully like a kid who got extra cookies out of the cookie jar without anyone noticing.
I’ve been having a lot of conversations with friends recently about health and wellness. We often share what we do and while we each have some uniqueness to our rhythms and habits, it generally includes components related to what we eat, how much sleep we get, hydration, and exercise. And while my road-trip eating habits aren’t well reflective of how I maintain my health, I’m also reminded:
When it comes to health, there are no secrets. There are no silver bullets. There are no shortcuts. The ways to be in good health are widely known – they just may not be the things we WANT to do (like avoiding guilty pleasure treats…).
And really, it’s that way for just about everything in life. By this point in our evolution, we already know the answers. We know that exercise and eating well and drinking water will make our health good. We know that putting some of our paycheck away every month will keep our savings account healthy. We know that calling our friends to check in on them and spending time with them will keep our relationships healthy.
It’s hard to not wonder if there is a faster route to success. That’s just our natural inclination. But anything really worth having in your life is, almost by definition, worth your effort.
So instead of “What’s your secret to…?”, the better question might be, “What’s worth my effort and attention?”.
