Health in the Bank
Recently I said to a crowd of eager listeners on one of the stretch mats that working out regularly for health is like compound interest in your savings account.
Not the best thing to invest in.
At the time I was told that it was a strange analogy.
I disagree completely.
I think that it is the perfect analogy. The more you deposit into your ‘health account’ the more the ‘interest’ builds on itself.
Deposits into your health account would be things like a resistance training and/or a interval training session, eating right, getting enough sleep, using sunscreen and going to the doctor’s for regular check-ups. The more of these deposits you make the more they build on the previous deposits to become more than the sum of the parts (i.e. they build interest of each other). 1+1=3
Now if you keep letting it build and keep up on your regular deposits now when you are young(er), you will end up with way more than you worked so hard to put in. Barring any sort of system glitch or ‘bank’ failure you will be able to comfortably live off of the interest for many, many years to come. You won’t have to deposit as much or as often to maintain your health later in life. And you won’t have to dip into your (financial) savings account to keep the health that you didn’t pay attention to before.
But some people don’t see their health quite that way. They say that when you put money into the bank you are investing but when you go to the gym that you are spending time there. They say that there are more important things to do then spending precious time on the luxury that is you health. (see The Cost Of Health)
No wonder why so many of you become discouraged when it comes to taking care of yourselves and your health.
You need to think of going to the gym the same way you would think of going to the bank.
Think of each workout (full night’s sleep, time preparing healthy meals) as time invested into you and your health. The more you invest early, the bigger the payoff will be later.
Invest in you so this doesn’t happen.
Just like all the financial experts tell you to invest into your retirement while you are young, so too should you start investing in your future health. Because failing to invest early will come at great cost to you later on. Failing to plan is planning to fail. And when your health fails your screwed.
If you are not investing now you are losing ground.
Your friend and trainer,
Paul F. Sweatt
Posted by Paul | in Fitness, Mind & Motivation | 2 Comments
i really like this analogy!
And when we are not able to work out….due to illness…injury…circumstances….we can then make withdrawals from our fitness accounts…if we have been making regular deposits….these deposits can get us through the times when working out is a problem.