Spending on yourself should be viewed as an investment, not a cost….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"article":"This past week I took time off from the gym to try to heal some nagging issues.\u00a0 By \u201ctaking time off\u201d, that of course means I saw my nutritionist on Tuesday, my personal trainer on Wednesday, and my chiropractor on Thursday.\u00a0 Everything beyond that did actually consist of rest.\u00a0 All told with those 3 visits, I spent about $400.\u00a0 While I would prefer to NOT have to spend that money, I am very fortunate that my wife and I have the resources to be able to do so.\u00a0 In the past, I looked at these things as expenses, but as I\u2019ve matured, I now look at these things as an investment in myself.\r\n\r\nI don\u2019t HAVE to see any of those practitioners.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to die by not seeing any of them, but I will tell you that my quality of life would be so much lower.\u00a0 You are either going to pay for your health now, or pay for it later.\u00a0 You are either going to spend money on physical exercise now, or surgery and drugs later.\u00a0 You are either going to spend money on high quality food now, or expensive medicine later.\u00a0\u00a0 My back first locked up on me in college when I was 22.\u00a0 At that time, I feared that if I was this bad at 22, I was going to be a complete disaster by the time I was 40, so I started addressing it immediately.\r\n\r\nI didn\u2019t just pay someone for martial arts classes, I INVESTED in myself, banking on doing things that would benefit me in the future.\u00a0 I think the results now speak for themselves.\u00a0 At 55 I am able to compete at the highest level of BJJ, I am on no medication, and most people who meet me for the first time think I\u2019m in my late 30\u2019s or early 40\u2019s.\r\n\r\nI still struggle emotionally when it comes to the \u201csecurity\u201d that money provides, but we were never meant to hoard money in a bank account.\u00a0 What good does that do for us compared to using that resource to benefit our lives?\u00a0 I think everyone in their 40\u2019s and beyond realizes that if you don\u2019t have your health, you don\u2019t have anything.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine where I\u2019d be in life if I DIDN\u2019T invest in all of the physical care I have undertaken over the past 30 years.\r\n\r\nWhen I was president of the Farmington Jaycees, I told all of my board members that their #1 priority should be themselves.\u00a0 In an organization with a mission of helping others, it initially seems a little counterintuitive.\u00a0 However, you can be of no benefit to others if you yourself are not in shape to be able to help others.\u00a0 Now, of course, this doesn\u2019t mean that you ONLY think of yourself or that you ALWAYS prioritize your own interests, but you need to prioritize being healthy.\r\n\r\nWhat are you doing today to invest in yourself?\u00a0 If you are reading this message, you are probably a student that is investing in learning a skill that will help you both physically and mentally in life.\u00a0 If you are reading this and are NOT a student, what are you doing to invest in yourself?\u00a0\u00a0 Are you eating healthy?\u00a0 Are you going to the gym?\u00a0 Are you trying to get off medications?\r\n\r\nWe are going to pay for our health sooner or later.\u00a0 The sooner we pay for it, the longer we will live a healthy, productive life.\u00a0 Yes, training Jiu-Jitsu at 55 and being one of the smallest people on the mat is hard.\u00a0 But I can tell you, being a 55-year-old that has let their body go, is overweight and undernourished is a hell of a lot harder.","featured_image":"","featured_image_id":"","featured_article":""},"categories":[],"class_list":["post-379","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n