The Four I's to Improve Your Health!

Summary:

The four I’s to improve your health

• Intelligence
• Implementation
• Investment
• I am doing it (remove I can/I will)

Intelligence

• It is not about doing more things; it is about doing more of the right things.
• Each of us, as individuals, are directly responsible for what we choose to do, or not do.
• We get to choose to be part of the problem or part of the solution.
• Learn what if the right choice.

Implementation

• The act of accomplishing some aim or executing some order.
• You need to have a plan.
• Apply your knowledge (intelligence).
• Map out assumptions and risk.

Investment

• Your time can be your most costly investment or your greatest return.
• Educate yourself (Intelligence).
• Buy comfortable running shoes (get the right equipment).
• Buy the right food.
• Buy a gym membership.
• Consider lab testing.
• Get a coach.

I am doing

• Enjoy the journey.
• Live a purpose-filled life.
• Turn exercise into a habit.
• Get enough sleep.

Stop the blame, embrace the pain and you will get the gain.

[ The following is the full transcript from this week's post. This is a health blog with a focus on weight loss. Please consider that all episodes are unscripted, direct to camera, with focused talking points. ]

Today, I want to talk to you about something known as the four I’s of Your Health and Wellness.

And what I mean by that is, if you are on a health or wellness journey, it is important that you take responsibility for it.

Once you take that responsibility, that is really empowering. So, I want you to think of things like, what can I do to improve my health and wellness?

That is what I mean when I say the four I’s. The four eyes are four things.

First, there's Intelligence. Then there's implementation, investment, and I am doing it.

That is really what I want you to think about.

This helps immensely in taking ownership, but also being strategic in handling the friction points or difficult days and how you are going to overcome those days, because we are all going to have them.

The first I will talk about is intelligence.

What I mean by that is, your personal growth, and your knowledge on what wellness and health is. And how it relates to you.

There is lots of great resources out there on the internet available, but unfortunately, there is also a lot of bad information out there. So, part of it is, growing your own intelligence related to health and wellness on what is the right things to do. What is going to help you. But also, in speaking intelligence and understanding how your body works. How things generally work for you. And things that do not work for you.

So, there is the broad term for intelligence of just increasing your general knowledge. But then there is also the intelligence on specific to you. And increasing that knowledge on how to apply it to you, so that it is successful in helping you on your journey.

The next is implementation, and I have talked about this before, that you have really got to have a plan on how you are going to accomplish the goals you have. But then, you must execute on that plan.

So, you need the plan, followed by the execution of the plan.

Part of this is understanding that this plan is probably going to be an ever-changing plan. Because, as you focus on the first one, the intelligence, and your knowledge grows, and you may change your plan a little bit, so that you are, you are working smarter, not harder.

So, implementation is extremely important in developing where you are going and how you are going to get there. But also, along the way, how you are going to make the adjustments that you need to in order to be successful.

The next I is investment.

The first thing you need to do is invest your time. Both in your intelligence and implementation, but then also just doing the work.

It is important to understand that time is probably your most important commodity. And it is essential that you are using your time wisely.

First, you must understand that the health and wellness does require an investment of your time. And that is both doing activities to support the plan, but also gaining the knowledge and applying the plan.

It is important to understand that one of the investments is time.

Next is an investment in your education. We already talked a bit about increasing your intelligence, but maybe there is an online course or a book or something like that that you can invest in to actually help improve your circumstances. Therefore, increasing that intelligence. But you really got to be willing to invest in yourself.

Another example, investment is basically buy the right running shoes. And what I mean by that is, you don't necessarily mean you have to go out running but buy the tools that are going to support you.

So, if you want to lift weights to make sure you have the ability to lift weights by a membership to a gym or something like that, but you really need the right tools to be successful.

So, invest in those right tools.

The next investment is the right food.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where really the most inexpensive food items are probably the unhealthiest for us.

And so, the reality of it is we must be willing to invest in the right foods. So, whether it is fresh produce, high quality fruits or whatever it is you choose to partake. It is important that you are investing in high quality food.

Next, you may want to consider getting a doctor's appointment and having some lab test to, see if there are any deficiencies anywhere that need to be addressed. This is going to help you along the way. But again, that is an investment of your money and time.

Then, another great investment is getting a coach. The nice thing about coaches is they basically allow you to work smarter, not harder. They are going to be able to help provide you tools and kind of ways to overcome friction points or hardships. But also, they are going to help you see how to get to a certain point quicker.

So, investing in a coach is a great thing to do if you really want to get serious about your health and wellness.

The next item is what I say as “I am doing it.”

What I mean is often I hear people say, I can do, or I will do it. And it is really talking about a different mindset that you are doing it. People often say, “I am going to do it someday.” Well, there is not someday on the calendar.

And you need to take the attitude that “I am doing it.” Even on those days where you may not have gotten the results you want, understand, a big mental component of this is essential for your success. And constantly telling yourself, I am doing it, it is going to help you along the way.

So, that is an important kind of foundational principle that you gotta have the mind right. To do this and understand that it is not going to be fun and glamorous every day.

But there is going to be hard points.

And it is the, “I am doing this.” that is going to help you get through those.

So, remember, these are kind of the Four I’s of your health and wellness journey of intelligence implementation, investment, and I am doing it.

There is a little saying I have, and it goes, “We can stop the blame but embrace the pain and you will get the gain.”

And what that means, as long as you are blaming your circumstances on something outside of your control, then you are really not empowered to take control that.

So, if you are really focused on that, you are where you are at because of choices and behaviors that you have done. This doesn't mean you have done on the conscious level or have not done them without some type of reward mechanism.

But the reality is, once you take that ownership or stop the blame, then you are going to be empowered to be able to get where you want to go.

I would encourage you to remember that the I’s have it and that you have the ability to get there.

Remember the four I’s on health and wellness and remember you got it.

Thank you.

Kelly Cox MD, FACEP

Member, American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine