Health - Your Purpose

Being healthy is a state of mind. A state of mind that can quickly enter a loop of virtue. One that allows you to continuously work on improving your mind, body, and soul. Allow me to explain how. Before I do, we need to define what these terms mean.

Being healthy means being free of disease and symptoms. You do not suffer from hypertension or indigestion. Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular risk, hypothyroidism, etc. You also do not suffer from coughs, colds, allergies, the occasional flu, itching, insomnia, etc.—or at the very least, it is so infrequent that it does not matter.

It may sound like a dream outcome, something beyond our reach. But the journey to good health has to, by definition, start with us being open to the possibility that it is possible.

In the words of Nelson Mandela, "It always seems impossible until it is done."

So, what would it take to believe that such a thing is possible? Let me use an analogy from running. In 1954, Roger Bannister ran a mile in under 4 minutes. I take 10, just for the record. No one had ever run so fast before, at least not in recorded history. As of June 2022, 1755 athletes had run a mile in under 4 minutes. It took one person to show the way, and then suddenly many believed. 6,338 people have summited Everest since Tenzing and Hillary did in 1953, barely a year before Bannister ran the 4-minute mile. Human beings are very good at emulating others.

I showcase statistics from difficult feats only because they are rare. But our goal is not lofty; it is to not be sick. Let us at least be open to the possibility that it could be done. We have plenty of evidence of people who have lived a long, healthy, disease-free life; park the reason they got there for a second. We may argue whether they lived to be 110 or 100 because the birth records were not accurate, but if you meet them, they are healthy; that is not in doubt.

Next, we need to solve for relative importance. How important is health to you? As my father said, the purpose of your life is to be happy. But surely the purpose of your life is first to be healthy? You already know it is hard to be happy when you are not healthy. A person suffering from fatigue, indigestion, crippling pain, or insomnia can put on a brave face, but it is hard to be happy in such a state. So the purpose of your life has to be to be healthy, first. I don't know of any good arguments against

Next, let us deal with whether this is applicable to you. Are you that one exception that the world will deny good health? Again, facts and statistics can help. The human body renews itself all the time. It makes 5 million new cells every second. It renews its stomach lining, the lining of its arteries, its muscles, its bones—everything bar a few. So if you are constantly renewing, there is no reason why you should be the chosen one to be in poor health.

Next, let us look at the difficulty. Is this some daredevil feat where you must leap over mountains to be the chosen one? Actually, the science has been well discovered. It has been used by many with great outcomes. Millions across the world could not have done so if it were so hard.

So where is the catch? The catch is simply that we have been seduced into thinking that it is not possible. It is far easier to pop pills, undergo surgery, or do worse. Don't get me wrong. If you need a surgegy, then by all means get one. However, the statement that surgery is unavoidable is not necessarily true. We have been seduced into thinking that life is meant to be lived—to make merry, to sit back on the beach and chug on that bottle of beer. When you can do that, you have arrived. But what is the fun of drinking the beer and then being unable to walk back to your room? 

So once again, in the words of Nelson Mandela, "It always seems impossible until it is done."

Good health is your purpose. Do not stop till you transform the way you live to get there.