Health Is The New Wealth, Are You Well-thy?
No matter how successful you are and how much money you have in the bank, without good health you will be ill equipped to enjoy your riches and achievements.
Recent surveys show a trend towards preventative health and the maintenance of good health. Values have shifted and where once acquisition of possessions was seen as the symbol of wealth, nowadays the trappings associated with health are becoming a bigger status symbol.
Green juice, for example, is seen as a signaling of wealth, status, and discipline, and displaying the accoutrements of good health is being viewed as more important than the accumulation of expensive cars, houses, jewels, and other material “toys.”
It has been shown that consumers are more interested in staying fit and healthy than they are in paying for health care once they have become sick. They are willing to pay a higher price for products and services, which will keep them fit and well.
So rather than looking at dollars in your bank, why not take a few minutes to assess your own fitness level and see how “well-thy” you truly are…
The areas you need to look at in order to assess your health include the following:
- Diet
- Exercise
- Relaxation
- Mental Wellness
- Leisure and Fun
- Community
- Relationships
- Spirituality
- Finances
Take a look at the following questions and answer them by giving yourself a rating of 1-10 for each one.
Question 1: Diet
On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1= not at all and 10=extremely, how healthy is your diet?
Question 2: Exercise
On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1=not at all and 10=excellent (5 to 7 times a week), how good is your exercise regime?
Question 3: Relaxation
On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1=never and 10=daily, how much priority do you place on relaxation?
Question 4: Mental Wellness
On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1=very poor and 10=excellent, please rate your mental health?
Question 5: Leisure and Fun
On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1=very little and 10=plenty, how much leisure and fun are you having?
Question 6: Community
On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1= very little and 10=plenty, how much do you connect with a community where you feel you belong?
Question 7: Relationships
On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1= very poor and 10=excellent, please rate a) your relationship with yourself and b) your relationship with your significant other?
Question 8: Spirituality
On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1= very poor and 10=excellent, please rate your relationship with your spirituality?
Question 9: Finances
On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1= very poor and 10=excellent, how healthy are your finances?
Results
With this simple self-assessment tool you can easily see the areas of your life where you are truly “well-thy” and those where you perhaps are a little “poor.”
- If you scored, 7 or more you are doing pretty well and can feel proud of yourself.
- In the areas where you scored 5 or less you might want to take a closer look.
- If you scored lower than a 3 on any area, it indicates that you really should take a closer look, and focus on some strategies for improvement in that area.
Even though you may be very successful in your corporate career and be absolutely loaded with the big bucks, if your relationships consistently suck or your blood pressure is too high and you are constantly running on overdrive, with a heart attack looming unless you lose fifty pounds, you might want to think about how wealthy you really are!
Perhaps as a society, we are starting to cotton on to the truly valuable things in life. Who knows, maybe we will follow the example set us by the Danes, and learn to measure our contentment and happiness by the level of “hygge” in our environment.
Hygge is something quintessentially Danish which has them being favored as the most contented people in the world. It comes from the word “hug” and is a quality of coziness and togetherness they are masters at creating.
Alternatively, we might get on board with the forward thinking Buddhist nation, Bhutan, who uses a Gross National Happiness quota rather than a Gross Domestic Product quota. Now that’s the true measure of prosperity!
