MPI: Health
By Adam Radly [6 minute read]
Since writing the book, I Imagine, one of the most common topics for discussion has been physical health. However, although a healthy body is critical, a “healthy body” and a “healthy life” are not the same thing.
The whole point of the MPI Lifewall is to highlight what needs to be addressed for us to move further along the happiness continuum.
However, the interesting thing that a lot of people miss when they look at their lifewall is the common denominator across all of the lifewall elements – improving any one them will have a positive impact on your health. In the meantime, the healthier you are, the more progress you will make with each lifewall element. Therefore, this can become an upward spiral or a downward spiral.
Spirals, by definition, cause numerous unintended consequences. We do one thing that causes another which, in turn, causes another. We can usually only predict two or three steps ahead but, in reality, the initial action may trigger 100 important steps and 1,000 less important steps. This is why “momentum” is important. We instinctively know that it is difficult to turn things around. For example, people don’t overeat for one reason. There are many reasons – all of them contributing to the movement of the spiral in one direction.
One of the biggest weapons we can use to help turn things around is understanding the consequences of not doing it versus doing it. Remaining unhealthy isn’t something that just causes a few negative consequences and being healthy isn’t something that just triggers a few positive consequences.
The consequences in both directions are massive. There is much more at stake – both positive and negative – than we think.
Projecting much bigger positive and negative consequences and internalizing them can create the stop a downward spiral and turn it around.