Invest In Your Wellness For Your Future
“The Ant & The Grasshopper”
An Aesop Fable that I remember as a child is “The Ant & The Grasshopper”. The setting is a late Fall day. A grasshopper with a violin approaches a group of ants that are harvesting the grains they collected all summer, preparing for the winter. The grasshopper is hungry and begs the ants for food. When the ants question the grasshopper’s position of not having anything stored, the grasshopper says: "I didn't have time to store up any food”, "I was so busy making music that before I knew it the summer was gone."
The moral of the story is “There is a time for work and time for play”. But, what if we can build upon the foundation of the moral for use in modern wellness terms? What if we can find the enjoyment and “play” in gathering our sustenance now, so that we can also enjoy the future?
Find the enthusiasm and enjoyment in nourishing your self now to store the resources your body needs to harvest for the future.
Nourish. Grow. Harvest.
“I want to grow old AND healthy”.
This statement is from one of my clients during a session about the value of nutrition and physical activity as it relates to aging and enjoying her retired years.
Growing up in our American culture as a child it was widely accepted that certain milestones in life existed:
Attend grade school until age 18
Attend college until age 22 (or start working after high-school)
Get a job, work and save for retirement until age 65
Retire at age 65 (hopefully in good health)
Enjoy your retired life after age 65 until end of life
The average life expectancy in the U.S. is 78 years old. (76 years for men and 81 years for women). Of the leading causes of death for U.S. adults aged 65+, almost 50% are influenced directly by nutrition-related factors (i.e. heart disease). [Personal Nutrition. “The Life Cycle: Conception Through The Later Years”. Marie Boyle].
During the time period between graduating high school/college and retiring, there are 43 to 47 years of time on Earth. We fill up that time with achieving more “milestones” (perhaps getting married, children, pets, vacations, work achievements and promotions, acquiring and accumulating material items). What if we could spend those 43 to 47 years intentionally focusing on wellness (nutrition, physical activity and mindset) and making conscious choices in our decisions surrounding our well-being?
Investing time and attention to your health and wellness is equally as important as investing in your financial future.
Where Do We Spend Our Time?
According to a Bureau of Labor Statistics American Time Use Survey in 2021 , those that worked spent 7.8 hours per day working outside of the home (5.6 hours working from home), 2.2 hours (men) - 2.7 hours (women) per day on household activities. Watching TV was the “leisure and sport activity” that occupied the most time (2.9 hours per day), accounting for over half of all leisure time!
It is no secret that we live our lives “pressed for time”: work commitments, family life, socializing. Vacation time is a sought after commodity in most cases. At the end of the day, our leisure time is cherished.
Can you make time to enjoy a wellness-led life while working to secure your future? Consider the value of investing in your well-being now and how that can set up your future to truly enjoy the golden years.
It is not about work-life balance. It is about work-life integration.
Let’s go back to our friends, The Ant & The Grasshopper. The Grasshopper was busy enjoying life and playing music (“play”). The Ant was busy nourishing grain crops and preparing to harvest before winter (“work”). Making lifestyle changes is work indeed. It takes planning, patience and perseverance.
Challenge: Think about ways to integrate wellness into your daily life and make space in those 43 to 47 years before retirement to nourish your body and mind for LIFE.
Stay fit and green!
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