How Important Is Your Health to You?
I want to close this chapter with a story about a client I once had who found a way to make exercise work.
For the sake of anonymity we will call her Jane. Jane was a massage therapist who didn't make a whole lot of money. In addition to her massage therapy she spent time as a waitress in the evening and on weekends to help make ends meet. She was not married, so didn't have a second income in the household.
She was approaching her 50th birthday and had been active in the past but couldn't be consistent with it. Knowing that she wasn't getting any younger she wanted to stay active with some consistency. But to do it on her own was too difficult.
Since she was a massage therapist at a local health club she was fortunate to receive free membership at the club. Certainly this was a great fringe benefit. With this benefit, cost was not an issue; however, getting motivated to exercise was. She thought about hiring a personal trainer but knew it would cost her over $20 a session. But, if she wanted to be consistent she knew she would have to work out with a trainer at least two times per week. This would cost her over $160 a month. In her mind she thought that would be too difficult to handle.
After a lot of thought and prioritizing she agreed to hire a personal trainer. She worked out twice a week every week for nearly three years. She made some fantastic improvements in her strength, stamina, body composition and overall health. In fact, she had her bone density measured and it was 110% of the norm for a woman her age! It changed her life.
The point I want to make with this story is that she found a way to pay for the services of a personal trainer. Instead of spending all her tip money from massage therapy and the restaurant, she put it in a jar to save for her training sessions. She paid each week with cash. I'm sure it took Jane some discipline to save the money; however, it was well worth it.
You can't put a price tag on your health. Most people don't realize how valuable it is until it's gone. The thought of making a few adjustments in your spending habits seems trivial compared to difficulties faced when your health is falling apart due to neglect.
Henry Ford said, "The highest use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money do more for the betterment of life." Most likely Ford was talking about the money used to build cars that would ultimately improve the quality of life. Which it did! However, you can take this quote another way by thinking how you can spend money on an exercise program to improve the quality of your life.
Take a few minutes today and see where you can save a few dollars that can be spent towards a life-changing exercise program.
