Introduction
"High performance living" can teach you how to stay healthy and prevent illness. The ten-part approach is based on prevention and teaches you to focus on your body and mind to achieve balance and well being - the exact opposite of the stressful, undesirable lifestyle of burnout, fatigue and disease. The key to good health and disease prevention is a strong immune system. Emotional stress, addictions, negative thinking, poor nutrition, depression and self-abusive behaviors actually degenerate and destroy your immune system. Reversing and preventing these blows to your health will strengthen and maintain your immune system so it can properly prevent and fight diseases, from the potentially fatal to the common cold. All ten rules of these rules support your vital immune system.
Rule One: Simplify Your Life
Simplifying your life begins with knowing how to recognize what has the greatest value to you. Then you can address and meet your needs and create a balanced, purposeful lifestyle. Remove clutter and confusion from your life, so you can come to know yourself, your needs and your priorities. This beginning is so important because - in the process of removing unhealthy elements from your life - you can come to terms with the emotional distractions, fears, weaknesses and stumbling blocks that devalue your life. Enriching your quality of life sets the stage for lasting wellness. Choose between simplification and self-abuse. That sounds drastic, but it’s true. Opt for simplification so you don’t find yourself mired in stress and unnecessary complications, which will compromise your health and well being.
“Stress is the lack of harmony between you and what is happening in your life.”
The benefits of simplifying your life also include attuning yourself to your real feelings and thoughts, discovering what you love to do, determining what is right for you and taking responsibility for your circumstances.
Rule Two: Lighten Up Your Life
The opposite of lightening up your life is wearing the heaviness of stress that strains your mind, leads to fatigue and burnout, harms your immune system and erodes your health. The keys to lightening up include balancing fulfillment and stress, preventing and coping with stressful situations, relaxation (passive, creative and active) and nurturing yourself.
Rule Three: Take Charge of Your Life
Taking charge of your life means "taking command" of your thoughts, intentions, actions and deeds; in other words, becoming the "captain of your destiny." You have choices. Taking charge is practical and goal-oriented. Develop a healthy and positive belief system and then act based on those principles. Your belief system is tied directly to your immune system. Positive belief systems enhance your health; negative ones destroy your health.
Rule Four: Acquire the Habit of Happiness
Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States, understood how important this issue is to well being when he proclaimed that every American should have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Happiness is invigorating, inspiring and energizing. Depression, anxiety and unhappiness drain your life. Positive emotions are necessary for the optimal function of your mind and body. Sound, consistent emotional living makes happiness a reality. The essence of emotional consistency is having the courage to acknowledge and act upon your emotional convictions. This helps build self-confidence and emotional self-reliance. It also moves emotional truth on the top of your priority list.
Rule Five: Cleanse Your Body Regularly
In with the good, out with the bad. Strengthen your immune system and rejuvenate your metabolism by releasing physical and emotional toxins from your body.
Rule Six: Maintain Nutritional Balance
Nutritional balance builds and maintains a strong immune system, which in turn fortifies your body’s healing power and its ability to prevent disease. Follow a nutritionally balanced, health-promoting eating plan so you know what to eat and what not to eat. Take vitamins and other nutritional supplements. Given the level of stress and environmental toxicity in today’s world, an antioxidant supplement is vital.
Rule Seven: Develop the Habit of Physical Fitness
Physical fitness is the key to more energy, higher spirits, improved digestion, stamina, a functioning immune system and an efficient metabolism, a healthy heart and countless other healthy barometers. Regular exercise is also an effective antidote to emotional and physical stress. Determine your level of physical fitness and create a program tailored to your needs.
Rule Eight: Heal Your Soul
Your soul is the spirit within your body. The light of that soul is the creative, life-giving energy vibrating and circulating within you. The Chinese call this energy chi; the Japanese call it gi and in the medical and spiritual tradition of India it’s called prana. The power of your soul gives you strength, drive and inner wisdom. Healing your soul means recognizing and being true to yourself, standing up for what you believe in, having a purposeful and balanced lifestyle, finding creative self-expression and having faith in your abilities and dreams. Peace of mind is the by-product of a healthy soul and the key ingredient for a healthy body and mind.
Rule Nine: Define Your Purpose in Life
Your purpose is your identity; it’s what means the most to you. Your purpose in life feeds your health and well being and sets the stage for happiness. Your purpose is "the invisible cement that keeps your ambition in harmony with your destiny." From a practical standpoint, it is the target of all your intentions, the fuel for your determination. Your purpose cannot and should not be defined by anyone but you. Each person has more than one purpose. Purposeful living is simply defined as "being the best at being yourself." Without being in touch with your purpose, you can’t sustain health, happiness or well being. To help you define your purpose (or purposes), ask yourself the following questions:
- What is missing in your life?
- What means more to you than anything else in your life?
- In what area of life do you want to make a difference, more than any other?
- What, more than anything else, do you want to do with your precious life?
- How would you prefer to spend the majority of your time?
- Do you wake up each morning with love in your heart, feeling enthusiastic and excited about a new day? If not, why?
- If you were a millionaire and money was no object, how would you spend your time?
- How would you spend the next six to nine months if you were told you only had that much longer to live?
- What do you live for? What is your cause?
- What are you trying to get people to understand?
- What are the passions in your life?
Rule Ten: Balance Your Lifestyle
Your lifestyle is the way you choose to live your life:
- How you spend your time;
- Your values and priorities;
- Your beliefs, attitudes and consciousness;
- Your creativity and personal resources;
- The manifestation of how you see life.
“The pursuit of wealth, power, technological efficiency, prosperity, financial security and corporate or personal achievement has created so much stress that the great majority of Americans over age 35 are struggling. They are either experiencing burnout, overload, confusion in their primary love relationships, or going through breakdowns in their family life.”
Your lifestyle is your "most obvious form of self-expression." It is also a measure of your pace of living. A balanced, meaningful lifestyle is the key to wellness and high performance. Your lifestyle is also a measure of your self-care. Does your lifestyle nourish or harm your mind, your body, your emotions and spirit? You have an inner lifestyle and an outer one. To determine the strengths and weaknesses of your lifestyle, ask yourself the following questions:
- How many hours a day do you spend playing or having fun?
- How much time do you spend at work? Do you have a work-related lifestyle?
- How much time do you spend at home with your family, loved ones or friends?
- How much time do you devote each day to yourself?
- How much time do you budget each day for keeping yourself healthy and fit?
- How often do you relax and for how long?
Creating a High Performance Life
The determining factors that lead you to create a high performance life are how much you value your own self-worth, how much you value your privacy and how much you value your freedom. Building the optimal lifestyle begins with imagining what is ideal for you at home, work and play. Begin by asking yourself the following questions:
- What are the highest principles in your life?
- What are the qualities you want in a soul mate?
- What do you want to say with your life? What do you want to accomplish?
- What qualities do you want to be known for?
- What price are you willing to pay for good health and daily happiness? Are you willing to give up pain, suffering and negativity? What brings you the greatest happiness?
- What are you ready to commit to?
- What kind of work do you find most satisfying?
- What are your priorities? Put them in order.
“The opposite of keeping it light is to wear the heaviness of emotional stress. This heaviness burdens the heart, weighs down the spirit, strains the mind and dulls the senses. Emotional distress leads to burnout and fatigue. It is destructive to your immune system and erodes your health.”
To create a balanced, high performance lifestyle in which you are healthy and happy, you must first accept that you have the power to do so. Then, keep it simple, keep it light and you can overcome any obstacles that you intend to conquer. Try the following formula:
- Know who you are by being introspective and honest.
- Determine the highest priorities in your life.
- Make a full commitment to those priorities.
- Take the responsibility for realizing your priorities.
- Size up your lifetime goals and be specific.
- Outline your ideal lifestyle.
- Set up your lifetime goals and be specific.
- Harmonize your priorities with your goals.
- Become determined to overcome obstacles in a creative manner.
“Blocked feelings can also create uncomfortable stress levels in your target organs.”
Health, well being and happiness are not isolated from one another. Each affects your ability to attain the other. How many miserable people are truly healthy? How many unhealthy people feel a sense of well being and peace? How often have you heard the phrase, "my job (or friends, spouse, project or any other circumstance) is making me sick?" Your lifestyle is intertwined with your health and well being. Problems in one area will manifest in other areas. High performance living is for everyone, not just athletes, driven CEOs or other high-powered individuals. High performance is not about pushing your body or mind to ridiculous extremes, it’s about living your life the best way you can based on what’s important to you.