“To get rich never risk your health. For it is the truth that health is the wealth of wealth.”
– Richard Baker
When I was in my twenties, I paid a visit to my primary care doctor maybe once a year, never really giving thought to my health, and always assuming that as long as I felt good, I would always be healthy. Like so many young people, my focus was on my career, and how I could achieve a financial status that would guarantee a rich lifestyle for my young and growing family. I spent a number of years working to attain advanced degrees in pursuit of higher levels of advancement, sacrificing time with my young family, and paying little heed to my personal health. While I found success in achieving many of my goals, I began to realize how my long hours away from my family impacted my overall health and well-being. After the birth of my second son, I realized the need to slow down and seek a path that would lead to a better life/work balance.
As I adjusted to this new path, I realized as Greg Anderson states, that “wellness is the complete integration of body, mind, and spirit – the realization that everything we do, think, feel, and believe has an effect on our state of well-being.” During a seven-year period from my late twenties into my mid-thirties, I found a better and healthier balance to my life as I realized that my true happiness came from being with those that I loved, and with that knowledge, I realized that my personal health played a critical role in how well I could serve the best interests of my family. I began to pay more attention to my health and developed a pattern of seeing my primary care doctor as well as other specialists who I have come to depend on as I have moved through my fifties, sixties and now early seventies. While I have, over the years experienced the effects of aging, I have experienced good health as I have worked with my doctors, following their recommendations, in order to further my time with my family, my friends and in my role as an elected official.
I have learned that this body of mine is the only one I have to live in, and that as Arnold Schopenhauer states, “The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.” While my calendar contains dates of all my doctor’s visits, I know I am taking a more realistic view of life than the young man I was in my twenties; life is precious, and my health is critical to my overall happiness.