I see the healthy repeatedly follow a powerful but nebulous health law that the unhealthy ignore. William James hints of the law in his book, The Principles of Psychology:
"Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day. That is, be systematically ascetic or heroic in little unnecessary points, do every day or two something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test."
The law can be said in other ways. When I worked as a chemist, we would have labeled it one of the laws of thermodynamics. Things tend to go toward a state of more disorder. It takes energy and effort to keep your house clean and your body healthy. It's the reason you can't build a perpetual motion machine. It's the reason you can't cool your kitchen by opening the refrigerator door. And, it's the reason you can not enjoy prolonged good health without effort.
By enduring pain now, no...not just enduring, but seeking constructive ways to do what you 'd rather not do--in this way you avoid more pain later. Here's another quote from James:
"No matter how full a reservoir of Maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if one have not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one's character may remain entirely unaffected for the better. With mere good intentions, hell is proverbially paved."
No matter what health principles you know, of course you will not be healthy if you do not act. Notice the focus of James on the baby step: "a little gratuitous effort" once every day or two. By practicing in this way, you'll find yourself wanting to do what was forced last week and forcing yourself to do what you thought impossible last year.
The body adapts to gradual change. But even gradual change (though less painful than the abrupt) requires persistent daily effort at something you'd rather not do. Summed in one word, this principle could be called "fight."
Wake up and fight and do one good thing for your health and fight a little battle to get it done. Fight the battle every day for a week or two--a battle you'd rather run from. Don't worry if the rest of the day you live as a riotous savage. The next day come back and do again the something you'd rather not. The momentum and health from that one thing will eventually prepare a step to launch you into your next battle.
Important: The "one thing" done every day or two should be something done (not the avoidance of something). Let the good crowd out the bad and let the battles be for the good substitute not for the avoidance of your weakness.
Example: The one thing might be to walk 10 minutes. It should not be to smoke one less cigarette or to quit smoking.
Not doing leaves a vacuum that waits to be filled with more of the same or with something worse. Doing something good crowds out the bad. In relation to the above example, I've never seen a 3-mile-per-day person continue to smoke. Eventually the person either quits walking or quits smoking.
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peace and health,
Charles Runels, MD
charles@runels.com
