Health precedes performance
Please think of any performance that is important to you. For example, The way you interact with your best friend, your relationship with your partner, the targets you are aiming for at work, the way you age, or the physical performance you are training for.
Just pick one.
Would you be able to perform the way you want in case you are not healthy? In case you are sick, injured, or hurt?
Therefore, it makes sense to try to prevent getting sick, injured, or hurt. To limit your exposure to toxins and viruses. To consider if and which bacteria you want to be exposed to. To limit risk factors. To create an environment you can survive in and maintain mental health while you are at it. To maintain balance. And it makes sense to -if you get sick, injured, or hurt- react and recover to your baseline as fast as you can.
Looking at health merely as not being sick only gets you so far. I’m willing to bet you could perform even better if you were a little more than healthy. Healthy-plus.
That would require a different outlook on health and performance. You would not aim to maintain your current balance; you would aim to challenge that balance and create a new, better, bigger, more capable, healthier equilibrium. Knowing that stress and change to that equilibrium are inevitable, you would be proactive to be as prepared as you can be for whatever is to come.
You would look for ways to influence the degree to which your immune system works. You would not only limit risk factors but turn them into strengths. You would create an environment in which you can thrive and mentally aim to flourish.
It would require different knowledge, different skills, and a different approach to infinitely keep improving physical health, mental health, and the environment you live in.
Greg Glassman defined his sickness-wellness-fitness continuum in 2002 on page 3 of his “What is Fitness” article. But as far back as 1979, Aaron Antonovsky published his work on salutogenesis. He explored what contributes to health, as opposed to the rest of the medical world, which has been exploring what contributes to disease.
This approach to health and performance is not new. But it is a massive contrast from most of the current medical world. Health care -taking care of your health and your performance in all aspects of life- is now something you can always work on.
