It takes the average shoppers less than a minute to make a purchase online. Amazon serial shoppers, for instance, can even complete several purchases in 60 seconds. You can easily click your way to self-improvement, whether you’re buying beauty, fashion, or hobby products. From the moment you click to buy, your mind begins to imagine how your new item will make your life better, even if you haven’t received it yet.
Perhaps, in a world where everything is readily available at the click of a button, we’ve grown too impatient for long-term improvements. When it only takes a change of outfit to enhance your appearance or some smart contouring and styling tricks to sharpen your look, it seems that the human body is missing a “health reset” button. Where do you press to change and boost your health journey?
You can’t change your health overnight
Ultimately, we have to be honest with ourselves. As much as we want to take back control of our body, most of the time, health complaints are the result of a long process. The body doesn’t change overnight. Whether you are unhappy with your fitness levels or even your weight, the things you complain about didn’t arise suddenly. They result from bad habits, prolonged stress, or permanent routines that can gradually change your body and immune system. Because nothing changes quickly, nothing can go back to “normal” – or to a level you are more comfortable with – quickly either. It would put too much pressure on yourself.
You can introduce a long-term plan
Making changes in your health takes time. But, impatience is only one of the issues you will face when you embark on a health improvement journey. Unfortunately, impatience feeds into your motivation levels, which means the more impatient you get, the less motivated you are. Perhaps, the key to making dramatic health improvements sustainable in the long term is not to focus on the result but to consider the journey. Small, manageable, and accessible steps can break down a huge health project into a month-by-month plan, for instance. Working your way through unique milestones as you progress takes the pressure away from monitoring your achievements. As Buddha says, “You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself”. By switching your focus from meeting your goals to making your health journey possible, you remove the worries about slow progress.
They are quick solutions but with prolonged dedication
Making slow progress doesn’t mean you can’t find quick solutions. On the contrary, there are solutions available that can make health improvements easier and more effective. Do they speed up the results? To a certain extent, they do, but there are no magic spells. For instance, if weight loss is a source of worry, the Bariatric Experts advise considering bariatric surgery. However, they warn that while the surgery will contribute to more effective results, it can only support your efforts. You are not going to be successful in losing weight through a gastric bypass if you don’t stick to a healthy routine that is specifically designed for the surgery.
Everything is changing all the time, but you don’t notice
Regardless of your health goals, changes are constantly happening. Someone who’s introduced workouts to their routine is unlikely to drop a dress size overnight. However, that doesn’t mean the new workout regime does not affect the body. On the contrary, your body responds to lifestyle improvements positively, even if it doesn’t display at first the results you expect. A narrow-minded approach in tracking results will only be counterproductive. But suppose you’ve got your eyes on the number on the scale only. In that case, you’re missing other positive transformations that signal health improvements too: an increase in energy levels, feeling happier and more relaxed, becoming more stress-resilient, better sleep, etc.
Let’s not forget that our bodies are fantastic machines
Why doesn’t the body move in the direction you need quickly? It’s unfair to compare the time your body needs to respond to the time it takes Amazon to deliver your life improvements orders. The human body is constantly regenerating its cells. Your liver cells are replaced every 300 days. Your internal intestinal cells are replaced every 16 years. Your skeleton is replaced every 10 years. The human body never stops working, and as such, you have to account for this as you transform your health. The body can’t drop internal processes to put your changes first.
Is it in human nature to be impatient? We have created a world for ourselves in which we expect to achieve a result at the click of a button. It can be humbling to be reminded, from time to time, that the human body has its own pace and process. Our fast-paced society promotes a constant stream of communication and digital transformations. But, listening to our bodies could become the coping mechanism that keeps us grounded and anchored.