Want to Live Longer? Then Say Goodbye to Getting Sick

Heart disease. Cancer. Depression. Anxiety. Diabetes. Obesity. These various forms of sickness are some of the major killers worldwide.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. I submit the idea that humanity is stronger than any sickness. And if we can conquer sickness, that opens up a whole world of possibilities, including living longer.

If you want to live longer, then say goodbye to getting sick.

You might be wondering how that’s even possible.

It’s simple, but it takes work.

You can be healthy if you eliminate the root cause of sickness. So, what is the root cause of sickness?

Sickness Has Been Accepted as a Natural Part of Life

Throughout my life, I’ve accepted the idea that sickness is inevitable. And I’ve seen that mindset with so many other people, too. That idea, that mindset, is the root cause of sickness.

Sickness starts in the mind as an idea. And if you or I don’t weed it out, it grows. And if we’re not careful, it chokes out the healthy ideas. It takes over and stays where it doesn’t belong.

What happens if you expect to get sick? You get sick.

What happens if you expect to stay sick? You stay sick.

What happens if other people expect you to get sick or stay sick? Most of the time, you probably play along with their expectations.

Imagine a world — this world, in fact — where health is accepted as a natural part of life. And where sickness is seen as the unnatural intruder that it is.

What If You Don’t Have to Get Sick?

You don’t have to get sick. It’s unnecessary and avoidable. And I’m saying this for my own sake as well.

I grew up in the province of Ontario in Canada, a two-day drive from Toronto. During a winter there, I worked in a retail department store as a teenager. And I had to bring shopping carts back inside. Canada is well-known for having cold weather, and that winter was no different.

Countless times, I went outside and brought shopping carts back into the store. Snow was already on the ground. And it was typically snowing whenever I had to bring in the shopping carts.

I didn’t wear a jacket or a coat or a sweater. I didn’t wear any headgear or gloves. I had a thin shirt and pants on. And that was enough.

Why? Because I knew it was.

I went out during snowfall, during freezing weather, and I was okay.

Now here’s the point of that story. I didn’t get sick at all that winter.

What? Under the sickness mindset, that’s the winter when it would have made the most sense for me to get sick.

Under the health mindset, I knew I wouldn’t get sick, so I didn’t.

Think back over your life. Have there been any times when it might have made sense for you to get sick, but you didn’t? Also, have there been any times when you recovered from sickness when it might have made sense for you not to get better?

Sometimes, you forgot where you showed yourself as unexpectedly healthy. Those times are worth remembering. They help demonstrate that you don’t have to get sick, and neither do I.

We are greater than any sickness if we live with a health mindset.

Some Trailblazers Are Leading the Way

I’ve heard of people running marathons, including Iron Man marathons, in their eighties and nineties. I’ve heard of people living well over 100 and being quite healthy. And I’ve heard of people like Wim Hof, the Ice Man, who seems to create a whole new category for what it means to be human.

Fortunately, we have these trailblazers around to lead the way. I’m grateful for the examples they provide and for the hope they give for what humanity can achieve. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that they have been the exception rather than the rule so far.

What would it take for there to be more trailblazers like them? The health mindset being so much more common than the sickness mindset. That’s what it would take.

Sickness isn’t inevitable. You aren’t helpless against it, and neither am I.

If we see that we can also be trailblazers for health, we start to make way for the health mindset and break free from the sickness mindset.

Imagine How Healthy You Can Be

You are a picture of health.

If that sounds strange or inaccurate, I admit that the idea can take some getting used to. But unless you see yourself that way, you won’t be healthy. At least not consistently.

What does health look like for you?

It could be any number of things. The absence of pain. The ability to endure pain. Plenty of energy whenever you’re awake. Physical strength. A specific body fat percentage. Looking much younger than your biological age. Being a certain weight. Restful, energizing sleep. Aging in reverse. Being as old as you are and still being alive. A positive mental attitude. Being grateful.

Think of what being healthy looks like for you. It could include items from the previous paragraph and other things as well. This is where you start applying the health mindset and implementing it now and for the rest of your life.

If you can see yourself as healthy, then you are healthy. It really can be that simple. Here is where you solve the root cause of sickness.

Replace sickness with health, first in your thoughts, then in your actions. Expect to be healthy, see yourself as healthy, and take the actions to be healthy. In many cases, you already know exactly what to do.

You are a picture of health.

Conclusion

In this post, I talked about the root cause of sickness, which is the sickness mindset. If you expect to get sick or stay sick, that’s exactly what you’ll do. You’ll get sick or stay sick.

Thankfully, there is a cure for the sickness mindset, and it’s the health mindset. If you expect to live longer and be healthy, however that looks for you, then you’ll live up to your expectations. You’ll live longer and be healthy.

By handling your mindset, you’re preparing to take action to increase your health. Besides that, another approach is simply to get started with taking the actions you know you need to take, and your mindset will catch up with your actions. As you take healthy actions, you will build your healthy mindset. And your healthy mindset will help you take healthy actions. It’s a beautiful self-perpetuating loop.

The right mindset and actions work together to help make you the best you can be.

If you don’t see yourself as healthy, then you won’t take the actions to ensure you are healthy. But if you see yourself as healthy, then you’ll make sure to prove your health mindset is accurate.

Creating your health mindset gives you a solid foundation for building the rest of your life.

And as I said earlier, you can build your health mindset even as you’re taking action to build your health. You can do both at the same time. Start small. Make sustainable changes in your life that will last. And you might notice that your healthy mindset and actions help strengthen each other.

Here’s what I recommend you do next: Create a vision for your entire life, including your health. You can download the free Life Vision template I include in my LifeBook Online Review. I include prompts in that review which can help you get detailed about your life vision. And once you’ve got your life vision in writing, you’ll have a clearer idea of what you’re aiming for. It helps to have that clarity in writing, which you can read daily. With that focus, you can create goals and habits for living your vision.

That’s some of what’s available when you say goodbye to getting sick.

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Until next time,

James Barnett