I want to be healthy - and work to improve my health. Yet this concept of biological health lacks an essential quality of what makes life good. The world health organization wanted to capture this quality in an International Classification of Functioning.
“what matters to people about their health is not merely these biological processes but also the concrete impact on their daily lives: what they can do and be, the actions they perform and the life goals and aspirations they can achieve.”
Jerome Bickenbach, Human Functioning: Developments and Grand Challenges
What I like about this definition of health and functioning is that it focuses on how humans are - their sense of being and includes their sense of becoming through their actions.
What Functioning Isn’t
Unfortunately, I’ve encountered moments of time where I’ve felt that I’ve been doing things that are dysfunctional - activities that if sustained long enough would lead to the reduction of my health and well being. One of those “moments” felt like adolescence, where I struggled to find meaning and purpose in life.
I developed a few bad habits in the Pandemic - one of them could be called doom scrolling. I would scroll through video’s and social media. The intention was to relax for a few minutes, see what the people I know are up to - and 6 - 8 hours later I was still scrolling. This practice - with the illusion of being social still left me feeling isolated, unproductive, and depressed.
What shocked me as I attempted to engage in healthier routines and activities was the addictive qualities of disfunction - it almost seems like there’s a system pulling me into distraction and less life improving behaviors.
Training The Sustain
How do we improve our functioning? It might not be true that there’s a system of engineered distractions, and economic, environmental, and social structures that are designed to limit/slow/cap your human functioning - but for a moment lets create a straw argument that there is some force that makes it difficult for people to function at their best all the time. Therefore to be a functioning human we need to overcome this resistance to engaging in life affirming and life improving behaviors and states of being.
Based on life experience - the practice of building good habits is easy to want, challenging to start, and in the beginning very very difficult to sustain through the process of replacing other more addictive habits that are already in place.
Train With!
I know it’s possible to bootstrap things. I did most of my training for my first Toughmudder alone. I know it’s possible, and I know it’s very challenging to start a new eating habit, exercise habit, all while doing your own research and questioning what’s the best way to do this. My second Toughmudder was much easier to train for. A friend asked me to train with her. It made it easier to do things on the day’s I didn’t feel like it because I felt responsible not just for my own training but for the example I was setting for my competitive friend.
I saw pictures of the healthy meal she was enjoying and that improved my nourishment game that day. On they day of the event - we framed success as crossing the starting line. We both got minor injuries in the race and found a way to continue on to the finish line. Training and racing with another person felt like a positive force supporting my human functioning, a social force assisting in overcoming external resistance, and a person to share the accomplishment and stories with.
The How?
I remember a time when I was living under a stack of dysfunctional perspectives, beliefs, and behaviors. If someone told me that life could be better and easier just by practicing good things with other people - my unvoiced response would be Yeah Right (Filled with sarcasm). Because of my limiting mindset - I blocked out that people might want to do some of the hard things I wanted to do with me.
Is it possible that there are people out there that could make things worse for you? Yes. Thus look for giving people that demonstrate their caring for others in ways that you can observe. Then just ask. I want to feel healthier and get this life thing going a little better, would you be open to training with me? Maybe join me in a workout, or read a book with me so we can chat about it?
Find a big enough challenge that you feel inspired - to be that. Example: I want to be a writer - what if I could publish 52 articles in Substack - I want to be that guy. Map out a few different ways you can approach being that person and break it down into little things you can do every day or every week.
Plan to get back on track. Life comes up, things happen, when you are starting a new practice or sustaining an old one you might get pushed off the good habit creation practice. What are 5 to 1000 ways you can begin again and continue to improve your life, and just be more of the person you want to be.
I don’t like debt, but I would love to be able to give a loan of confidence to my younger self. The knowledge that beyond many of the things that seem to suck right now, you will figure out enough of the basics to create moments - that make life worthwhile. And no, you don’t stop growing and being challenged by life, but you do find it easier to do more of the good things.