All In

Now, I know that cavemen did not formally gamble. They did not have casinos and poker chips, so a blog post titled "all in" might seem a little odd in the context of either caveman style living or health education, but bear with me. I do have a point to this analogy.

In fact, it could be said that cavemen gambled much more frequently than we do nowadays. All parts of the life of a caveman were an exercise in risk. Do I run from the predator, or try to hide? Do I risk going out into the open to gather food, or wait until a better time? Do I waste precious energy chasing down the deer, or do I just go with the easily gathered vegetables?

By comparison, the risks we take with our lives in today's society are fairly mild. Driving in a car is about the riskiest activity that most of us will undertake on a daily basis, and even driving is really quite safe. In the industrialized world, unless you serve in the military or live in the worst portions of the inner city, your life is infinitely safer than that of a caveman.

Ironically, the safer we get as a society, the less willing we are to take risks. We are unwilling to risk our lives, our money, and our social standing. In fact, we have gotten to the point where few people say anything controversial or take bold action because they are afraid to risk what they have.

The practical result of fear of risk is a kind of wishy-washiness, that forces people to take halfhearted action, then give up their course of action at the first sign of resistance. No great achievement can come out of this kind of action. Only commitment and bold action can lead to great achievement.

So, how does this apply to health, you might ask? Well, just like the caveman, the quality of your health and life depend on how committed you are. If the caveman decided to give up as soon as the search for food got hard, he would quickly starve to death. If he decided that hiding from the lion was just too much trouble, he would quickly have become lunch.

In modern society, we have the opposite problem. Obtaining food is easy, far too easy in most cases. To make the situation worse, the foods that are the easiest to obtain are the the worst for us. Thus, if we don't really commit to eating the right foods and follow the easy path, the result will be poor health, obesity, and chronic disease.

Similarly, with exercise, the easiest path nowadays is to get little or no physical activity. That was not an option in the past. Cavemen had no cars, planters, harvesters, or grocery stores. The search for food and safety was all consuming and HARD. Nothing short of complete dedication would get the job done.

One thing hasn't changed after all these years: if you want optimal health and wellness, as well as to avoid obesity and chronic disease, you will have to dedicate yourself completely. Like a poker player pushing their whole pile of chips into the pot, you will have to go all in with your health and wellness efforts.

Even if you go all in, I cannot promise that you will achieve every one of your goals. If you don't go all in however, and take the type of wishy washy action that most people take, I can promise that you will not. Any difficult achievement requires both passion and commitment, and nothing worth having is easy. So if you really want something, and this goes for anything in life, not just your health, stir up your passion and commit fully to the effort. You will be amazed at the results!

M. Jacob Ott, M.D.