There is a saying concerning success that you may have heard that goes “The enemy of great is not bad. The enemy is good”. In other words, choosing to settle for good performance will keep you from greatness. This paradigm has been applied to business, athletics, and competition of all sorts but I believe that a similar notion applies to health.

If the enemy of great is good, then the enemy of feeling great is feeling ok.  

When we are sick or unhealthy, in any form, be it mentally, physically, or spiritually, we become fixated with our condition and the pain associated with it. When our ailments are chronic and fester over years, we can lose sight of what feeling well is actually like. Ill is our norm so when we do experience a positive change, we settle for it. Feeling “ok” trumps feeling “bad” so we accept it and never get to experience feeling “Great”.

This habit of settling for “feeling ok” takes many forms. We take a pharmaceutical to dull the pain while our condition remains. We diet long enough to lose a few pounds but do not develop long-term healthy habits. We cut treatment short after a little progress is made. By accepting “ok” we do not carry on with improving our health and deprive ourselves of the important, meaningful, change that we could achieve if we had set the bar at “feeling great” and were unwilling to compromise. 

This year, I encourage you to look for the areas where you may be settling and recognize that the cost of doing so is missing out on something great.