Facing challenges and limitations

Getting my physical health back on track (again)

How do you approach long-term challenges and limitations? I’ve been thinking about this in my life again recently. I have been dealing with a painful degenerative back condition for the last 18 months or so. It has become this undercurrent in my life, impacting so many areas and yet not being the main focus. It’s there. It’s not going away. It’s a limitation. And yet I still find myself struggling to establish habits that would be helpful.

Facing challenges and limitations gives us great insight into how we are really going with leading ourselves well. As I look back over the years, I see a range of responses. Ignoring the issue and hoping it will go away on its own. Trying to power through, assuming it will just take more hard work and the right strategies to eliminate the limitation. Wallowing in self-pity and giving up. Allowing myself to grieve, rest and take small steps towards change. Seeing the blessing contained in the limitation. Sometimes it is all of the above within the same week!

This back condition is another reminder of the importance of my physical health in my leadership and relationships. I come back to Jo Saxton’s words- “You only have one body and your leadership lives in it.” I want to be capable of doing the things that are important to me and that I feel called to do.

While there is much beyond my control, I can have a significant impact through the everyday choices I make. The discipline and consistency I need to see improvement in this area are directly related to the ways I struggle to show up in the ways I lead and relate to others. I know from experience that gaining discipline around my physical health flows into every space of my life. I let that slip for too long.

So, I am putting this out there once again in the hope that it will boost my accountability and that maybe others will join me in this journey of leading ourselves well in physical health. Maybe you can remind me at times that it is about progress and not perfection too! I can celebrate that I have been consistent in doing the back rehab exercises from my physiotherapist. Now I need to pick it up a bit more to gain strength in all of my body. My focus this week is to reset my eating habits (for what feels like the hundredth time this year). I have a plan in place and now I just need to follow it.

What is your next step?