What does your future look like?

Often my goal in writing to you is to explain the importance of certain health habits.

A comedian once said that human bodies require so much maintenance that if we were a car, we wouldn’t buy ourselves. But the reality is that we only get one body, so no matter what the cost is to maintain it, we must make it our top priority.

Today, I want to offer you some perspective on brain health.

Most successful people live their lives “with the end in mind.” They wake up knowing what they want in the future, so they make sure that their choices today take them there.

They ask, “If I do this today, what will happen tomorrow? What will the future look like if I do that instead?” And then live their lives according to the picture of the future that suits their desires.

Many of us have a hard time living this way. It requires discipline. It asks us to sacrifice what we want right now for something later that feels like it might never come.

Still others of us don’t even think about the consequences of our actions at all. We might live like today is all that is important and not consider how our choices today impact tomorrow.

My mentor and colleague, brain expert Dr. Daniel Amen, crafted an exercise many years ago designed to help people see the significance of today’s choices.

Imagine before you a fork in the road. There are two paths you can choose to take.

Down the first path, you spend each day doing whatever feels good. You stay still when you should probably move. You eat what you like whenever you like. You work late instead of sleeping. You don’t drink water that much, but you do drink a lot of alcohol. Maybe you try some drugs. And you leave your thoughts to run away with themselves – you think often on the worries of life, you hold onto hurts and grudges, and you allow your insecurities to take root in your heart.

If you live this way, what does your life look like next year?

How about 5 years from now?

10 years from now?

50 years from now?

Are you happy? Are you healthy? How is your cognitive functioning? How is your memory? How is your daily mood? How is your energy? How is your creativity? How are your reflexes? How do you feel physically? Mentally? Emotionally? Do you look well? Have you been able to get what you want out of life?

If we are being honest, the picture down this path looks grim. None of the answers to these questions are good.

But down the other path, we see something brighter at the end.

Of course, the healthy life requires more work from us. We spend each day being careful about what we eat and staying hydrated; we move at least enough to keep our blood flowing; we prioritize sleep and manage our work throughout the days and weeks; we drink only occasionally if at all; we stay away from substances that harm our brain health and focus on thoughts that serve us, body, mind, and soul.

How does the future look now? Let me ask those questions again:

Are you happy? Are you healthy? How is your cognitive functioning? How is your memory? How is your daily mood? How is your energy? How is your creativity? How are your reflexes? How do you feel physically? Mentally? Emotionally? Do you look well? Have you been able to get what you want out of life?

Our current circumstances are the sum of our actions up until now. Whatever we are feeling, carrying, managing… however we are functioning… we have fostered these things by our action or inaction. Your brain health, and your life, is in your hands.

What do you want the future to look like? You decide today!

And on that note, as always, I encourage you to make today your masterpiece!

Florina