What’s Your Hot Diggity?

How Do You Define “Health”?

The World Health Organization (WHO) gets it.  By their official definition, “health is not only the absence of infirmity and disease, but also a state of physical, mental, and social well-being.”  Hear!  Hear!

And, whether you know or not, you probably get it too.

On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is “I am currently ill or am suffering from a chronic disease,” and 10 is “Hot diggity!  I am thriving!  I feel strong and capable in mind, body, and spirit.  My life has purpose and direction and I have the physical and social resources to meet my potential.”—what score would you give yourself?

You may not be currently sick with the flu, but if you’re honest with yourself, are you thriving?

The Dow Jones of Health

At the beginning of 2008 Gallup and Healthways partnered in an unprecedented project:  to poll 1,000 Americans a day in an effort to create a “Dow Jones of health”–a daily pulse of the individual and collective health and well-being of Americans.

According to the most recent polling data released on April 29, 2008:

• 47% of Americans are categorized as “struggling”
• 4% of Americans are “suffering”
• 49% of Americans are categorized as “thriving”

Less than half of us are thriving?  And, what’s more alarming is that the definition of “thriving” offered by the Gallup-Healthways Well-being Index is most likely even less ambitious than yours might be: “Thriving Americans’ have their basic needs (such as food and shelter) met, and they have higher incomes, are less burdened by disease, report fewer sick days, and have better work environments.”

Hmmm.  Maybe it’s time to raise the bar.  What does “thriving” look like to you?

Embracing Your “Hot Diggity!”

Locked within every one of us is the wisdom to uncover our unique path to thriving.

Changing your mindset of what’s possible—risking who you are now for who you are becoming—creates the fertile ground in which the seeds of your highest potential, your most vibrant form of health, are planted.

What stirs in you as you mull over the idea that maybe you not only have the capacity, but, heck, the duty, to shift from “surviving your life” to “thriving in your life”?

If you’re ready to begin to explore what “hot diggity” looks like for you and what’s keeping you from getting there, here are a couple of reflection questions to get you started:

• When in your life have you felt most alive, most vibrant?
• What keeps you small?
• What are you tolerating that is diverting energy from your ability to engage and have impact?
• What does the most authentic expression of your gifts look like?
• What is at risk if you take action towards the highest expression of yourself?  What is at risk if you don’t?

Thank goodness the “path to thriving” is a wide one.  I’ll be looking for you on it!