You Can't Hire Someone to Do Your Push-Ups

A man came up to me after a seminar in Sacramento and said, "Mr. Rohn, I've got a great business. I've got people who handle my finances. I've got people who handle my marketing. I've got a housekeeper, a gardener, a driver. I've delegated everything."

I said, "That's wonderful. You must be very successful."

He said, "I am. But I'm fifty pounds overweight and I can't walk up a flight of stairs without stopping halfway."

I said, "Well, let me ask you something. Have you thought about hiring someone to do your push-ups for you?"

He laughed. But I wasn't entirely joking.

See, here's what's fascinating about life. You can hire people to do almost anything. You can hire someone to mow your lawn, wash your car, paint your house, file your taxes. You can hire someone to answer your phone, cook your meals, even pick out your clothes. And if you've built a successful enterprise, you probably should delegate most of those things. That's intelligent. We call that leverage.

But there's one area where leverage doesn't work. There's one area where nobody can stand in for you, no matter how much money you've got.

Nobody can do your push-ups for you.

Nobody can eat your vegetables for you. Nobody can get your sleep for you. Nobody can take your walk for you. These things are non-transferable. And that's what makes health the ultimate test of personal responsibility.

I learned this lesson the hard way. When I was working with Mr. Shoaff in my mid-twenties, I was so focused on building my business and developing my mind that I treated my body like it was just along for the ride. I'd skip meals. I'd stay up too late. I figured I'd get around to taking care of myself once I'd made it.

Mr. Shoaff said to me one day, "Jim, you're building a fortune. But what good is a fortune if you don't have the health to enjoy it?"

I said, "I'll take care of it later."

He said, "Later is a dangerous word. A lot of people have used that word right into the hospital."

That got my attention.

Now, somebody says, "Jim, I know I should exercise, but I just don't have the time." And I say, "You don't have the time? How much time does it take to walk around the block? Fifteen minutes? You're telling me you can't find fifteen minutes?" The truth is, it's not a time problem. It's a priority problem. And what we don't make a priority, we lose.

I've got a good phrase for you: take care of your body, or it'll take care of you. And it won't be gentle about it.

Think about it. You wouldn't ignore the engine in your car for ten years and then act surprised when it breaks down on the highway. You'd change the oil. You'd check the tires. But people will go a decade without paying any real attention to the only body they'll ever have. That's not just neglect. That's foolishness. And I say that with love, my friend, because I've been foolish too.

Here's something else I've noticed. People will spend enormous amounts of money trying to fix what they could have prevented for free. A man told me once he'd spent forty thousand dollars on medical bills in one year. I said, "How much did you spend on a good pair of walking shoes?" He said he didn't own any. Forty thousand dollars in repairs, zero dollars in maintenance. We call that a bad investment.

Now, personal responsibility in health goes beyond just exercise. It's what you eat. It's what you drink. It's what time you go to bed. It's the small, unglamorous disciplines that nobody sees. Nobody gives you a trophy for going to bed at a decent hour. Nobody applauds when you eat an apple instead of a doughnut. But those invisible choices, done day after day, are what separate the vital from the exhausted.

And here's the part that connects to everything else I teach. I've always said that you can't hire someone to read for you. You can hire someone to read to you, sure. But the thinking, the absorbing, the growing — that has to happen inside your own mind. Health is the same way. You can hire a trainer to show you the exercises. You can hire a chef to cook healthy meals. You can hire a nutritionist to write you a plan. But you still have to do the work. You still have to chew the food, lift the weight, take the walk. The doing is yours. It will always be yours.

Somebody says, "But Jim, I don't like exercise." And I say, "You don't have to like it. You just have to do it." I don't always like getting up early either, but I like the results. That's the trade-off. Do what's easy and life gets hard. Do what's hard and life gets easy. Right?

A woman once told me she started walking twenty minutes a day. Just twenty minutes. Within six months, she'd lost weight, her energy was up, she was sleeping better, and — here's the interesting part — her business improved. I said, "How did walking help your business?" She said, "I started thinking more clearly. I had better ideas. I was more patient with people." Of course she was. The body and the mind aren't separate departments. They're the same company.

So here's my challenge to you, my friend. Don't wait for a crisis to take your health seriously. Don't wait for the doctor to give you bad news. Don't wait for "later." Later has a terrible track record.

Start small. Start today. Walk around the block. Drink the water. Eat something that grew in the ground. Go to bed before midnight. These are not complicated things. But simple is not the same as easy. Simple still requires that you do it. And nobody — I don't care how much you're willing to pay — nobody can do it for you.

Take care of the body. It's the only place you have to live.