don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

If you believe that self-management is a good idea and want to be an effective model for such a healthy, satisfying, and exciting lifestyle, consider these principles of persuasion.

1. Promote wellness by appealing to the self-interest of others and avoid preaching or expecting quick adoption of your ideas of right attitudes and behaviors.
2. Steer clear of arguments or debates about diets, exercise, alternative medicine, and other health-related topics. Instead, provide references, resources and basically try to inspire others to want wellness based upon observing its wonderful effects on your life.
3. Listen when people tell you of their wants and needs and help them appreciate how a commitment to self responsibility and other wellness perspectives will connect with those wants and needs.
4. If possible, identify with the social goals others seek -- better health status for the poor, a cleaner environment, a free society with harmony amongst diverse populations -- and suggest that entitlements and other government intrusions might be less effective than better incentives for personal responsibility for the realization of such goals.
5. Be compassionate and respectful of the beliefs and needs that might have led some folks to smoking, alcohol abuse, obesity, or whatever. You don't have to approve of their habits or cultures -- but if you don't acknowledge their needs, you are less likely to be able to help them find a better way to solve their problems.
6. No matter what the issue, focus on the central point: how much better off the individual will be in taking responsibility for his/her own health and life.
7. Acknowledge your good fortune in having been born in a relatively free and quite prosperous nation and otherwise raised in circumstances at the higher reaches of Maslow's hierarchy. Any plan for improvement would be aided by recognition of the good things we already have.
8. Focus on the ways this and other countries could be so much better with a wellness-based culture, with a great deal less dwelling upon all the wrongs that exist today.
9. Cleanse yourself of hate, resentment, and bitterness. Such things steal time and attention from the work that must be done. Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.
10. Speak, dress, and act in a respectable manner. You may be the first wellness advocate someone has encountered, and it's important that he get a good first impression. No one will hear the message if the messenger is unattractive.
11. Remind yourself that someone's "stupid" opinion may be an opinion you once held. If you can grow, why can't someone else do likewise?
12. Don't raise your voice in any discussion. In a shouting match, no one wins, no one changes his mind, and no one will be inspired to join your quest for a wellness-oriented society.
13. Never resort to the tactics of televangelists and politicians. They use character assassination, evasions, and intimidation because they have no real benefits to offer most people. As a wellness promoter, on the other hand, you are offering information that they can use to set themselves free.
14. Resolve to be civil to those who disagree with you and treat everyone with respect. However anyone chooses to treat you, it's important that you model better behavior than your opponents.

These fourteen principles are my own extensive adaptations from a similar set of principles written by Harry Browne, author of How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World. I have modified Mr. Brown's principles for wellness purposes. In its original form, it is titled A Libertarian's New Year's Resolutions. You can read it the way Browne wrote it in the weekly newsletter of the Liberator Online, Vol. 5, No. 1, or visit the website of the Advocates for Self-Government at http://www.self-gov.org/liberator/maintain.html. You can subscribe to the Liberator Online when you visit the site. It's an excellent source of information for anyone who thinks we need to protect our freedoms and not take them for granted -- and the principles can be warped a bit to promote healthy lifestyles, as I hope I have demonstrated.

Be well and, whatever your political and lifestyle orientations, try to look on the bright side.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MEANING DOMAIN under the skill area of relationships. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

 Send e-mail to Don Ardell