Chapter 16

Self-Discipline and Personal Health

“Self respect is the root of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.”

—ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL

More people are living longer and better today than ever before in human history, and your goal should be to be one of those people. There is no area in which self-
discipline is more important than in your practices regarding your health. Your number one goal for yourself should be to live as long and as well as you possibly can.
This requires lifelong self-discipline with your health habits—and as mentioned in Chapter 15, good health is one of the ingredients of overall happiness.

The average life expectancy for males today (in 2009) is 76.8 years; for females 79.8 years, or approximately eighty years, and this number is increasing each year.
This means that about 50 percent of the population will die before the age of eighty and about 50 percent will die after the age of eighty. Your goal should be to defy
the averages and live to age ninety, ninety-five, or even longer.

Living a Long Life

Today, most causes of early death that had shortened life in the past have been eliminated in the industrialized world. Diseases such as tuberculosis, polio, malaria,
cholera, typhus, and others have been wiped out through sanitation and modern [Link] predominant causes of early deaths today are heart disease, cancer of all
kinds, diabetes, and traffic deaths, all of which are subject to your control to a certain [Link] cannot predict or protect against the unpredictable, like random
accidents, but you can use your self-discipline to control the controllable in your life.

Seven Key Health Habits

The Alameda Study, covering many thousands of people for more than twenty years, concluded there were seven key health habits that contributed the most to long
life:

1. Eat regularly rather than fasting, starving, or gorging. Eat normal, healthy meals, preferably five or six times per day, with your last meal fully three hours before
you go to sleep.

2. Eat lightly: Overeating makes you tired and sluggish, whereas eating lightly makes you feel healthy and alert. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, “No one ever regretted
eating too little after a meal.”

3. Don’t snack between meals: When you eat, your body has to break down and digest the foods in your stomach so that they can move into your small intestine.
This requires four to five hours. If you put food in on top of food that you have already eaten, the digestive process must start over again, with part of your food at one
stage of digestion and another part of your food at another stage. This leads to upset stomach, heart-burn, drowsiness (especially in the afternoon), and constipation.

4. Exercise regularly: The ideal is about thirty minutes a day, or two hundred minutes per week. You can achieve this by walking, running, swimming, and/or using
exercise equipment. You should fully articulate every joint every day.

5. Wear a seatbelt: Right up to age thirty-five, the most common cause of premature death is traffic accidents.

6. Don’t smoke: Smoking is correlated with thirty-two different illnesses including lung cancer, eso - phageal cancer, throat cancer, stomach cancer, heart disease and
a variety of other ailments.

7. Drink alcohol in moderation: Studies show that one to two glasses of wine per day aid digestion and seem to be beneficial to your overall health. Anything in
excess of that can lead to all kinds of

problems, including overeating, traffic accidents, personality problems, and antisocial behavior.

Each of these seven factors that contribute to long life are completely a matter of self-discipline. These seven factors are a matter of choice. They are actions that you
can choose to take or not take deliberately. They are completely under your control.

The Five Ps of Excellent Health

In my personal development seminars, we teach the five “Ps” of excellent health:

2. Proper diet: As Benjamin Franklin said, “Eat to live, rather than live to eat.” According to studies of Olympic athletes from more than 120 countries, the three
factors their diets have in common are

1. lean-source protein;

2. a wide variety of fruits and vegetables; and

3. lots of water, about eight glasses per day.

When you begin this “Olympic diet,” you will feel more alert, awake, and aware all day long.

3. Proper exercise: The most important exercise for long life is aerobic exercise. This requires that you get your heart rate up to a high level for thirty to sixty minutes
three times per week. You can achieve this through brisk walking, running, cycling, swimming, or cross-country skiing.

Exercise physiologists have determined that the “exercise effect” clicks in at about twenty-five minutes of vigorous exercise. At this point, your brain releases
endorphins that give you a feeling of elation, or what is called a “runner’s high.” This natural drug produced by your body can become addictive in a very positive
way.

People who develop the habit of regular, vigorous exercise find that it becomes easier and easier to do. They begin to look forward to the feeling of happiness they
enjoy as the result of exercising aerobically.

4. Proper rest: This is very important. More than 60 percent of adults do not get enough sleep. They are suffering from what is called a “sleep deficit.” They go to bed
a little bit too late, sleep poorly, arise a little bit too early, and go through the day in a form of “fog.” This phenomenon of not being sufficiently rested leads to poor
performance, more mistakes, industrial accidents, car crashes, short tempers, personality problems, and many other difficulties.

If you are living and working a normal life, you require about eight hours of sleep each night. If you get only six or seven hours of sleep when you actually require
eight, you begin to build up this sleep deficit. By Thursday or Friday, when you get up in the morning, the first thing you think of is how soon you can go back to
sleep again that night. When you start thinking about going to sleep again at the moment that you arise, you know that you are not getting enough sleep.

In addition to eight hours of sleep per night, you need regular breaks from work, both weekends and vacations. When you take time off from work, you allow your
mental and emotional batteries to recharge. After a two- or three-day weekend, when you go back to work, you will be fully rested and ready to perform at your best.

5. Proper attitude: This is perhaps the most important of all. The quality that is most predictive of health, happiness, and long life is “optimism.” As you become
more optimistic about yourself and your life, your health will also be better in every area.

People who are positive and optimistic usually have stronger immune systems, and as a result, they are seldom sick. They seldom get colds or flu. They bounce back
quickly from hard work or fatigue. An optimistic person has a built-in “Teflon shield” against many of the diseases and ailments that affect the average person.