As I get older, I start to have a new perspective on time. I remember when I got my first car at the age of 16. It was a beautiful ’73 Chevy Caprice Classic. (Please don’t let the age of the car lead you to guessing my age. 1. because it was old when I got it, and 2. because it still might lead you to making a correct guess 😛 It was Yoda green, got like 8 or 9 miles to the leaded gallon and took up more space than a Hummer.
One thing about having such a large car, it was easy to work on. There was plenty of space under the hood (and everywhere else). Doing most of the repairs to it myself, I remember thinking that it was crazy for anyone to pay to have their oil changed at a shop. You could save $5-10 doing it yourself!
Having just purchased an extra car that my soon-to-be 17 year old daughter is now driving, I had occasion to change the oil again on “her first car.” I didn’t want to do it but I had noticed a little oil dripping down and wanted to make sure it was nothing serious. I remember thinking, why would anyone want to change their own oil? You only save like $5-10 doing it yourself…
I notice that my perspective has changed on a lot of other money/time trade-offs as well. However, it is the health/time or health/money trade-offs that I’ve had the largest mindset change on. I was discussing this with someone over the weekend. It took me getting my Type 2 diagnosis/death sentence before I really made that shift. I know that it is this way for most people. Some don’t get the chance to respond to a diagnosis like I did. The damage being done to their heart and cardiovascular system manifests before some of the other symptoms they would experience from metabolic syndrome.
I would give anything to be able to help others realize the path they’re on and make changes before reaching a destination like this. You can spend years (even decades) doing damage to yourself before coming to a big health scare (or worse). Will you consider this before it’s too late? How much time do you have?
not2long 