Your Future Self Will Thank You If you are like me, then you have a list. To be honest, if you are indeed like me you have multiple lists. Lists of activities and/or habits that will improve your life in a certain area. I’m talking about a physical health list, a career goal list, a relationship with your spouse list, a relationship with your children list, etc. Some of these lists are on paper while some are in your head. Maybe writing down your mental lists is on one of your other lists? You see, that’s the point I'm trying to make. These are items that are not getting done even though we know that, without a doubt, our future would be better if we checked them off. So why are we not doing them? What are the unseen forces that prevent us from a healthier, happier, easier, more fulfilled future? I’m not a psychologist so I’m not going to try and speak for the rest of you, but I think I can venture a hypothesis in the context of my own life. Let’s call it the Comfortable/Lazy hypothesis.
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by Dr. John F. Miller DDS - SMILE MONTANA What is the cliché lazy person activity? Sitting on the couch in their pajamas being COMFORTABLE. If aspects of our lives are too comfortable we consider them well-enough and we leave them alone. It’s all good right? Right? Maybe. Maybe not. Famous author Jim Collins tells us that the enemy of great is not bad, the enemy of great is good. Specifically he says, “Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great...Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.” There’s nothing wrong with good. The majority of us are in a “good” place in life physically, emotionally, spiritually, etc. But let’s take the occasional inventory and ask ourselves if the good life is keeping us comfortably resistant to realizing a great future. This comfortable phenomenon is very problematic in my world. I have mentioned on several occasions in 406 Women that the pathology that targets the oral environment,
namely tooth decay and gum disease, are painless processes early on. They are comfortable by default in that they do not cause discomfort. Also, these processes in their early phases are not easily detectable with the human eye even though they are causing irreversible damage and harm. That is the number one reason that your dental provider recommends annual x-rays. They give us a peek behind the curtains. The bedroom might look spotless but under the bed there is a mess brewing. Dentistry however, can be uncomfortable right? On your wallet for sure. This keeps folks from visiting their dentist regularly. Especially those folks without dental insurance. I can empathise. Everything is feeling fine, no pain at all, maybe a little bleeding during our bi-weekly floss, maybe a little funky breath. Nothing that would warrant dropping some hard-earned cash at Smile Montana every six months for a tune-up with the hygienist right? These folks are living on the edge and they don’t even know it.