Personal Health Goals | Danny van Leeuwen Health Hats

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Episode Summary

We’re going somewhere with our best health journey. Destination: Personal health goals. If you’re well, stay well. If you’re acutely ill, get over it. If you’re chronically ill or dying, live the best life possible. There’s a difference between medical and personal health goals. Onward.

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I am the CEO of my health team. Another way to look at it: If my health is a car, I’m the driver for most of the journey, most of the time. How do I become the best CEO, the best driver? Over the next few months I’m going to sprinkle my podcasts with episodes about some of the basics about being the best CEO and driver. Today’s episode is about setting personal health goals. I’ll add episodes about creating your health team, learning what works, getting from health goals to clinical decisions, and adjusting your personal health plan.

Today we’re going to talk about setting personal health goals. People are on a health journey. Whether they know it or not, they’re on a health journey. They’re headed somewhere with their health. They may know they’re doing that, or they may not. But they’re doing it and it’s continual. Sometimes we have a map. Sometimes we don’t. GPS, yes or no. It’s still a journey. It’s important to know where we’re going and we’re going hopefully to best health. So, what is best health? To me, best health is living at peak capacity. It’s a purposeful activity. Being on a health journey towards best health. On any kind of a journey we have a destination. We’re going somewhere. We’re going to work. We’re going to the grocery store. We’re going to go visit our in-laws or going on vacation. We’re going for a night out. We’re on a journey. A health journey is similar. We’re headed somewhere. We’re headed somewhere alone or with people. We’re making decisions along the way. We’re always making decisions. Do we need to get gas? Do we know the right way to go? Do we need to take a break? Do we make a left? Do we make a right? Decisions. It’s same for the health journey. The journey is complicated. It’s really important to know where we’re going. Where we’re going are our personal health goals. People who are on a journey have limitations. Everybody has limitations. I don’t walk so well. I get tired really easily. People don’t have a car. People can’t walk. People can’t walk more than a block. People can’t speak the language of the people that are around them. People can’t get a tune out of their head. People have kids that they’re taking care of. They have a sprained ankle. They have a headache. There’re all sorts of things happening. So, it’s really important to know where you’re going to go. There’s just a lot of noise and a lot going on in the health journey. So, it’s important to know where you’re going, where you’re headed.

Best health destination? Personal health goals

I have secondary progressive multiple sclerosis and so I have personal health goals. I want to progress as slowly as possible. I want to live at my peak capacity. I don’t want to mess with my pathological optimism. And I keep I want to keep blowing my horn (I have a baritone sax. I play baritone sax). Now my whole health team, so my family, my doctors, other clinicians, my friends, my readers. They all know my health goals and they’re helping me to reach those goals. So, what am I doing to reach my health goals? I take my meds as they’re prescribed. I work hard to maintain my strength and balance. I have an exercise routine that I do every other morning. I walk 3,500 steps a day. I wear my brace on my left leg whenever I’m outside. I rest when I’m tired. I do meaningful work for a few hours a day four to five days out of seven, if not seven out of seven. I go to acupuncture and chiropractic once a month and massage every other week. I play my baritone sax three to six hours a week. I actively worked to reduce manageable stress. And I keep my team, and the main people on my team are my family and my neurologist and my PCP (primary care physician). I keep them informed as my status changes. So, these are things that I do to reach my health goals.

Personal health goals. Hard or easy?

Now I talk with people, a lot, about reaching their health goals. Nobody has an easy time coming up with their personal health goals. It’s really not how people think. But it’s really pretty simple. People who are well, want to stay well. People who are acutely ill – so they have a broken leg, they have a headache, they have a stomach ache, they have a cold – they want to get over it. And then there’s people like me who have a chronic condition. We want to manage as best as possible and have a meaningful life.

So, here’s a stab at a list of personal health goals I’ve heard. I’m going to read this list to you, okay?

If you’re well. Stay well

So, of the people who are trying to stay well

They want to own their own health
They want to drink more water
They want to eat well
They want to get enough rest
They want to be active every day
They want to manage stress, manage weight
They want to have the best relationships possible
They want to live within their means
They want to complain less
They want to do meaningful work
They want to participate in the community
They want to take out the garbage, people want to be able to do their chores
They want to be able to empathize
They want to celebrate success
They want to enjoy lifeAcutely ill? Get over it

People who are acutely ill want to get over it

They want to do the same as people who are well plus

They want to keep their commitments as far as their treatment goes –
- Take their medicine as prescribed
- Manage pain
They want to adapt to the change in function
And they’re trying to get some more rest

Chronically ill? Live best life possible

And then there’s people like me who are chronically ill, who are trying to manage as best as possible

so, they’re trying to do the same things as people are going to stay well and people trying to get over it. But they’re also
Going to get help
They’re going to build a team
They’re going to enlist a Care Partner
They’re going to become an expert in their own condition
They’re going to pay as much attention to the people who help them as they can
They’re going to join a support group
They’re going to prioritize what really matters
They’re going to give themselves a break

I don’t have personal health goals

I get a couple questions that are really common. One is: “I don’t have personal health goals. How am I gonna come up with some?” That’s a really good question. I didn’t come up with my health goals when I first started thinking about it by myself. Actually, my neurologist, when I met my first neurologist, he said, “you know I don’t know you that well. I want you to come back and tell me what’s important to you.” So, I gathered members of my family together and we talked about it. They helped me come up with the list that I gave you. I was talking to some friends this weekend and they said well I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. And you know it’s different than that. For me, a goal is I want to fit into my favorite vest. I got a gut and I can put on weight and then I don’t fit into my vest. Well, I don’t like that. So, I want to fit into my vest. Some people want to fit into their dress, some piece of clothing. People want to reach a milestone. I want to go to my granddaughter’s wedding. people have functional goals. I want to walk five thousand steps a day. So, it’s more immediate and more functional than “what do you want to be when you grow up?”

Difference between medical and personal goals?

Another question that I get that’s really common is, “What’s the difference between medical goals and personal health goals?” That’s another good question. Medical goals usually come from diagnoses. So, I have MS. The goals are diagnosis based So, you have bronchitis, you have ulcers, depression, cancer, or whatever. It’s about treatments and it’s about protocols. And it’s about taking your meds, keeping your appointments, following the protocols of the particular diagnosis. But personal health goals do overlap. Like I said. So, take your meds, keep your appointments, get your lab work, those are overlapping. But we are not our diagnosis. We have aspirations. We have values. We have priorities. We aspire a function. We have financial concerns. We have personal safety concerns. So, all of these things were complex and so, our goals are different often than medical goals. All right so we’ve been talking about personal health goals and the importance of personal health goals for navigating your personal journey.