The Long Game is a phrase I came across when thinking of ideas for the title of this, our very first newsletter.
Maybe, subconsciously, it was because of my ongoing obsession with golf, but when I googled the definition, it returned what I thought was a very fitting response: The Long Game is “something that will bring success far off into the future, rather than in the present or nearer term.”
This, in my view, couldn’t be a better analogy for how best to think about our health and our lives - a game which, if played well, keeps paying out as the years go by.
As it stands, we don’t get all that much time to play this game. To make our mark and to live out our dreams. The average man born in the UK today is expected to have a healthy lifespan of only 60.7 years, meaning that 23% of life is spent chronically ill or infirm.
I remember the wake up call seeing the graphic below. A life mapped out in weeks.
Enter your date of birth and see your whole life mapped out in weeks. A sobering, useful tool, built on an idea popularised by Tim Urban of Wait But Why. Try it yourself: weeksoflife.com
With this in mind, I wanted to introduce you to the first edition of The Long Game, a newsletter brought to you by City Health Partners, built around one simple aim: helping you play the game well, and make the most of the weeks you’ve got on earth.
Each edition brings you one idea, concept or strategy gathered from my work in coaching and beyond. A whole food, nutrient dense snack for your soul, served up on a fortnightly basis.
This week, one idea that grabbed me was from the entrepreneur Jim Rohn.
He talks about the choice between two pains that we all will face in our lives: the pain of discipline, or the pain of regret, reminding us that discipline weighs ounces, while regret weighs a ton.
Being disciplined is hard. In the moment it’s so much easier to snooze the alarm, to eat the cookie, to drink the wine, to skip the workout and so on. However, what comes after this? Arguably harder and more painful years of regret at choosing the easier road. Comfort is a short term friend but an enemy of us all in the long term. If pain is inevitable, why not choose the pain that pays you back in the long run?
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