Tonight I would like to share with you another of my 10 Core Coaching Messages that I use in my own life and in my coaching business. Tonights message is the most important thing in life is your health. A couple of months ago, before I decided to share all my core coaching messages with you, I wrote a post titled What Is The Single Most Important Thing In Life, it is a post about this core message, I would like to share it with you again tonight.
What is the single most important thing in life?
I ask this question at seminars I hold and boy, you wouldn't believe how strongly people defend their answers. The two most common answers are one's family and one's faith. They make up the other two of the top three most important things in life, but the MOST important thing in life is your health. Now before you get all worked up and start defending YOUR answer, let me defend mine. I'd like to tell you three stories of people I know about, you'll absolutely know two of them and the third, I hope you'll just remember after her story.
The first person I'd like to tell you about is a man who was beloved by millions of people in his lifetime, perhaps even billions. This man is responsible for more happiness on this Earth than any other human being in history. This man was loved by his wife Lillian and daughters Sharon and Diane. He was loved and protected by his brother Roy and he had a close group of friends and a job that he loved. He earned a very good living and was respected in his industry. This man was also a man of faith and lived his life in a very honorable way. No one would argue that fact.
However, this man being human had several flaws, like we all do, and one of them was that he relied on cigarettes to relieve his stress. He was a three pack a day smoker of unfiltered Camels. You probably can guess what happened to this special man. He passed away from lung cancer at the age of 65. But two weeks before he passed, he said to his son-in-law Ron, "If I could get 15 more years, I could surpass all the work I've done already." Even he knew he had a lot more to offer the world and because of his smoking he was being taken away 15 years to early. This special man was Walter Elias Disney.
There is a certain age man in this country that when you mention this next mans name, they usually get teary eyed. This man was also beloved by millions of people. He gave them great joy and hope and excitement. He was probably one of the most gifted athletes of all time. He was the biggest of stars in the 1950's and early 60's. He also had a wife who loved him and four sons who adored him as a young father. Every where this man went he was the center of attention and every one wanted to buy him a drink, and he never disappointed them. Unfortunately, he had his demons also. You see this man's father, who he adored, died of Hodgkin's disease at the age of 39 and so did his uncle. He thought he was going to succumb to the same fate. He thought he would be dead by the age of 40. So he enjoyed life and lived hard.
He became an alcoholic and ravaged his body with all the late nights and alcohol. Life threw this man a curve and he did not develop Hodgkin's disease like his father and uncle, and he lived into his sixties. However, the drinking had taken it's toll. He needed a liver transplant, which he was lucky enough to receive. But during the operation, doctors saw that he also had cancer. He did not live much longer. But before he passed, this courageous man held a press conference and because of who he was, everyone listened. He said "Don't be like me. take care of your body." He also said, " If I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself!" His name was Mickey Mantle.
The next person I'd like to tell you about is someone I knew personally. She was the oldest in the family of ten kids. She was gorgeous and very kind also. She was loved by her parents and all her brothers and sisters. At the age of 18 she went off to college and started her life on her own. She landed a job as a computer programmer with McGraw-Hill at their facilities in New Jersey. She eventually met a man whom she married, they did not have children, but by this time she had plenty of nieces and nephews to spoil. Which she loved to do. She was a woman of faith and lived her life very honorably.
Every year at Christmas, she would return to her parents house in New York, with truly special gifts for every single member of her huge family. She loved sports, especially football and bowling. She enjoyed fishing with her husband on their boat. She earned a very nice living and really enjoyed her job and co-workers. She was loved by everyone who knew her. Unfortunately, just like Walt Disney she too was a smoker. This special woman developed lung cancer at the age of 53 and passed away the next year. My sisters name was Mary Bungert-Tuccillo.
I'm sharing these stories with you this evening, not to depress you and not even to scare you. I'm sharing these stories with you to hopefully help you. The single most important thing in life is to take care of yourself. As you can tell by these stories, your family's love is not enough for a long and healthy life, adoration of millions of people is not enough for a long and healthy life and being a person of faith is not enough for a long and healthy life.
You must decide that taking care of yourself is the answer to a long healthy and fulfilling life. If you do not take care of yourself, you won't be able to accomplish all that is possible for you. If you do not take care of yourself, you'll go out 15 years to early like Walt Disney or 30 years to early like my sister Mary. And it's not just smoking that's the problem. Look at Mickey Mantle's story.
There are 4 problem areas for all of us. I call them "The 4 Monkeys" 1. Smoking 2. Drinking 3. Drugs 4. Food. If you have one of these monkeys on your back, get help. There is professional help for each area of abuse of the 4 monkeys. I have coached hundreds of real estate agents over the years and I tell every single one the same thing. If you want to make more money and have a better business, start by taking better care of yourself.
If you begin to take better care of yourself, you'll feel better, you'll look better and you will BE better. You will want to be better in every area of your life. I've seen it happen hundreds of times. It will directly relate to your business. So start to take better care of yourself today, go for a walk around the block, have a Lean Cuisine for lunch, have a couple glasses of water today. Begin to make your health your #1 priority and I guarantee you, your life AND your business will get better! And if you are already taking great care of yourself, look for someone to help. Share your wisdom. I wish for you health, happiness and more deals! Until next time, all the best!
Kevin Bungert
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