With the holidays right around the corner, it truly is a wonderful time of year!

Unfortunately for many, it’s also followed by the anxiety, fear, and despair of the next 12 months…

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to skip those emotions and make this year your best year ever?

Let me help you…

To begin, you must answer this question:

“Who will I be 12 months from now?”

When we dream about our lives (and we should) it’s common to focus on the things we wish to have or milestones we hope to accomplish:

• a new home
• a new car
• lose 10 pounds
• a vacation
• a new career

While these are all very legitimate goals to strive for, we often fall short and in turn, blame it on our circumstances or worse, blame our failure on someone else.

In reality, the problem was most likely:

Your strategy – you were simply doing the wrong things.

Your work ethic – you weren’t consistently taking action over a long enough period of time.

The good news is both of these issues can be solved.

You could search out the “right” things to do and you could strong-arm yourself to do them consistently.

The first is simple enough, the second…not so much.

This is where many people repeat their cycle of failure.

DREAM -> PLAN -> LACK OF CONSISTENT ACTION -> FAIL -> DECREASED SELF-ESTEEM -> REPEAT

This brings us back to our question and why you must answer this question for success in 2018.

“Who will I be 12 months from now?”

Who will I be, not only what do I want…

Will you work to become the type of person who is willing to do what is necessary to become successful?

Here are step-by-step instructions for beginning to answer this question and 2018 your best yet!

STEP ONE – AUDIT SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE

What character traits do ultra-successful people exhibit?

Integrity, passion, optimism, self-responsibility, patience and drive just to name a few.

Start with an exhaustive list of the character traits common to successful people and make note of the traits you habitually exhibit and the ones you are lacking.

STEP TWO – BUILD POSITIVE HABITS

Thinking about who you want/need to be will not on its own turn you into that person. It’s only through consistent action that you will develop yourself into the type of person required to meet your goals.

One lesson to learn from successful people is the importance of positive habits. Use this concept and apply it to the character traits you’d like to add to your personal list.

For example, if optimism is a trait you you want to develop, start every day by writing a list of 3 things you are looking forward to.

STEP THREE – AWARENESS & ACCOUNTABILITY

There is no quick fix for building the character traits that will yield success in your life.

Once you’ve created the list of character traits required for your success, and you’ve identified a positive habit that will help you develop each one, the next step is to pay attention. Try to catch yourself when you fall back into old patterns and quickly correct the course.

Apps like Habit List can be helpful in holding yourself accountable.

PRO TIP

Don’t wait until January to start becoming the person you will need to become if success in all areas of life is on your wish list – your new life starts now!

By waiting you only dig yourself into a deeper hole. Set aside time as soon as possible to start this process.

THE POINT

While defining what you want is very important to your future success, it’s “who you are” that precedes both and that won’t change unless you commit to taking the correct actions to develop yourself.

What do you think are the top 3 character traits for building extraordinary success?

Dr. Steven Gall has been offering exceptional chiropractic care to infants, children and adults for over 25 years. He has spent his life learning, and improving his knowledge, skills and ability to provide his care. As a public speaker and health coach he strives to assist people in seeing and attaining a life of extraordinary health. Contact the office to join others who have started the same journey.

The global technology boom may have improved our lives and connected the world, but it has also caused an epidemic of “Tech Neck” and contributed to some serious health problems.

New York spine surgeon Dr. Kenneth Hansraj published research in 2014 measuring the effects of forward head posture on the cervical spine and found that a normal 12-pound head can weigh as much as 60 pounds when bent forward.

Imagine walking around all day with a child wrapped around your neck!

Anterior Spinal Distortion (ASD) has been linked to conditions like spinal degeneration, disc disease, abnormal curvatures of the spine, headaches…even respiratory problems, depression, and reduced mortality.

Dr. Steven Gall has been offering exceptional chiropractic care to infants, children and adults for over 25 years. He has spent his life learning, and improving his knowledge, skills and ability to provide his care. As a public speaker and health coach he strives to assist people in seeing and attaining a life of extraordinary health. Contact the office to join others who have started the same journey.

Scratchy throat, fever, stuffy nose and the host of other symptoms that come along for the ride… here are 15 ways to survive the cold & flu season naturally.

THE REMEDY METHOD

When you or your kids are feeling down in the dumps, the only thing you want is to feel better!

The Remedy Method includes any intervention that will help mitigate the effects that come from “processing” a cold or flu. It may be the body itself that is responsible for healing and repair, but most of us do not demonstrate patience as a primary quality.  The Remedy Method addresses the question “What can I do in the meantime?”

Many of these steps may not necessarily increase your health, but that’s not the point with this approach.

The point is to FEEL BETTER while you HEAL.

1. Rest.
2. Gargle with salt water.
3. Drink hot tea.
4. Garlic.
5. Take a hot bath.
6. Try a saline nasal rinse.
7. Steam your face.
8. Use zinc acetate lozenges.
9. Put Vicks on your chest and feet.
10. Echinacea.
11. Sleep with your head elevated.
12. Take some Vitamin C.
13. Hot water with lemon.
14. Drink apple cider vinegar.
15. Use a humidifier.

THE HEALTH-BUILDING METHOD

Whether it’s a cold, the flu, or any illness for that matter…the one common thread to prevention and recovery is the strength of the immune system.

The Health Building Method is by far the best approach to follow as the result of your efforts will save you more pain and suffering than any remedy ever could!

1. Eat real food. 

Keep it simple. Healthy animal protein & fats, vegetables & fruits, safe starches. Everything else, either reduce to a minimum or remove entirely.

2. Train.

Lift weights and sprint. Sure, you can add in some other stuff but don’t expect results without the fundamentals.

3. Fill in the gaps.

Omega 3s, vitamin D, and probiotics. Thousands of additional supplements can be found on the shelves but very few will yield much impact. Start and stick with the basics.

4. Get quality rest.

Turn off your phones, get to bed prior to midnight, and wake up early.

5. Build your brain.

Have your spine and nervous system examined by a Corrective Chiropractor. Sounds odd, but it’s not…once you understand how the body works.

WHICH METHOD IS BEST?

It depends.

What are you trying to accomplish?

Are you interested in only feeling better or would you prefer to heal well and recover?

There’s no need to choose…

These two methods can be combined, just be sure to make The Health Building Method your primary, day-to-day approach.

What remedies have helped you? Let us know!

Dr. Steven Gall has been offering exceptional chiropractic care to infants, children and adults for over 25 years. He has spent his life learning, and improving his knowledge, skills and ability to provide his care. As a public speaker and health coach he strives to assist people in seeing and attaining a life of extraordinary health. Contact the office to join others who have started the same journey.

There’s little question measuring posture can be a helpful assessment tool, but what can bad posture tell you about your child’s future health?

THE MASTER CONTROL SYSTEM

The spine is the central protective casing for the delicate and vital communication system within the human frame. This makes its structure and function paramount to the health of the body in general.

Your Neuro-Structural System (spine and nervous system) makes up the primary input-output pathways for information to and from the brain, coordinate complex movements, as well as play a unique role in the health of your brain.

Damaging one’s posture can come from many individual sources, but more likely, it’s a combination of many or all of these potential factors ranging from child birth, car seats, back packs, sitting, injuries, inactivity and chronic stress just to highlight a few.

HOW DOES BAD POSTURE AFFECT CHILDREN?

While we recognize the fact that bad posture will affect us as we age, most overlook its origin and the opportunity to correct it long before it becomes a major source of dysfunction and increasingly difficult to alter.

Here are some of the outcomes bad posture in your children today could lead to in their future.

1. ABNORMAL BONE GROWTH

Wolff’s Law states that bone in a healthy person will adapt to the loads under which it is placed. Simply put, abnormal postural stress and current loads will alter bone development.

This is one of the reasons a postural problem now could easily become a structural problem in the future and with that, become far more challenging to correct.

One study of 154 10 year olds showed 9% were already demonstrating disc degeneration in within their developing spines.

Osteoporosis and arthritis aren’t conditions a child should need to worry about but with excessive spinal stress and the high level of youth inactivity…it’s starting to be the case.

2. MENTAL HEALTH

In a 2015 study from Health Psychology, researchers noted participants with poor posture were more fearful, hostile, nervous, quiet, still, passive, dull, sleepy, and sluggish.

A survey published in 2012 in the journal Biofeedback indicated there was a link between posture and mental health, particularly mood, anxiety, and stress.

Whether it’s the chicken or the egg, posture seems to influence how feel about ourselves, how we handle our stress and how happy we ultimately are.

3. LUNG FUNCTION & LIFE SPAN

Uncorrected postural problems can play a role in age-related postural issues such as dowager’s hump and excessive kyphosis.

The long-term effects of these conditions may include reduced pulmonary function and even a reduction in life span!

4. HORMONES

In a Ted Talk well worth watching, researcher Amy Cuddy explains how changes in our position affect us at the deepest levels including our hormones. Altering our posture dramatically impacted both testosterone and cortisol, two key hormones in controlling our long term health.

The long-term implications of excessive cortisol production alone are dramatic…destruction of healthy muscle and bone, slowing down healing and normal cell regeneration, impairment of digestion, metabolism, and mental function, interference with healthy endocrine function, and a weakening of your immune system.

Dr. Steven Gall has been offering exceptional chiropractic care to infants, children and adults for over 25 years. He has spent his life learning, and improving his knowledge, skills and ability to provide his care. As a public speaker and health coach he strives to assist people in seeing and attaining a life of extraordinary health. Contact the office to join others who have started the same journey.