Success isn’t just about reaching the top; it’s about making sure you’re strong enough to stay there.
Success doesn’t come from a place of neglect, pain, or sacrifice of our well-being. It comes from a space where health—physical, emotional, and mental—is given the attention it demands.
Boost Your Energy and Productivity: The 10 Health Habits for High Performers
We still lived on Belknap Street, around 2016 or 2017. I taught at Great Bay Community College and worked twelve-hour shifts at Just Say Rock in the mills on weekends, cleaning silk screens for t-shirt printing. My wife was in grad school, and I took the second job to help put her through the program.
For years, I kept telling doctors there was something wrong with my foot. Some days, I even walked with a cane, and the pain—while it came and went—was like constant background noise.
The Breaking Point: Physical and Emotional Toll
I used to work in a delivery warehouse packing trucks, and after a five-hour shift on that hard cement floor, I could barely walk to my car. But I could still walk. At JSR, though, it was different. The place was close enough to our Belknap Street home that I could have walked, but instead, found myself sitting, waiting for my wife to pick me up. I’d get so angry when she parked across the street instead of right where I was sitting.
Then one morning, just before the Fourth of July, I woke up, and my ankle pointed to the left at a 90-degree angle. Finally, a doctor listened. “Well, I guess you weren’t making that up,” they said. Until that moment, I’d been told repeatedly, I was too young to be in that kind of pain.
You know, at that point in my life, I was old enough and mature enough to finally fire my doctor.
Feeling Defeated: Independence Day Reflections
That Fourth of July, the city lit fireworks downtown at Henry Law Park. My two kids walked down with my wife. I sat in the dark in the living room chair downing crappy Seagram’s Jamaican Me Crazy Wine Coolers, watching Will Smith’s Independence Day, and an entire Jack’s Pizza in my lap. Sometimes, I hobbled out to the front steps to light a cigarette and listened to the cracking fireworks from only a few blocks away. I was mad, I was depressed, and felt like my life was completely over with.
Losing My Job: A Harsh Reality
Eventually, JSR fired me. I asked why, and they looked at me sideways and said, “Dude, you couldn’t stand.” And that was true. In the classroom, I began jokingly telling my students who sat in the front row their job was to catch me when I fell. Except it wasn’t a joke, because I did fall in the classroom and a number of my students did catch me.
After my ankle had turned sideways, my crappy doctor sent me to a specialist who fit me with an Arizona brace, which when I put on for the first time, and stood, took just a few steps, and though still in immense pain, the brace held me. I didn’t fall. Instead, I collapsed into the chair, buried my face in my hands, and cried—absolutely elated I could walk and not worry about my head hitting pavement.
The Downward Spiral: Unhealthy Habits and Struggles
I think one of the reasons I remained at Great Bay Community College for as long as I did was because my physical and mental health was so bad, I couldn’t see any other path toward success.
I smoked Camel Blues. Drank Mountain Dew constantly. Donuts and orange juice for breakfast. McDonald’s was my favorite meal. On top of all that, my wife and I were on the verge of a divorce, the only thing keeping us together was that a divorce was too expensive, and we couldn’t afford separate rents. But let me tell you, we were both in secret perusing Zillow and Apartments.com, scheming our individual escapes from each other.
The Vicious Cycle: Pain, Depression, and Work
You know, this is all a chicken and egg scenario. Did the osteoarthritis cause the depression and anger, or was it the other way around? Did the pain keep me stuck in a low-paying adjunct position, or did the job make me ignore my pain? Was our failing marriage the result of financial stress, or was the constant pain and frustration pushing us apart?
Gary Keller writes in The One Thing, “Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls—family, health, friends, integrity are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.” You can’t easily repair broken trust, missed time with loved ones, or lost health. You must put first the things in life that, if damaged, might not fully recover.
The Battle Against Smoking: Quitting for Myself
My wife had been pushing me to quit smoking forever. Even though she herself smoked. We both struggled with nicotine. She’d go through a pack every couple of days. I burned three packs a day. She blamed a lot of what we were going through on those three packs a day. And you know, I really tried to quit for her. Wellbutrin was an amazing drug that made me happy while I smoked. Chantix gave me hallucinations and incredibly violet thoughts. The patch was the best thing ever, because when I wasn’t smoking I was still getting nicotine. Cold turkey only worked for a few months at a time at the most, until I eventually found myself puffing in secret. Therapy never helped. 1-800 QUIT NOW was a joke, and I guess what’d we expect from a stop smoking service funded by Big Tobacco.
It wasn’t until I decided to quit for myself that I actually stopped smoking with the help of an addiction therapist who specialized in heroin and meth. She said I was the toughest patient she had dealt with. But from there, I stopped eating fast food, quit Mountain Dew, lost a quick ten pounds, started selling real estate, and immediately found myself peeing every half hour or so. I’m not talking little tinkles either. I’m talking five-minute solid streams. Something was really wrong.
A New Diagnosis: Diabetes and Health Changes
I called my new doctor, and she immediately informed me I had diabetes. I didn’t understand. Hadn’t I turned my life around? Hadn’t I stopped smoking, stopped drinking Mountain Dew, stopped eating McDonald’s? But I had ignored my health for far too long, and I was too late. I broke my body in a way I will never fully recover from.
You know, I have some really big big life goals. I trust you too have some really big big life goals as well. Don’t let your health get in the way.
Climbing Back: A Symbolic Victory
When I was first told I had zero cartilage in my ankle, a few weeks after sitting home alone during the Fourth of July feeling sorry for myself, I strapped on my new brace and climbed a 76 foot-tall observation tower at Garrison Hill. The current metal and wood tower was built in 1993, and registered as a national historical site. Okay, look: I graduated from high school in 1991, so maybe I should be registered as a historical site too? But this is the third tower at this site.
Rebuilding the Body: A Metaphor for Life
The original tower was designed by architect B.D. Stewart, was similar in design to a tower at Coney Island, and was known as Haley’s and Ham’s Outlook. There was a restaurant at the base. At the top, you could see the skyline and examine the White Mountains via telescope. In 1911, Haley’s and Ham’s burned. In 1913, another tower was built, this time all steel and commissioned by Abbey Sawyer to honor her late husband. This second tower stood until it was removed in 1990 due to safety concerns. The 1993 tower was built by volunteers and donations. Just like the tower, my body has undergone breakdowns and rebuilds.
The Never-Ending Journey
This November, I’ll be attending a follow-up appointment regarding my ankle bone fusion surgery. My A1C had been at a 8.1 when I first discussed the surgery this past June. That sugar level needs to hit below 7. I’m so exhausted-bored eating chicken and salad. Chicken and salad. Always pricking my finger. Checking sugar levels. And did you know that Special K has more sugar than Cinamon Toast Crunch? When I was first diagnosed with diabetes, my doctor hooked me up with a nutritionist. Together we designed a diet. I cut the fast food, most breads, switched from a regular pasta to a protein plus pasta. The whole idea of food for me has required and continues to require an entire new mindset.
Persistence Over Perfection: Building Habits
But all of that is okay. Look, I’m not going to bore you with all the research on how health is connected to success.
You can read the articles yourself. And I’ve handpicked some here:
- The CDC Workplace Health Model
- Regular Exercise Changes the Brain to Improve Memory, Thinking Skills
- Mental Health and Sleep
- The Vital Link Between Wellbeing and Career Success
- The Effects of Exercise on Earnings: Evidence from the NLSY
- Exercising at Work and Self-Reported Work Performance
Prioritizing health isn’t about perfection. It’s about persistence. Whether it’s climbing a physical tower, tackling diabetes, or coming to terms with a surgery you don’t want but need, the path to success starts with making your health a priority. The small changes—like shifting your mindset about food or working with your doctor to find the best course of action for your body—become the building blocks for greater achievements.
Success isn’t just about reaching the top; it’s about making sure you’re strong enough to stay there.
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