We all have good intentions. It seems like everyone wants to live a healthy life. It’s common to hear well-intentioned folks ramble on about reaping the rewards that flow from being conscientious, doing the right thing, avoiding destructive behaviors, and making healthful choices. Is it all just talk, or can we really live fuller, longer, and happier lives?
Wouldn’t it be helpful to know, in advance, about a few of life’s traps, pitfalls, dangers, and risks? Often, people fall into bad habits without even noticing, come to their senses a few years later, and are too ensconced in the new, destructive behavior to pull themselves back together. Knowing in advance about any type of danger is a good thing. With that attitude in mind, here are a few of the most prevalent failings adults tend to fall victim to as they live their lives.
Smoking
Millions of people have a strange, unsettling feeling when they reach their mid-twenties, as it’s as though they just realized they’re in the grip of a smoking addiction. Most have trouble quitting, a few do so easily, and a number of them never give up the habit. If you have fallen into the smoking trap, for whatever reason, try to first read the warning on the side of the pack you just smoked. Go online and research some of the raw statistics about smoking and its relationship to all sorts of horrible physical problems, both short- and long-term.
Then multiply the average price per pack, currently over $6, by 365 to see how much cash you can save by giving up your pack-a-day habit. It’s almost $2,200, every single year. Use the cash reward as your incentive to quit, and think about the health benefits you discover while doing research. $2,200 per year is just the monetary cost of smoking. Don’t forget to factor in the cost of future medical bills, lost years of life, low-quality health status, and the very real physical pain of disease. Avoid the smoking trap and you’ll be doing yourself a huge favor.
The Risky Lifestyle, High-Cost Life Insurance Pitfall
There is yet another reason to stop smoking, decrease excessive alcohol consumption, and not take up risky sports. By doing so, you can buy life insurance at much more favorable rates. But that’s not all. When you purchase life coverage from a reputable carrier, it’s possible to sell the policy whenever you need money. This ready-made source of cash can help finance a child’s college education, pay off a house, or serve as a way to pay off medical bills.
In fact, it’s as simple as going online and checking out how much you can get by selling your policy. All you need to do is plug a few simple numbers into an online calculator to estimate the total value of the policy in a matter of seconds. Risky lifestyles that include tobacco use, sports with a high risk of death or serious injury, and other dangerous behaviors lock you out of low-cost life insurance, and sometimes will prevent you from even purchasing a policy altogether.
Check with your insurance agent and ask what sports are considered extreme according to your life insurance policy. Definitions vary from region to region and company to company. Often, activities like hang gliding, rock climbing, sky diving, and spelunking are on high risk lists that bar applicants from purchasing life insurance or cause rates to be unusually high, regardless of a person’s age or general state of health.
Alcohol/Dangerous Drugs
There’s nothing inherently wrong with enjoying a drink now and then, but excessive use of alcohol, and even occasional use of illegal drugs, can lead to problems like costly traffic citations, arrest, incarceration, loss of a job, financial problems, and more. If you even suspect that you have a problem with alcohol or illegal drugs, speak with a social service agency and see about getting no-cost help to break the habit.
Constant Worrying
Some problems are not as obvious as drug, alcohol, or tobacco use. For instance, if you’re a constant worrier, tend to place yourself under loads of stress, and often find it hard to sleep because you can’t stop thinking about life’s difficulties, you are not alone. The good news is that it’s not so difficult to learn coping behaviors like meditation, deep relaxation, and similar strategies.
The awful aspect of stress is that it has the potential to lower your quality of living, interfere with emotional stability, and eventually cause a wide range of physical problems as well. If you are a worrier, speak with your physician and ask for a recommendation about a strategy that suits your personality and particular stress level. There are multiple effective approaches for relieving the mental burden that comes with excessive worry. Many people find relief from relaxation therapy, support groups, yoga, and moderate exercise.
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