Are You OK with Normal?
What is interesting to me is how we are so comfortable falling back into “normal.” I was at my annual physical recently and the doctor shared that an element on my blood work came back “within the normal range of people your age.” That sounded good… until I thought about people my age. A lot of them don’t work out. A lot of them eat fast food. A lot of them drink tons of coffee. A lot of them get less than the healthy amount of sleep. A lot of them spend hours on social media. A lot of them do a lot of stuff that I don’t think is good! I am not sure I want to be in “normal range” with them. I want to be in the right range for me.
Why do we settle for what is normal instead of championing for what is right for us? The second we start settling for normal is the second we settle for less than we can achieve.
Let’s look at sleep:
What is normal when it comes to sleep? US adults get less sleep then would be ideal, "with the average reported 6.8 hours” a night. We all know 7-8 hours is recommended to maintain a healthy body weight, improve concentration and productivity, maximize athletic performance, minimize risk of heart disease, stroke, and other medical concerns, enhance your immune functioning, and benefit your relationships (from healthline). But if we stick with normal… we are getting under seven hours of sleep and putting our health, our productivity, and our relationships at risk.
If you want to look at what time you wake up, 66% of people wake up after 6:00am (49% between 6:00 and 7:30 and 17% after 8:00am). So it is normal to wake up after 6:00… even normal to wake up closer to 7:30.
Let’s look at food:
36.6% of US adults consume fast food on any given day. In a 2016 Rudd Center report, 91% of parents said they had purchased lunch or dinner for their child in the previous week at a fast-food restaurant. It is pretty normal to eat fast food. But that doesn’t mean it is healthy. We know eating whole foods are better than eating processed foods. However, it is easier
Let’s look at email:
"The average professional spends 28% of their work day reading and answering email.” Again, it’s normal to spend 2.6 hours a day on email. Just because it is normal doesn’t mean it is good. In fact, we constantly find statistics about multitasking and know that it takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds to fully recover after an interruption. This statistic is staggering… and mean lost time and decreased productivity. So yes, it is normal to waste all that time… but is that really what we want?
Let’s look at exercise:
Less than 5% of adults participate in 30 minutes of physical activity each day. That means 95% of adults get under 30 minutes of physical activity each day. That doesn’t even mean a hard work out. So it is normal to not work out. But, yet again, we know the benefits of working out - decreased risk of illness, increased energy, more self confidence, healthier body image.
Everyday you get to ask yourself - do you want to be normal or do you want to thrive?
Stop accepting the normal as what needs to be true for you. Start challenging the normal and figuring out what will allow you to be the best version of yourself.
