Shipulski On Design

We have growth targets, stretch goals, corporate initiatives, and improvement plans.  If we achieve all this but it comes at the expense of our health, what do we really have?

When we have our health, we can forget we have it and take it for granted.  We forget we can easily get into our car and drive ourselves to work and remember to complain about traffic. We forget that some cannot walk from the car to the office but that it is easy for us.  We forget that not everyone can muster the energy to work a full day but take for granted that we can do it day in and day out.

The most effective way to remember our health is important is to lose it. But losing it for real is no way to go.  So how can we lose it temporarily and in an easily reversible way?  Here’s one way to give it a go.

Buy two wooden yardsticks (1-meter measuring sticks) to use as leg splints and some heavy adhesive tape.  Measure your inseam, subtract 4 inches (100mm), and cut the pieces of wood to length.  Place the splints on the inside and outside of your leg and tape them in place.  The objective is to prevent your knee from bending, so place them accordingly, and don’t be shy with the tape.

With your straight leg, walk to different rooms in your house.  Walk up and down stairs.  Walk down the street or around the block. Walk to your car and try to get in.  If you can get in, try to put your foot on the gas pedal and brake to show yourself how difficult it would be to drive. Try to ride a bicycle.

With the wooden splints still on your leg, go back in the house and spend two hours doing the things you’d normally do – cooking, cleaning, laundry, eating.  After two hours, take off the splints and reflect on the experience.  Ask yourself how you feel about your ability to walk now that you experienced an inability to walk.  Then think about it more abstractly.  Think of your straight leg as a surrogate for the loss of your health.  What would it mean to lose your health?  How do you feel about that?

I hope this little experiment can help you appreciate what you have.  It helped me.

Image credit — toastal

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