Self-Care Should Be Your Number One Goal in 2024 and Beyond

The easiest way to love someone else is to love yourself first

According to the Oxford Dictionary, self-care is “the practice of taking an active role in protecting one’s own well-being and happiness.”

Most people associate self-care with only physical health, but I think it also encompasses all aspects of your life: mental health, relationships, financial well-being, and any personal passions that you enjoy.

Self-care requires action; success in any aspect of life requires action.

“The biggest difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people are willing to do what unsuccessful people are not.” — Darren Hardy

I’d argue that prioritizing self-care is the most important thing you can do in life.

You cannot be the best version of yourself or reach your full potential unless you do the work to care for yourself first.

This is not selfish; rather, it is the exact opposite. It is a way to show others love.

Being healthy and available for your family and friends is the most selfless thing you can do for them, after all:

“Life is a single player game.” — Naval Ravikant

No one can save you except yourself.

Think about this for a moment. On every commercial flight before takeoff, the flight attendants always go through the procedure on how to put on your oxygen mask in case of an emergency where the cabin pressure drops.

So, what is the most important part of the instruction?

Put YOUR oxygen mask on FIRST.

You are no help to anyone else if you pass out and the plane is full of unconscious people.

Self-care works the same way; you cannot help your friends and family if you don’t take care of yourself first.

Plus, there’s no better way to show love to your family than not to be a burden to them. The only way to ensure that is to do the work by taking care of yourself first.

My own transformation into prioritizing self-care started in late 2019. I noticed how puffy my face looked in my new company badge photo and knew it was time to do something. I was ashamed and embarrassed to see how much I had let myself go.

I was athletic and thin well into my late 20s, but that soon ended after I quit smoking in 2009. I went from 135 pounds to 192 pounds in a year after quitting.

When I quit, I had to have something in my mouth at all times to replace the habit of smoking, so I traded Marlboros for Oreos, Snickers, Doritos, Twizzlers, or anything else I could get my hands on.

In the process, I traded my slim waste for a double chin and man boobs.

Even though my weight ping-ponged for the next decade, I had zero interest in going to the gym and lifting weights. I’d rather have a colonoscopy than go to the gym — that’s how much I hated it.

My only workouts consisted of curling a Snickers bar up to my mouth and taking a bite. My idea of fitness was looking at a pizza and saying, “I’m about to ‘fitness’ this whole pizza in my mouth.”

However, looking at that badge photo in 2019 at the age of 37 was an “ah-ha” moment for me and finally forced me to participate actively in my self-care.

I had to do something, so I ordered a treadmill and waited a month for it to arrive.

It was delivered in January 2020, and I started walking—every day, no questions asked, no excuses. I was not concerned with the numbers on the scale; my only focus was walking every day.

Slowly, the pounds started to melt away. It didn’t take long before I could walk longer, faster, and at higher inclines. I physically felt stronger, and the scale started to reward me. By the end of the summer, I had slimmed down to 163 pounds.

This taught me a valuable lesson on self-care — self-care is different for everyone.

I know and accept that I’m not and will never be a gym person, but I love the treadmill, so I walk and run. My wife loves swimming and hates the treadmill, so she swims five days a week. Both are okay.

The secret is to find what you like to do and make a habit of doing it consistently.

Remember the quote above: The only difference between successful and unsuccessful people is that one takes action and the other doesn’t so find something you enjoy and can easily repeat.

You can’t lose 50 pounds if you work out one time for 9 hours, but you can lose 50 pounds if you work out for 20 minutes a day for 9 months.

Consistency is the secret to success, no matter what you are looking to achieve in life, so find something you can be consistent at, and success will be inevitable.

Don’t force something that isn’t right for you, and don’t focus on the results.

Focus on the process and consistency; the results will take care of themselves.

The beauty of self-care is that it is contagious.

Once you accomplish one area that you’ve worked towards, you will automatically look for other areas to improve.

After I slimmed down in 2020, I took on several challenges to improve my self-care: Educating myself on getting out of debt, wealth-building and personal finance, learning mindfulness meditation, overcoming my fear of flying, learning how to practice yoga, and much to my surprise, I started weight training and body-building in the last three months.

It’s never too late to start and practice self-care, so what is it that you want to do to enhance your self-care?

Warren Buffett said it best:

“Imagine that you had a car and that was the only car you’d have for your entire lifetime. Of course, you’d care for it well, changing the oil more frequently than necessary, driving carefully, etc. Now, consider that you only have one mind and one body. Prepare them for life, care for them. You can enhance your mind over time. A person’s main asset is themselves, so preserve and enhance yourself.” — Warren Buffett

Uncle Warren is right. Your number one asset is YOU, so self-care should be your number one focus and priority in 2024 and beyond.

Don’t wait. Each day provides the opportunity to improve.

Whatever it is that you want, you can do it!

Best wishes to you all in 2024.

This article is in response to the Self-Care article/prompt from Liberty Forrest, Author.

Libby Shively McAvoy wrote a powerful article on having the courage to face your fears despite very difficult circumstances.