#STOP! Ignoring your health

By nature, I’m a pretty happy guy, but the frenetic activity I am surrounded by in the healthcare industry started to wear me down. And it got me thinking. Where had I allowed myself to slip into bad habits that are counterproductive to what I say I want in my life? Like the healthcare workers I serve, my own health scare with high cholesterol, weight gain, and stress made me realize that I needed to #STOP! and take a hard look at myself.

I was traveling three to four days a week and my calendar was a disaster, with back-to-back-to-back meetings and conference calls even as I trudged through an airport or flopped into the back seat of a taxicab. I joined Evolent Health as employee No. 9 in late 2011. Working for a start-up venture is exhilarating and stressful. Our growth has been amazing. In addition to stress at work, my wife Sherry and I got married the same year I joined Evolent and now have a blended family of seven children and five grandsons and two more grandchildren on the way as of this writing. You get the picture. I needed to change myself.

There is no shortage of things on our to-do lists. The question we should be asking ourselves is not what to do but what to STOP doing. What behaviors do people do that if they #STOP! would experience less stress and more joy?

Joy to you!

Eric Parmenter

Author of “STOP! 21 STOPs to Reduce Stress and Enhance Joy”

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