Today I took a big crunchy bite into a new apple variety I found at the store. It was delicious!
Not Delicious, like the type of apple, but delicious as in sweet, firm, and tasty delicious. It was called a Snapdragon Apple from New York State.
My first one.
I must confess to only eating that apple because I’d caught a cold this week. And I remembered the old phrase…
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
Perhaps you’ve heard it too?
The phrase rhymes, it’s short, and easy to remember. Makes good sense too, based on what the doctors and nutritionists have been saying forever.
That phrase is really the poster child for WE SHOULD EAT MORE FRUIT TO STAY HEALTHY, PREVENT GETTING SICK, AND CONSEQUENTLY NOT BE NEEDING THOSE DOCTORS.
Simple. sound advice. And they even taste good. Apples. If you don’t like Delicious, or Snapdragon, how about Empire Apples, my favorite. Or Fuji, the sweetest, or Honeycrisp? Did you know there are over 7500 varieties of eating apples worldwide. Surely there’s one you’d like!
So I’m wondering, as I eat my first Snapdragon apple, if they taste so good, and we know they are good for us, why don’t we eat the apple a day?
More importantly, why did I wait until I was sick to eat one. That’s a bit like closing the barn door after the horse has already run off!
Humans eh?
The late, great Jim Rohn put it this way, regarding not just apples, but all of our habits…
“It’s easy to eat an apple a day.” “It’s also easy not to.”
It’s easy to do one pushup a day. Easy not to.
Easy to make one phone call to a client or old friend. Easy not to.
Probably easy to make that one small move which brings you closer to your goal, but hey, it’s also easy not to.
It’s the apple you won’t eat that potentially harms you.
The goal you don’t pursue.
Because you’re in that rut of not doing.
They say habits (good and bad) take about 21 days to become ingrained in our behavior. Could be more, could be less based on how much emotion and purpose you attach to it. James Clear has a great book called “Atomic Habits” where you can learn more about habits, changing them, and acquiring them..
Jerry Seinfeld is known widely for his ritualistic habit of writing a joke or bit every day. He kept a calendar to X off the day in red to be sure he never missed a day. Never break the chain was his rule.
Not all of his jokes or bits turned out to be great, of course. And whether you liked Jerry Seinfeld or you didn’t, there is no denying the fact that he became one of the richest comedians in the world.
A joke a day. Easy to do. Easy not to do.
What are you NOT doing daily, that you know could be beneficial if you would do it?
Why not fix that today. Go on. Do it now and mark it on your calendar.
Then, as Fleetwood Mac sang, “Never Break The Chain“.
Maybe you remember this oldey but goodie, “Inch by Inch, It’s a Cinch!”
Start. However small today. Then watch it grow.
Like an apple tree. Bearing fruit beyond your imagination for years to come.
It’s never too late to change. To grow.
I’m off to the store now to grab me s’more Snapdragons!
“Bene Vivere!”
Elderbob
P.S. Ever wonder why these quaint little sayings have hung around for generations? Because there are simple truths in them. A plan, a roadmap, a guide for our betterment. Have you ignored them? Too simplistic to work? They’re certainly not too hard. How has your current plan been working? Are you up for a change? Or for the same? Only action creates change.
