Be the CEO (of your health)
Congratulations! You have just been promoted to the CEO…of your health. A very important position, maybe one of the most important positions for this time in our lives. This promotion does come with a significant amount of responsibility. I hope you are up for the challenge.
Please allow me to answer the question that may be on your mind right now. What??? What are we talking about here, and why is my doctor not the CEO, they seem to be better qualified for the role. Fair questions, let’s explore.
Simply speaking, the CEO, or Chief Executive Officer, provides leadership and strategic direction to ensure long term success. In our discussion, long term success for our health. Good so far, but the doctor could still play this role, or so we are thinking. The deciding factor- who has the highest level of vested interest in the outcome? And who is closest to the “daily operations”? Yep, this would be us. We need to be the CEO. Job accepted.
Let’s explore our (new) responsibilities.
Setting strategic direction and goals: Let’s not overcomplicate this. Do we want to be healthy or not? How long do we want to live? And how much effort are we willing to make to achieve these goals? I think this is a good place to start. Let’s go!
Build the team: This is where the doctor(s) come in. We also need friends/advocates who support our goals. Building the right team is critical for our success.
Continuous learning: We need to watch the science for potential changes, threats and opportunities. Caution with Dr. Google, however there is some great information that we should know. Healthcare today is much different than 10 years ago, and it will continue to change as new knowledge is discovered.
Process improvement: Change is one of the truths in life. Fact for our health as well. It will change, we need to focus on taking it in the right direction.
Manage with metrics: We need to make data-driven decisions. The field of diagnostics and biometrics is growing and becoming more available for us to better understand our health and take action to prevent problems. Do the basics plus get you ApoB measured, know your calcium score, look at your TgAb, ANA, IGF-1, ApoE, and maybe go crazy with an epigenetic test to measure your biological age. This is CEO kinda knowledge. We need to know!
Ask the right questions: Our health is complicated. But nobody knows how we feel better than us. We need to advocate for ourselves and look for answers by asking the right, sometime difficult questions.
Be proactive: Peter Attia in his book Outlive introduces the concept of Medicine 3.0. The old way to manage our health was to take action when we get sick. The new 3.0 is all about getting ahead of any problems. Live a healthy life, see doctors on a regular basis, get the tests and take action. Avoid getting sick, or at least catch problems early.
Be resilient: We will have setbacks. As we age it becomes more likely, go figure. But it is how we we handle set backs that will determine our future. Optimimism operates from hope for the future and finds a way to “get it done”
Make difficult decisions: Yep, the buck stops here, with the CEO. Decisions about healthcare are often made in uncertain environments. We should collect all of the facts from our team of experts (#2) and we make decisions. We would not want it any other way.
Have a vision for the future: This may be the most important role for the CEO. It is up to us to ensure long term success. Someone once said we get “old” when we don’t see a future. Let’s not stop looking.
Enjoy your day,
Just a little extra-
This is a big job. When it comes to our health we need to be in charge. It will not always be easy, but being a CEO is not easy.
I wish you all the best in your new role, and of course I wish you a great deal of success.
Let’s do this!
References
Dooley,Roger. June 6, 2024. What is a Cheif Executive Officer. Forbes
Cush, Jack. March 16, 2016. Be the CEO of Your Health. Rheum Now
Rossiter, Rob. January 24, 2023. How to Become The CEO of Your Health. Forbes
Hospital Stay. March 17, 2024. Yep, I learned a lot. Primary Research (not on purpose)