Spring Tune Up for Your Health by Cindy Stradling CSP, CPC

Spring is the time of year when all things are new. Our minds turn to spring cleaning, swapping out winter clothes for summer ones and renewing the look of the front of our home. As you’re contemplating all these other items, don’t forget to maintain your health, too.

It’s easy to forget little things like yearly physicals, having your teeth cleaned, or getting those recommended tests that come with age, but it’s important not to let these items be forgotten.

Maintaining your health through regular checkups and preventive tests and procedures is no different than maintaining your home or car. If you don’t clean out the gutters and have the oil changed, it will lead to problems that take far more time and cost far more money to repair. Maintenance is a way of protecting your investment, and what bigger investment do you have than your health?

Routine physicals and preventive measures take little time and cost little money. In fact, most preventive measures are fully covered by health or dental insurance because insurance underwriters understand that it’s cheaper to cover the preventive maintenance than to have to pay to fix the health problem later. That’s a lesson we’d all do well to internalize.

Maintaining your health is important for your family. They depend on you and need you to be in top form. You can’t take care of them if you don’t take care of yourself first. In addition, teaching your children that health maintenance is important will help to set them up to be conscious of their own health later in life.

Maintaining your health is a smart business move, too. Your business is an investment, and you are that investment’s most important asset. If you lose time due to sickness, the business suffers. Too much time lost to sickness could ruin the business entirely.

So, as you make your “to do” list for the spring, take a look at your health records. If you’ve neglected having checkups or preventive procedures, get these on the calendar as soon as possible. The time away from work or other activities you’ll have to devote to getting caught up is nothing compared to what it could cost you in time, money and well-being if you choose to neglect yourself and have health issues as a result.