Wayne E. Nance - 3-Minute Difference. ALTER Your Health, Money, and Relationships Without Changing Who You Are

I want you to let your mind indulge in a little bit of fantasy for a moment. Imagine yourself in a very successful career. Youre making quite a bit of moneywell into six figures. Youve got a gorgeous 6,000-square-foot home with a fancy pool and a waterfall in the backyard. Parked in your three-car garage is an imposing Mercedes-Benz sedan. On your wrist is an enormous Rolex watch, the one with all the diamonds on it that dazzles everyone who sees it. Sound like a life youd care to have?

It did to me. Its the American Dream, after all. And in 1984, I had that dream and more. I was the kid from the poor side of the tracks who had raised himself up by his bootstraps, got a good education, went to the big city, worked hard, and eventually met with success.

And you know what? Theres not a thing wrong with that. If that picture is similar to a dream youve always had, or a dream youve actually attained, I say, Great! Dont give up on that dream. Keep that dream alive.

But know this: if you had seen me living that dream in 1984, youd have said, Wayne Nance has the perfect life. But youd have been dead wrong! Because the truth is, my life was out of control. Meaning that I was making bad decisions that created serious long-term consequences for my happiness, health, wealth, and family.

Do you ever feel as if your world is spinning out of control? A lot of us do in the post-9/11 world, with the economic downturn that followed, the disaster of the stock market and the loss of many peoples retirement funds, the ever-present threat of terrorist attacks, the downsizing of companies and the offshoring of American jobs, the erosion of values as corporate scandals have come to light, and so many other things that make us worry about the future.

Those are serious matters, for sure. But did you know that theres a crisis in America that actually affects more people on a practical, daily basis than any of those world-class headline-grabbers? Its a crisis that shows up all over the place but can be seen most graphically in three areas that all of us deal with every day: the lifestyle issues of food, money, and relationships. To put it bluntly, way too many Americans are fat, broke, and unhappy at home and at work. Consider:

• 67 percent of Americans are estimated to be overweight or obese by Centers for Disease Control (CDC) standards.
• 85 percent of Americans will retire with Social Security benefits as their only means of support. In other words, theyre broke.
• 51 percent of Americans are divorced. Many others remain in marriages that might be called psychological divorce.

Clearly, somethings wrong in America! Especially if you overlay those numbers on top of each other. Just imagine three pie charts showing the 67 percent of Americans who are overweight, the 85 percent who will retire virtually broke, and the 51 percent who are divorced. Stack them on top of one another, and what do you see? That a lot of Americans are all threefat, broke, and unhappy in their relationships. But thats not the worst of it. The saddest thing is that many people struggling with one, two, or even all three of these problems dont even think they have a problem! Take obesity, for example. A 2004 Associated Press poll found that six people out of ten who qualified as overweight by government standards said their weight was just finehealthy, even.

Or consider this observation from the national sales manager of a company that helps small businesses and individuals facing bankruptcy work out settlements with their creditors: From personal experience, I see that as people get further into debt... they start making short-term decisions and dont prioritize their debt correctly.

What happens when someone goes into denial about their debt? They go deeper in debt. They may also start eating. Indeed, The Toque, a satirical Canadian website, imagines a VISA card issued by McDonalds called (you guessed it) the McVISA. The idea is that people will be more likely to eat at McDonalds if they can charge their Big Macs.

With that premise, the site invents twenty-two-year-old Josie Amblin, a student who uses her McVISA card at least ten times a week ! I cant stop, she confesses to a fictitious reporter. Its just so easy to purchase a burger and fries with credit. I know I cant afford to eat at McDonalds this often, but I cant help myself!