As part of my annual physical in December, my blood was drawn and a few days later I got a call from my doctor with the results.
As with past years, I am doing well except for my HDL (good cholesterol) being slightly low (37), the medical profession likes it to be at least 40. What was different than previous years was that my Triglyceride level is high (243) where under 200 is considered ok, and under 150 is the goal. Until I overheard two older ladies discussing their Triglyceride levels in a local Costco about five years back I had never even given a thought about my Triglyceride levels. Times change. I just turned 44.
During the initial phone call with my doctor, he mentioned that I cut down on baked goods and other sugar based products. After the call, I realized it wasn’t specific enough for me on what I needed to do. So, in early January, I made an appointment to visit with the explicit purpose to really understand what are the one or two specific things that I could do, to lower my triglyceride level. The answer: lower my daily intake of carbohydrates and increase exercise. Shocking!
So why am I sharing this information publicly. Because I am committing to myself that without medicine within one year will I not only lower my Triglyceride level to below 150 but that I will also raise my HDL level above 40 as part of my overall goal of living a healthier life.
Reducing my daily intake of carbohydrates has opened up a whole new world for me. Now, when making decisions on what food to eat or in a specific category, like cereal to buy, I have an easy way to do it. All things being equal, what is the amount of carbohydrate grams per serving?
As for exercise, it has always been hard for me to stay motivated, because there hasn’t been a purpose that mattered to me. Until now.
By making this declaration public, I speculate I have now made it more likely that I will continue to do the right activities, towards lowering my triglycerides and raising my HDL, at least until my next blood test in about 5 months.
Is there something truly important in your business that has had a lack of focus for you? Perhaps increasing 1st appointments with prospects, or building a scalable sales team, or developing a strong brand, or perhaps making that COO hire to help you grow. Make a declaration to yourself, even better to your team or the world and increase the chance of you working on making it come true.
(Note: A great example of a public commitment by a business is Salesforce.com’s trust dashboard regarding their Service Performance History.)
Jeff, good luck with your efforts! I too have low HDL (I've been around 40 since I was 30 years old) and have not had a ton of success raising it even though I do a lot of the things they suggest. My doctor isn't too concerned because my LDL has always been around 120. But I'm always looking for ways to increase HDL, so any findings you have please share!
In terms of exercise, early signup for the Spring Lake 5 starts Tuesday 2/1. My daughter and I will be running... want to join us? It's Memorial Day weekend, plenty of time to train, and perfect timing for your 5 month plan.
Posted by: Scott Barnett | 01/30/2011 at 01:19 PM
Cool Scott,thanks for sharing, my LDL is in good shape as well (95). As for the run, great idea and experience to do with your daughter and would love to join, but I can't, knees won't let me.
Posted by: Jeff Silbert | 01/30/2011 at 02:54 PM
Hi Jeff,
This is awesome! I reposted it on my Facebook Fan Page as an example of allowing oneself to be held accountable by others.
Petia :)
Posted by: Petia A. Bradshaw | 02/01/2011 at 12:35 AM
That's great, thanks Petia.
Posted by: Jeff Silbert | 02/01/2011 at 07:06 AM
Nice--I suggest a little dashboard in your newsletter to show the monitoring of your progress on attaining your goal.
Posted by: Rich Aguinaldo | 02/01/2011 at 09:10 AM
The only thing wrong with Salesforce's public commitment is that they do not have an SLA. It's great to see how well the company can keep their server running and online. However a few years ago they had several outages in a single month; With at least 4 hours during the business day. We inquired about a service level credit and was told "Salesforce.com does not offer an SLA" Well I told them we were going to leave because as we expect a company that is a Software as a Service we expect 100% uptime. Two months later we left and have never looked back. Its one thing to show transparency. It takes a 100% customer commitment to back it up with an SLA which unfortunately Salesforce.com does not have.
Posted by: Mike Galkin | 02/01/2011 at 09:27 AM
Fantastic point Richard, a great addition to the blood test would be to create a daily/weekly/monthly carbohydrate, calorie and exercise goal so I could measure on my own as well as publicly post every day leading up to the blood test. That is a much stronger commitment!
Posted by: Jeff Silbert | 02/01/2011 at 09:42 AM
Thanks for the point Mike. Salesforce.com should post their SLA or lack of one if that is the case on their trust site so current and prospective customers can factor that in their decision. I am a big proponent of transparency.
Also although they are measuring uptime they do not appear to have a public goal that they are trying to reach (there may be a private goal that they do not share).
Posted by: Jeff Silbert | 02/01/2011 at 09:49 AM
Jeff,
Really cool idea to post this, I wish you the best of luck.
Tony
Posted by: Tony Elder | 02/01/2011 at 11:48 AM
Thanks Tony
Posted by: Jeff Silbert | 02/01/2011 at 11:50 AM