Why You Should Not Wait Until Intervention Is Needed

English: Rusted car in Providence Canyon State...

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When you own your own vehicle, you know there are certain steps you need to take to keep your car running well.

You need to routinely change the oil. Change the brakes when they are going bad.

You need to keep the fluids full. Keep your tires fully inflated.
If you do not do these basic, preventative measures your car will not run properly.

If you do not change your oil, your engine may seize. If you are driving with bad brakes, you may not be able to stop your car.

Taking the preventative route and making sure you are maintaining your car prevents the costly expense of repairing it.

Your car benefits from preventative maintenance. So could your life!

Prevention is better than cure.
— Desiderius Erasmu

We often forget to take preventative measures in our lives even though it will save us money, time, and trouble. We look for the miraculous intervention.

We tell ourselves that there are prescription drugs, marriage counseling to prevent the impending divorce, or other extreme measures to cure us.

The most neglected areas of our lives tend to be:

  • Our Health
    We go, go, go. We feed ourselves junk food. We give up a good nights sleep.Because of our bad habits, we end up needing extreme intervention. Many people “need” heart surgery because they neglected to take the preventive measures that would have stopped it.

    You can do preventative maintenance on your health by exercising, eating healthier foods, and by getting a full 6-8 hours of sleep every night. By simply doing a few things different, your health could greatly improve.

  • Our Relationships
    You love your spouse, your children, and your parents. You want a great relationship with them, or so you say.Yet you are never home. When you are home, you are not in the same room as them or you are on the phone. You are not paying attention to those that matter to you.

    The divorce papers, rebellious attitude of your child, or death of your parents hit you out of the blue. You never saw it coming. You were not taking the time to deposit into the lives of those you love.

    Put the cell phone away. Take your wife and children in your arms and spend quality time showing them that you care.

    I was recently introduced to the idea of doing marriage counseling even while your marriage is in great shape. You are able to work out any issues in a safe forum before they explode. I find it an intriguing idea.

    Find a hobby that you and your child could do together. Build model airplanes together. Participate in a father-son league. Or teach him a manly craft.

    Stop by your parents house and visit more than once a year. Let them know that they still matter to you. Share your life and what is happening. They will love it!

  • Our Finances
    Your bank has sent you a foreclosure notice, your bank account is dry. You are desperate. Where did all the money go?Most of the time, these situations can be avoided by taking preventative steps.

    Create a budget and tell your money where it will be going. Get rid of the credit cards. Setup an emergency fund.

    If a crisis hits, your finances will be in better shape and you can avoid these scary situations.

Image: John Kasawa / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The main reason we fail to take the proper steps to prevent a circumstance from happening is because we cannot see the results.

Instead, you can see the immediate results of intervention. The surgery that cured your bad heart. The program that helped you kick the addiction.

You cannot easily measure the effect of prevention. You cannot say that the counseling prevented the divorce. That your healthy diet prevented the heart disease. That your child stayed on the straight and narrow because you spent time with him.

The results are there, we just have a harder time seeing how they came to be.

By taking the above mentioned steps, you can prevent many of the fires in your life. You will save time, money, and energy by investing in prevention instead of intervention.

It’s better to try, no matter how awkward you feel, than not to try it at all. Would you rather deal with the consequences or the prevention?
— John Allen

Question: In what areas of your life do you need to do preventative maintenance? Do you think you could see a dramatic difference in your life if you did? Please share your answers in the comment section below.

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