Find Priority In Your Change & Change Will Find You!

Today I’m going to put things into perspective a little. Not only for myself but to share with everyone that change is possible.

I’ve decided to share a little bit about my background and how I got into looking for a better answer when it came to nutrition and how I now OWN every health choice I make!

I follow a 2 part philosophy that someone won’t do better, unless they know better. Part two follows that. Find priority in your change and change will find you.
People often don’t understand or know any better. How can they then be expected to do better? The reverse is also common. People often know what is better for them but have not surrounded it with enough priority or enthusiasm to prompt change. So in order for change to take place, a person would need to first understand a better way, then make it their priority to change.

Sometimes, a person is forced into change i.e. health related illness, emotional energy either expressed by themselves or by an external force like a wife or a child to change their habits and ways, for example. Sometimes change comes from looking at other people, wishing that you yourself had what they had. You might look at these people and say “wow, it’s really working for them! Maybe if I change I can also have it work for me.” (Just to clarify “it” can be anything. It’s your change!)


Now I guess the reason I changed was a little of column A and a little of column B. (emotional and health) I had some pretty restricting health problems and I had seen some things in some people that made me think change needed to be done. It was just that the things I had seen were not very inspiring.

My parents at the time represented a bunch of things that I did not want for my life. They seemed to be un-happy; they were angry, bitter, negative, victims of the world and stressed. This was obvious to anyone who knew them. So instead of me looking at someone I wanted to become, I was seeing and living with people who I knew I didn’t want to become.

Mum, dad if you’re reading this, please know that you gave me the values I now have and am EXTREMELY happy for these gifts. Without you two, I would have not started on my amazing life journey. I might have taken life for granted for a lot longer and missed the multitude of opportunities I have taken already. This is in no way, shape or form an insult to you! You were good parents but you had a very different lifestyle to the one I wanted for myself.

I feel that if you have seen a life that is not right for you, not only seen it, but lived it for a considerable amount of time then it will motivate you to push towards the things you DO want in life, eventually.

Change is not hard, unless that is what you make it. I used fear as a motivator. Fear is a powerful emotion. It pushes us to our best. It can sometimes however devour us in irrational thinking, negative thinking and worst of all, procrastination. The fear of doing NOTHING with my life scares me the most and makes the idea of change an easy one.

Do you have fear in your life? If so, what are you doing to use it as a way to get what you want out of life? After all, life is about growing and achieving the things in your mind that make you happy. It can be anything!

Blame is useless and I don’t blame my poor nutritional habits on my parents. Sure they were older, had more experience, and had the income and the resources to give a better nutritional up bringing. But did they know better? How could they DO better unless they KNEW better? Did they know that through my younger years how important OPTIMAL nutrition was? That because of the foods I was eating it was adding to the chance of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, a bunch of autoimmune disease and hormonal suppression?


There’s no way any parent would do that deliberately. Did they realise that not only was it important for my growth and development of my body but how important it was to my mind and metal ability? My ability to handle my own emotions, my own thoughts?

All too often do we put the responsibility for our well-being in the hands of other people and then blame them when things go wrong. This is a waste of time and energy! The first step towards change is ownership.

Eventually I had the information. I had grown up, I was now in charge of the things I did, the food that I ate and the way I lived. I took advantage of this. Now I was the only person who was going to help me! I owned my decision to change. This is very liberating.

Over the next 7 – 8 years after moving out of home, I studied the human body, the effects of foods, the different types of ways of eating and came to one conclusion - I needed to own my own health decisions. I could not listen to others about what was good for me. I needed to teach myself, listen to my body and do what it needed. Sure, I could see how some of the mainstream health recommendations might be beneficial but ultimately it would always seem to lead to an ulterior motive for this advice (like product sales). One place you can see this in full force is our food pyramid or product pyramid as I like to call it (an article on this soon).


The best advice I have ever received was to look at the source of the information. Is there a reason that this information is being presented in a particular way? Do they have something to gain from you doing this and the best question of all. What if they’re wrong? These question help me filter through the useless crap I find on the internet and help me side up to things I like and see merit in. Thus enabling change!

In conclusion, if a once negative, nutritionally void individual can see a clearer brighter future in changing my ways one step at a time until I’m where I want to be and can implement small things in to my life in order to help, so can you, so can anyone.

We all have the same TIME each day. It’s just what we each do with our time that makes us different. What will you do today to bring you closer to happiness and your much wanted goals?



As always, keep smiling and stay awesome!
Also, if there is anything or any story you would like to add. Please do not hesitate to add it to the comments section. If you share your thoughts then people can get a broader perspective. Plus I like reading comments! haha


Health & Chi
Shane Richards