Way back in 2001, I was feeling pretty defeated with my mental health. In the previous five years, I’d had four manic episodes of bipolar disorder resulting in hospital admissions. Without even needing Tony Robbins to tell me, I learned a lesson at the heart of my message as a mental health speaker: be the CEO of your own health.
The first wealth is health.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
A couple of weeks ago, I picked up the new book by Tony Robbins, Life Force: How New Breakthroughs in Precision Medicine Can Transform the Quality of Your Life & Those You Love (co-authored by one of my entrepreneurial heroes, Peter Diamandis, and Robert Hariri).
In this book, Tony takes the lesson I learned years ago in relation to mental health and he applies it to anybody with a body: in other words, everybody.
Nothing matters more than our health.
Tony Robbins
As I researched bipolar disorder—specifically the information that was available about how to prevent relapses of mania and depression—I discovered that few mental health workers in Australia knew what I was learning.
For example, I found out about the most effective treatment for bipolar disorder in the world: a psychosocial treatment called Interpersonal & Social Rhythm Therapy (IPSRT) that has an 80% success rate in preventing relapses over a two-year period.
The lesson was simple: Be the CEO of your own health.
As a result, I could launch an email newsletter and build a career as a copywriter before wanting to share my lived experience and research approach with people affected by mental health.
Without your health, you have nothing.
My great-aunt, Myrtle Thompson.
And why is this particularly relevant to everybody now in 2022? In Life Force, Tony shares the reason:
In 2017, Harvard Medical School reported that the half-life of medical knowledge was 18 to 24 months—and predicted it was headed for 73 days by the time you’re reading this!
Tony robbins, life force (2022), p.21
So what does it mean to be CEO of your own health? It means you educate yourself on health matters. Learn what’s working and then demand that treatment for yourself.