Why Are So Many of Us Still Looking for Answers?

Lanny and I attended a workshop this past Saturday presented by our chiropractic physician, Dr. Scott. The topic was Nutrition, Weight Loss and Body Chemistry.

My interest was in learning, and Lanny always wants to support Dr. Scott. So, we decided to spend Saturday morning at 9:30 at the local library—even though it was a beautiful, sunny morning here at the beach.

We arrived early, and Lanny began helping to set up tables. In my mind I was thinking, we shouldn’t need that many tables and chairs.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting a large crowd. But then people kept showing up. And more tables were needed. By the time the workshop started, the room was filled.

I looked around and found myself wondering:

Why are all these people here?

I’ve immersed myself in this world for quite some time now. I’ve read articles, watched summits, tried experiments and probably asked enough questions to irritate more than one doctor. And I still have plenty to learn.

But as I looked around that room, I found myself less interested in why I was there and much more curious about everyone else. What brought all these people out on a beautiful Saturday morning?  There’s no way for me to know.

But I started thinking about how most of us are living our lives. We’re working. Taking care of families. Sometimes taking care of aging parents. Going to doctors. Trying to eat reasonably well. Trying to exercise. Trying to do the best we know how to do.

And at the same time, we’re being bombarded with diets, supplements, drugs, tests, treatments, advice and promises—much of it conflicting. Maybe those people weren’t looking for the next sophisticated health protocol. Maybe they were simply looking for someone they trusted to help make sense of it all.

Dr. Scott did a wonderful presentation and clarified some things for me, but honestly, much of the information wasn’t new to me. Not now, anyway, after all the research I’ve done. So, I left thinking a little less about what I had learned and a lot more about all the people who had shown up.

Perhaps one of our biggest health challenges today isn’t that people don’t care about their health or how they’re aging. I think many of us care very much.

We just don’t always know where to begin.  I didn’t.

For a long time, I found myself chasing one promise after another, trying to learn enough to finally figure it all out. Eventually, I discovered something much simpler.

I didn’t need to figure out everything. I needed to slow down long enough to decide what mattered most to me.

That has been the real journey—not discovering the perfect supplement, diet or expensive therapy, but learning how to sort through the noise and make better decisions one at a time.

Maybe that’s a better place for all of us to begin. We don’t have to understand every new health discovery. We don’t have to try everything. And we certainly don’t have to solve the rest of our lives this week.

Sometimes the next step is simply to ask:

What matters most to me right now?

Then start there.

That room full of people surprised me Saturday morning. But perhaps it shouldn’t have.

Maybe we’re not searching because we don’t care enough.

Maybe we’re searching because we care very much—and there’s simply too much to sort through alone.

— Jamie Harrington
Curious explorer of living well in the second half of life

Further Reading:
Before You Chase the Next Big Thing — A simple way I think about building a health foundation before adding more advanced tools.