If someone’s having blurry vision or a hard time seeing, is the answer to give them your glasses? Not usually. They might work for them but chances are they won’t because their vision problem is unique to them. Unless it’s the same problem/situation you’re dealing with those glasses at best will help a bit but they won’t be the right prescription and might actually make their vision worse.

Rethinking Health Recommendations

It’s common knowledge that we need to tailor a unique prescription to optimize something as simple as someone’s vision. It takes time and often changes over time and subsequently needs to be reevaluated and adjusted to fine tune the prescription.

So why do we think that it’s ok to use a generic prescription for something as complicated as human diet/fitness/health?

We wouldn’t simply say to someone with blurred vision, “Go to my doctor and get the prescription that I use. It worked for me so it will work for you.”

Similarly, we shouldn’t tell someone to use the diet or fitness program that works for you and certainly shouldn’t use someone else’s program just because it works for them.

Ever try on someone’s glasses and you can’t see or it hurts your eyes?

Ever try on someone else’s diet or exercise program and it fails or makes you feel worse?

Don’t do what someone else does for health or tell someone to do what you do because it’s as useful as putting on someone else’s glasses to fix your vision. It might work but chances are it’s not going to be a perfect fit. Take the time to craft your own health prescription and expect it to be unique to you.

Thanks for reading, have a great day!

P.S. Just as your prescription changes over time and needs to be adjusted, so will your health prescription.