Harnessing 1's Health: Harnessing 1's Health

Harnessing 1's Health: What have you done, either today or yesterday, to change your attitude to be more healthy? If your answer is 'nothing' panic not, you are not alone. I learned some lessons in retail sales and marketing recently that stun some people and yet only bounce off others. Mail-in rebates: Did you know that universally less than 34% of people eligible for such rebates ever file a claim to receive what is rightfully theirs? 66.4% of people do not take the time nor energy to fulfill and receive mail-in rebate offers. This is exactly why retail business continues to attach mail-in offers as an enticement to purchase a particular brand or product. The major corporate entity involved even takes advantage of tax breaks via the government whether or not a rebate claim is exercised thus ensuring a healthier profit and bottom line. This ploy is considered by me to be 'shoppers candy' used by major manufacturers to seduce the buyer into a mental attitude that he or she will benefit more by purchasing a particular product at a given price within a specific amount of time. Typically after a choice is made by a consumer to purchase a given product a salespersons lips continue to move but nothing seems to be heard by a consumer after a choice is made. This fact I have another name for as well. I call this the 'adolescent moment' in a sales transaction. Information such as how to claim a mail-in rebate, or how to qualify for insuring a particular product for the most part goes unheard. I liken this to telling a six-year old child to do something and actually expect that it be done, let alone heard. The consumer is interested at this point with one thing and that is paying for and obtaining whatever product he/she has purchased and moving onward to either other business or another store perhaps for more stuff. Even after explaining what I believed to be the trend to future consumers the percentages either stayed the same or worsened. Conversation was seemingly light and nearly comical to the point that I would ask some to complete the mail-in rebates and forward the funds to a charity of their choice in their name. Some even seemingly giggled at this suggestion despite my being sincere about the idea. What has this to do with health or either yesterday's or today's attempt to incorporate change in our behavior? The answer to about 66.4% of people I'm afraid might well be ... 'who cares?' The answer to me, and hopefully, the balance of 33.6% of persons who try to change our habits to a more health conducive day may well be to simply not get all caught up in the psychology of why we practice more healthy habits but rather, as Nike retorts, 'Just Do It!' After all aren't Nike shoes better than the others?