With warmer weather finally on the horizon (I still won’t consider 50 degrees as warm yet, even if it does feel “nice” in comparison to winter temps), I’m pretty stoked about running outside again. It’s been a long and cold winter season, and I really dislike being cooped up in a gym, forced to run on a treadmill to get my cardio in.

But with 50+ degree weather pretty much locked in now that spring has arrived, I’m ready to get out on the trail and run each and every day.

It’s not that I’m overweight by any means. Heck, it’s not that I’m even “out of shape”, so to speak. I participated in an alumni basketball tournament at my high school back at home just the other weekend, and that involved playing 4 games in 2 days! So I’m definitely in okay shape for my age.

But what I do know is that I want to lose a few pounds before summer hits. I’m not trying to have some insane beach bod by any means. Heck, I don’t even care if I still have a bit of a tummy. I’ve owned that for long enough at this point that I kinda enjoy rocking the dad bod.

But why I am interested in losing a few pounds and getting in the habit of running is that it’s good for my long term health. There’s no better way to boost the health of your heart than to run. It gets your blood pumping throughout your entire body, your lungs benefit exponentially, and running is just great for your mood and brain in total. I’m so stoked to sleep better at night, wake up feeling more rested, and have a better outlook and disposition on life in all.

Heck, from here, the only other “goals” of sorts that I want to hit involve buying a disability insurance policy and looking for a new place to live by midsummer when my lease is up. The disability insurance is something important to me since I’m at the age that having my insurances on lock is quite important. And searching for a new apartment or home is something I’m excited to look into rather than be anxious about now that I’m already familiar with the city I live in.

Things are looking up in my life and I couldn’t be happier about that. The only thing to keep in mind is that once you’re back in the saddle, you’ve gotta find ways to improve upon staying in it and not give yourself excuses to fall out once again.

When you go from one easy stage of life to another tougher stage, it can be pretty tough. Especially because we can all get in a comfortable, easy, brainless routine.

I mean, think about your kids and their lives at school. It’s undoubtedly tough for them going from middle school to high school and then high school to college. Yes, it’s all exciting too. But it’s also stressful on you. They could be bullied or in physical sports as they go to high school. They begin driving, going out with friends, and become introduced to new scenes. They say nothing is easy in life, though. And that’s a straight up fact.

What about when your kids head to college, though? Finances start taking precedence over just your child’s safety, as they’re now an adult. You’re likely to help them out some (or possibly a lot) while they’re in college, so what if something were to happen to you on the job or even away from work? What if disaster strikes in a moment that you didn’t expect and yet you didn’t have a backup plan in the waits just in case?

Prevention issomething you can handle when it comes to your money and your family’s financial security, thankfully. During all the transitions for your kids, you’re able to do one important thing to help ensure your child is taken care of: you can purchase a disability insurance policy.

This may be something you’ve been putting off for quite some time, but we’re here to tell you that you shouldn’t wait any longer. Think of your kids. Some of (if not a lot or all) of their higher education may be paid by you. But if something were to happen to you that removed you from your work, how would they get by? How would they afford college without going severely into debt like so many of the kids in America today?

By being proactive right here and now and having a plan, you can prevent this sort of financial disaster. Because having a disability insurance policy will make sure that you are still paid during your disability’s extent, whether that’s short term or long term.

Even though your kids are becoming adults and will need to think of their own financial future, having an insurance policy to protect your income and the financial security of your family is needed. It’s not too late to act now and get your backup plan in order.

What springs to mind when you think of someone with a disability? Well, no matter what you think of in particular, I guarantee that the last thing you think about is yourself out of work for 3 to 5 months because of some weird or rare disease. Sure, you’ll be alright and it just takes time because of how contagious and potentially dangerous it is. But you’re quarantined from work, supposed to stay at home with your family (who either has it too or got vaccinated as soon as you were diagnosed).

I bet that’s something you didn’t consider, especially when thinking of being disabled.

The fact of the matter is that being out of work with no income for an extended period of time is the last thing you want when you’re still paying the bills and trying to handle debt. You never thought it would strike you. Besides, isn’t being disabled and out of work supposed to be more of a risk for construction workers who could lose limbs and whatnot?

The answer to that is no, it’s not only their risk, but everyone else’s in society. Whether you like it or not, you’re actually much more likely to develop or contract some sort of illness or disease that will put you out of work than you are to lose a limb or be physically injured on the job.

Kind of crazy to think about, isn’t it? That just a small little thing could develop into an ailment that keeps you out of work for half a year. And then suddenly, you’re struggling to pay bills or going further into debt because you had no plan in action to prevent this sort of crisis.

The good thing is, you can prevent this sort of disaster. It’s called disability insurance.

Basically, if a physical disability or some sort of illness were to befall you and keep you out of work for an extended period of time, the policy would kick into effect, meaning you wouldn’t be without some sort of income for the remainder of the disability’s duration.

Well then, that’s certainly an easy fix, isn’t it? It certainly is. The problem is, a lot of people are either unaware of disability insurance being a safety blanket or they associate the word disability in this instance with something that people already have, not something that could happen. It’s all a matter of awareness and prevention.

Now that you know, it probably makes you want to go out and get a policy, doesn’t it?

When you hear the word disability, what do you think of? Be honest with yourself, too.

Is it someone who’s in a motorized wheelchair and likely has been since a young age? Or do you think of a child in grade school who is several years behind their peers because of a learning disability? Or even physical impairments are brought to mind, such as deformities.

The problem with how we think of disability revolves around the congenital, or birth, side of it all. It’s all we tend to conjure in our minds when the word disability crosses our ears.

All of the examples I gave were disabilities decided at birth, because of genes. Whether they were mutated randomly or were passed down from the parents’ genes, the person in question had no choice in the matter from the get go.

But when you really look into the statistics surrounding disabilities in the workplace, they’re far more often caused by illnesses and sometimes injuries. For the most part, they’re short-term.

So when you think of disability insurance, it all starts to make sense. You buy insurance to protect you against a loss of income caused by some sort of disability that befell you.

It’s this type of thinking that needs to happen more often when we consider what a disability is and isn’t. Those who have disabilities because of their environment, such as injuries and illnesses, are often looked at as normal people with short-term disabilities. The fact of the matter is that all people with disabilities are normal, even if they were born with them.

Rather than regard disability as some hideous, unspeakable thing that is taboo to talk about, we need to look it in the face as a mere other part to somebody. Everyone is human and normal, and sometimes people have conditions or diseases that affect them. That’s that. It happens to someone healthy far more often than it happens at birth, so why is it that we fixate on the congenital disabilities more than those caused in everyday life?

So if you’re new to a workplace and you have multiple people depending on your income, think about getting on a disability insurance policy to protect you from any future disasters that may affect you. You’ll be thanking yourself down the road if you’re out of work for an extended period of time and needed a backup plan.