Easiest way to shorten your truck driving career – commiting a few errors in judgment repeatedly every single day. You would assume people would understand that concept but they repeat the same errors everyday for weeks, months and even years. As truck drivers, we all get sick once in a while, but what is the difference between some of us that get sick for only 2 days, as opposed to 5 days. The answer is how strong your immune system is. Not only that, a weak immune system can have a slight cough that leads to other health problems like: sleeplessness, dizziness, fainting, vomiting or even headaches. So how do you keep your immune system strong? By taking care and nourishing your body. I can’t remember the last time I got sick. I was wondering to myself. What was it that kept me from getting sick? Am I just lucky? Do I just have an amazing immune system that fights off the virus before it gets a chance to infiltrate my entire body? Or is it that unlike most truck drivers, I watch what I eat, I count my calories and exercise 4-5 times a week minimum while being over the road.

In my almost 4 years of being otr, i can count on one hand how many times i’ve been sick while being on the road, and they were all mostly in the beginning when i decided to go on this OTR journey, when i was at my heaviest didn’t pay attention to my diet. In the past 2 years, I’ve been sick only once, and I couldn’t believe it when I started thinking about it. What was it about me and my body that I hardly ever got sick? And it’s been like that most of my life. There were certain periods in the past that I have been more prone to getting sick, and when I did get sick, it lasted longer than what it should have.

But I knew the answer. It was because of my daily habits. It was because I nourished and fed my body what it needed. And let me tell you a big shocker, the human body doesn’t need large amounts of carbs, it doesn’t need highly processed food, it doesn’t need greasy burgers and fries, it doesn’t need extremely sugary drinks or candy. There are truckers out here consuming that every single day! What do you think will happen if you continue to live and eat like that over the next 5 years? Nothing good I can assure you that. Prolonged sickness, expensive dr visits and your life span will be cut drastically. You see truckers out here talking about how they have been trucking for over 25+ years, you’ll be lucky if you make it past 10 years by the way you’re eating. You’re not eating what they were eating back in the day. And when I say back in the day, that’s just 10-15 years ago. The quality of food that we have available nowadays is so bad that I predict medical cards will have to be renewed on a yearly basis in the next 5-10 years, as opposed to every 2 years. That’s also if autonomous trucks don’t take your job first. Some of ya have to renew it every year already since ya are overweight, diabetic, having heart issues, or have high blood pressure.

We all know what the body needs, It needs water, it needs proper food and nutrients.. It needs vitamins and minerals. It needs healthy and natural foods. Not the garbage that sits on the warmer racks at the truck stops all day long. An apple a day keeps the dr away, a 15 minute walk a day keeps your body functioning properly. Having to be sitting down for 10 hrs plus a day over that span of 5 10 15 years, how is that any good for a body that was created to walk and run. If you are not putting the human body to do what it was made to do, that was designed to endure harsh physical conditions, it will slowly start to deteriorate. Whether it’s your body or something mechanical like your truck, you leave it sitting down for a long time without moving, and it will slowly stop working properly, as it was meant to be intended. So it is your job to feed your body with the proper nutrients, to change your diet, to replace the oil that keeps the engine working properly, and to make sure everything is in operable conditions. Just like how the fmcsa requires every commercial vehicle to have an annual dot inspection, you need to be going to the Dr. to check up on your vitals on a yearly basis. Neglect your body, neglect your truck, neglect the necessary preventative maintenance, and that’ll result in a trucking disaster. One day you’re going to wake up dumbfounded how the truck you got so overweight, wondering where along the road you took a wrong turn. Thinking to yourself, is it too late for me to change lanes? Will it be too late to change course by then? Maybe, maybe not.

 I’m not saying you have to be a health nut but if you look 5 to 10 years later in your life, on the current projection that you’re headed, on the current road you’re driving, where do you think that you’re going to end up? Your dr must love you for how much business you bring him or her. If your dr knows you by name and can recognize you at the grocery store, that’s a problem.

So if everybody already knows this, then what’s the problem? The problem is, that it’s easy not to do it. The problem is it’s easy not to adopt a healthier way of thinking. The problem is you can’t stop yourself from eating candy every single day. The problem is you don’t have enough discipline to eat an apple instead of a hershey’s bar. The truck stops are not the problem. The availability of healthier choices is not the problem. The trucking industry is not the problem. You are the problem. You have to be smarter in what you shove down your throat. You have to be smarter than feeding your sugar cravings with some candy instead of eating some fruit. Don’t fall for a candy bar a day instead of an apple a day. I’m telling you, repeating the same error over the span of 10 years will accumulate into a disaster.

For Your first year in trucking, you can say you’re healthy and that eating candy is not going to make a difference, that you don’t need to be watching what you’re eating, but you have to be smarter than that. Just because you don’t have health issues the first week, the first month or even the first year, that doesn’t mean the problems are not bound to come. You have to start thinking and start looking down the road and say to yourself, “are the decisions that I am making today, what will that cost me in one year, 3 years, 5 years? What kind of consequences will the future hold for the current errors that I am making today?” I’m talking about the health cost, the money cost, the success cost, the cost is too big if you just take a peek of what awaits down the road! Ask yourself, “how much will my current habits impact my life in the coming years?”.

If you’re in the trucking industry, let me tell you something, you’re in it for the long haul. The chances of you leaving trucking for another career is very low. So if you know and plan on driving a truck for a while, I suggest taking care of your health before anything else. Making small errors as simple as eating something healthy vs something unhealthy will translate to others parts of your life. Just by looking at your diet, I can tell what kinda person you are, and I know one thing for a fact, nobody likes sloths. Nobody likes people who are gluttonous. If you have high cholesterol, chances are you have an empty bank account, why? cuz over the last 3 years you probably didn’t pay attention to either one of them. You have to be brighter than that, you left 1st grade a long time ago. My son is in pre k and they are learning about what kind of foods are healthy vs. unhealthy. If he knows as a 4 year old and grasps the concept of certain foods are bad for you, surely you have to know as an adult. The reason they make pre k desks so small is so you wont fit in them as a grown person. You don’t belong there anymore.

So what is the secret to having a successful trucking lifestyle? It is, doing a few simple disciplines that you practiced every single day. You will start a whole new life by doing simple but effective habits. An apple a day instead of a candy a bar a day, and you will have started the process that’s going to change your life. If you start with your health habits, your money habits will soon follow. Just start the process. Eliminate the errors and replace them with discipline practices. The only way you’ll remain the same is by choice. You don’t have to be the same as you were yesterday. Start today and your whole life will change immediately. Is it that simple? Yes! It’s really that simple. Where else would you start? You don’t have to start with something drastically. You can start by walking 15 minutes a day. Nothing fancy. You walk 15 minutes a day and I guarantee you in a few months you’re going to start looking at yourself differently. You could, and you should but you don’t. And In 5 years, that’ll accumulate into a catastrophe. So how do you change all that? You have to start with the person in the driver seat. You have to start with your mindset, with your philosophy. You have to start with reducing your errors. By doing some better thinking. Changing your mind. Coming up with better ideas. When I started doing that in 2022, I have never been the same since then. And I have kept up the same process and philosophy since then, these last few years. But nonetheless, I will never stop working on my craft. You neglect your craft, you lose your skillset. I don’t want people that know me to say that they should’ve heard what i had to say 2 years ago, i want them to say, “yea i liked what he was saying 2 years ago but you should listen to what he has to say now”..

You have to start with personal change, and a good place to start is with your own personal philosophy.. That’s what’s  going to determine your daily disciplines, or that’s what’s going to have you committing the same recurring errors. And everybody has it in them to change, to choose, to be wise. You don’t have to change identity, but you do have to change your habits. If you change your habits, you can turn around your income, you can turn around your skills, you can become capable, healthy, sophisticated, even influential. Your life can and it will change, it will do a U-turn by doing a few simple steps, by practicing daily disciplined habits. you don’t need another job or another career, you don’t need another life, you don’t need another country or another planet. you need a better idea. You need better guidance, you need to read a better book and you can start changing your life. If I can make you think, if I can make you intrigued. I’m telling you, it is as simple as an apple a day, as simple as walking a few times around the truck stop. if you don’t start there, where it’s simple, then where are you going to start? Might as well start where it’s easy, then work yourself up to the harder disciplines.