The biggest takeaway from a personal genomics test is the power of choice. While your genes, environment, and lifestyle are key factors that contribute to your health, you cannot choose your genes, well at least for now. Changing your lifestyle at any point can have tremendous benefits with potential to prevent around 80% of lifestyle-related diseases. Our customers are a testimonial to that – we have many success stories of people who got to know themselves better and build healthy habits after taking our tests. Every story reinforces my belief in the power of choice.
They say that the hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world. As women, our choices have the potential to affect our lives and our world. Therefore, it becomes all the more important for us to choose wisely. Else the choices we make, may pass on to future generations as epigenetic changes.
The choice to stay healthy
Good health is the greatest wealth and we are forever focused on keeping our family healthy. But how many of us prioritize our own health?
Work and family are important, but prioritizing our health is necessary for our own sake and for our family. For children seek role models in their parents and they need to prioritize their health tomorrow.
The choice to stay strong
The biggest misnomer for women is “The Weaker Sex”. Our DNA is programmed to withstand labour pain during childbirth – a pain whose magnitude challenges all thresholds. We are capable of carrying our children to full term, delivering them, and still smiling at the first glimpse of the newborn.
Many of us grow up hearing that we are weak, which probably is man’s way of redressing the imbalance of strength granted to us by nature. Our strengths are not always obvious – they are latent. Once we realize that, there is no stopping us.
The choice to multitask
Call it multitasking, quest for perfection, or way of life, we can do many things at a time and do them well. Multitalented professionals who work on more than one project at a time are the norm today. If employees bring more than one skill to the workplace, they can add more value to a project. My team has many such experts – they use cutting edge technologies in the lab, write interesting and informative blog posts, answer customer queries, work with big data, run marathons, and contribute to our CSR initiatives. All in a day’s work.
The choice to ask for directions
I have been fortunate to have great mentors, who guide and motivate me. At any stage of our careers, it is good to have mentors, who can advise us on our career paths, improve our skills, steer us to the right path when lost, and help us build our confidence. Be open to accepting mentors and new learning experiences.
The choice to empower our daughters
My parents always respected and supported my choice – in education, career, and life partner. I grew up knowing that I could be whatever I wanted to be. My dad allowed me to make mistakes early in life and laughed alongside with me when the outcome wasn’t as expected and then spoke to me about the power of choice and the role of decision making. He mentioned that as a parent, his role was to encourage and mentor me, not to choose the path ahead. There are many women who are not given that choice – some give up their dreams while others claw their path in the face of opposition. We can make things easier for daughters by allowing and accepting their choices. Children learn from their parents and emulating a parent is natural.
The choice to let go
Sometimes, letting go can be a great decision. Letting go and giving up are two different things, and in any situation, it is important to know the difference between the two.