Suddenly those 5AM runs make perfect sense…

There is a well-known proverb: “Fix the roof while the sun is shining.”

It’s one of those sayings that sounds so obvious you almost wonder why it needs saying at all. Yet, in practice, it’s remarkable how often we do the opposite.

It’s very easy to put things off under the guise of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But personally, I’ve always found that philosophy a little shortsighted.

Sometimes things that “aren’t broken” are simply potential problems that have yet to reveal themselves.

History tells us as much.

Take the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster of 1986, for example. Engineers had long raised concerns about the shuttle’s O-rings failing in cold temperatures, but management pressed ahead regardless on the assumption that because the system had worked before, it would surely work again. And we all know what happened next…

Of course, not every ignored warning ends quite so catastrophically. Sometimes the consequences are far more mundane.

The same principle applies to our health.

I might grumble about it from time to time, but I do genuinely enjoy keeping fit. Alongside the endorphins, it feels good to know that I am doing something proactive to look after my long-term wellbeing and hopefully reduce the likelihood of problems further down the line.

My proclivity for exercise doesn’t guarantee perfect health, of course. Life doesn’t work like that. But for me it’s about mitigating the risk. As we are often reminded, the science consistently shows that people who exercise regularly are significantly less likely to suffer from a range of chronic conditions and tend to live longer, healthier lives. And those that don’t are more at risk of all manner of ailments.

Better, surely, to address potential problems early than to scramble to repair the damage once it’s already been done.

I saw an interesting example of this kind of approach back in South Africa. At the time, I had a health insurance policy with Discovery Health. Through its integration with Discovery Vitality, members are rewarded for engaging in healthy activities like exercising regularly, eating well, completing health checks and tracking physical activity.

The incentives were surprisingly good too: subsidised fitness watches, discounted gym memberships, and vouchers for healthy food, among other perks.

Instead of waiting for people to become ill and then treating them, the programme nudges members like me to stay healthy in the first place.

The knock-on effects are quite remarkable. I read somewhere that hospital admission rates declined from 22% to 19% in the year after members activated Vitality Active Rewards, while overweight and obese members saw reductions in their BMI of 1.5% and 5.4% respectively.

It’s encouraging to see that same kind of proactive thinking increasingly visible here in the UK, with the NHS launching various initiatives designed to incentivise people to stop smoking and lose weight. Because when it comes to health, as in many areas of life, investing in prevention today saves a great deal of trouble tomorrow.

A similar logic applies to protecting property and businesses.

I often see organisations invest heavily in physical security and robust barrier solutions only after a break-in has already occurred. By that point, the conversation tends to revolve around lessons learned and measures that “should have been in place.”

Admittedly, prevention is often easier said than done. If you’re responsible for a large retail estate, upgrading security across hundreds – or even thousands – of locations isn’t always financially viable, particularly when budgets are tight and competing priorities are endless.

But where the risks are well understood, and where the consequences of failure are clear, it makes sense to address vulnerabilities early rather than waiting for something to go badly wrong.

After all, it’s much easier to fix the roof while the sun is shining.

And as I’ve learned over the past two years, good British weather tends to make short, unscheduled appearances. So if the sun does come out, my advice would be to grab a ladder and make the most of it!