People want to be healthy. They really do…

During my time working as a doctor, I’m yet to meet anyone who given the choice between having a healthy body or one that is weak and easily inflicted, would ever opt for the latter. Whether it’s to develop a lean and toned body, or simply wanting to feel more alert and energetic during the day, healthfulness is coveted.

Of course, this isn’t always a conscious desire — there are some who only see the value of good health once it’s taken away. If you’ve as much as sprained your ankle before, you’ll likely have felt this enhanced desire to be well again — to be walking freely without pain. And still, there are others of us who have seen loved ones suffering — we really understand the reality of this…

So when given the option, no one is arguing that the ability to be healthy wins every time.

Most people know WHAT to do

Moreover, most people also know what to do — at least in basic terms.

99%* of people can name some basic pillars of good health — you know, “eat well, do some exercise.”

(*there’s always that 1% who genuinely think that their sofa-based Netflix-lifestyle is keeping them healthy by protecting them from the big-bad world outside.)

And of those 99%, the vast majority will be able to name some specific activities that seem to fit in with those pillars — “eat more vegetables, reduce fast-food intake.”

This is the area in which we’ve made immense progress as a society with enormous amounts of content on healthy products and activities being published 24/7. Our understanding of healthy activities, foods and products is continuously expanding, with greater numbers of people who actually seem to care about the details.

With just a few clicks, you can find:

- ‘5 super-smoothie recipes to kick-start your morning’ -

- ‘a 20-minute high-intensity workout you can do from home without any equipment’ -

- ‘the best natural daylight alarm clock under $40′ -

And even when we’re not looking for it, the world of health-information seems to reach out to us as you witness an ‘açai-berry super-mega-bowl’ sitting proudly next to that triple-cheese panini you were originally reaching for in your local café.

The Hidden Problem

The issue with this enormous amount of information relating to health is that we often feel like we have to do as much of it as possible, and in trying to do so, we end up doing a smattering of sporadic token health activites without making any meaningful progress, and without any sustainability.

Bingeing on health habits is sporadic, time-consuming, and unsustainable.

This haphazardness, coupled with a daily desire to still want to try to form healthy habits, turns day-to-day life into a series of cumbersome new decisions for health.

That might seem harmless enough, but these decisions then begin to occupy greater and greater amounts of your time and mental energy — and in all honesty, having your mind constantly bouncing between normal life and wondering intermittently what you need to do next to stay healthy, is exhausting.

THE UNSPOKEN RULE.

It is neither good nor bad.

People don’t actually want to spend their time trying to be healthy.

That’s right — we desperately want to be healthy, but no-one wants to spend any more time or energy in the chaos of daily life than is ABSOLUTELY necessary.

The good news is that it’s in this exact sentiment that the solution lies.

Thankfully, you don’t need to (and shouldn’t!) spend every waking moment trying to fit in healthy habits. As we’ve established, trying to do so ends up being stressful (and ironically chronic stress is itself known to have harmful effects on health. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!)

You see, good health is not about cramming your day with health and fitness activities. It’s actually sort of the opposite…

Contrary to what you’ve been told, time and energy spent on healthy habits need to be kept to a minimum in order to maximise the chances of you doing them consistently.

Those who successfully build healthy habits understand that health promoting behaviours can be carefully and tightly integrated into our personal lifestyles. Whilst it takes a little bit of effort up front to think about, this form of ‘lean-thinking’ ultimately pays dividends in the long-term, freeing up time and mental energy, consistently hitting daily health goals, and ultimately allowing you to do the things that actually matter to you.

Once again, this fundamental mindset switch takes the emphasis away from trying to increase time spent on health promoting behaviours to doing everything possible to minimise the time that these activities take up in our lives.

The workouts, the healthy eating, good sleep, and relaxing activities all remain pillars of health that need to be done regularly, but integration rather than addition, is the goal.

…aim for health-integration, not addition…

Apple’s domination in the smartphone market with the iPhone was largely attributed to their tight and seamless integration between software (iOS) and hardware. The synergy between the two enabled a uniquely freeing experience, not previously seen before in mobile phone technology. It allowed the device to function on a new level with new, never before seen capabilities.

And just like this, when our health promoting behaviours are tightly and seamlessly integrated within the building blocks of our daily life, it can free our mental space, allowing us to operate on levels yet unknown.

Originally published at https://intelligentimprover.com on January 24, 2021.

Most of us are desperately awaiting the end of ‘lockdown’, having been placed under nearly a year of governmental restrictions. These have been mandated in many countries around the world with the public being urged not to go outside unless absolutely necessary.

Whilst most are eagerly awaiting things to return to normal, here are 5 rare opportunities for personal growth that you shouldn’t miss before lockdown restrictions are lifted.

1. Lean into the solitude

‘Lockdown’ is a term that captures the sentiment of enforcement for time spent in the confines of our own homes.
Subconsciously, we frame this time as one in which we are prisoners — the oppressed…

But stop, and step back for just a minute.

Think of how much of a rarity that is — to be free from the constant bombardment of our surroundings. Free from super-sized billboards advertising the latest smartphone, free from constant distractions pulling your attention from side to side.
No — You are in a safe space. This is your space.
Here, you get to be pro-active; to take the lead.

The word ‘lockdown’ in this sense is a misnomer; instead of representing a trapping environment, I’ve been trying to use it as an opportunity for gaining some mental clarity and freedom. So here’s how you can lean in to lockdown.

📣 Take Action: Create space by switching all electronic devices off for 2 hours each day.

Whenever you receive a notification, an email, or when an Amazon notification pops up on your phone saying, ‘We thought you might like to buy a new toaster’, and you click the link, you’re reacting to your environment.

The practice of unplugging or switching off electronic devices is both physical and metaphorical — you quite literally strip them of their power over your attention.

Remember, these reactive moments are the same behaviours that lead to you wasting a full morning watching hours of videos on the internet. You can trick yourself into thinking you’ve made a decision to click each one, but you’re only fooling yourself…

2. Look Within: The Art of Introspection

What is introspection? Quite simply, it’s being able to look within. To question ourselves in order to understand ourselves better.

Because ironically, for many of us, our deepest life purposes and passions are a hazy fog. We’re so used to responding to the expectations of the world around us — culture, friends, family, work, we’ve inadvertently drowned out that inner-voice. It’s as if you’re holding a compass, searching for your true north, but you’re surrounded by magnets, constantly confusing your polarity.

It’s as if you’re holding a compass, searching for your true north, but you’re surrounded by magnets, constantly confusing your polarity.

Many of us feel that we know the sort of person we want to be, but are rarely able to put it into specific language, unable to stop ourselves bleating the same old nebulous, ‘good person’ spiel we’ve all come to fall back on. Being able to articulate our deepest desires clearly is incredibly powerful, reorienting our inner compass.

So — What’s important to you? What are you truly passionate about?

For some of you, that might feel like an easy question to answer; for others, not so much. Either way, I’d implore you not to skip this part.

📣 Action Point: Questions for Introspection

Find some space, and sit down with a notepad and a cup of tea.

Write down on paper a list of all that is important to you. Use this as a starting point to discover your broader interests, purposes, and ambitions.

A good starting point for exploring some of these things is simply asking:

“What did I enjoy as a child?” (credit: Nathaniel Drew)
Snap test: “If I snapped my fingers and X disappeared, would I miss it?” (credit: David Gardner)

As you delve deeper into this exercise, it often becomes clearer and clearer how your past and current interests can be both indicators and drivers of your broader purposes and talents.

Introspection is crucial in bridging the gap between who you are now and who you aspire to be. Just like how a body builder trains his or her weakest muscle groups, finding these weaker areas stops them being ‘rate-limiting-character-traits’.

Introspection is crucial in bridging the gap between who you are now and who you aspire to be.

It’s also a great demonstration of the Pareto Principle in action to identify weaker areas. But even more, it benefits from using ‘Bright Spots ‘ (a term coined by Dan and Chip Heath) to find areas of particular strength, allowing you to excel in existing areas of strength.

Remember — this lockdown provides an amazing chance to take stock of where you are in life right now; mental space to hone and refine that mental image of where you want to be.

Intelligent Improver advocates for the exploration of multiple interests, but start simple and you’ll be well on your way to building your own unique “skillset-ID”.

3. Learn to Appraise: Listen, Sort, Weigh, Decide

But at some point, you’re going to have to get back out into the world, whether that’s turning on the news, logging into social media, or calling a friend on the phone, and listening to their latest theories on why now is the time to be investing in biotech stocks.

But as you come out of lockdown, how do you prepare yourself for the innumerate voices, each with their own spin, each one often very convincing.

Want to lose weight? A low fat diet seems to make sense on first glance, surely?…but wait, this one seems to say an exclusively ‘healthy fat’ diet is the way to go…and what about intermittent fasting — look at all of the proposed other health benefits too!

So, in the age of mass-information (and plenty of MISinformation), how do you pick?

What typically happens is that we usually end up just following the first person who seems to have specialist advice in the specific field of interest. Often these ‘specialists’ have a community of supporters who seem to trust what they are saying, and it is toward this community that we feel an affinity rather than the specific pursuit of truth. Please don’t think I mean that they don’t present any evidence for their claims. Just that our subscription to an idea often comes down to the people involved rather than the idea itself.

But this is where appraisal of information is essential.
I’ll go into this in much more detail in another post, but let’s just start by acknowledging the following statement:

“the veracities of information expressed are not equal.”

Let’s break that down into 2 parts:

1. “The veracities…”: merely reminds us that there exists an absolute truth for each question.
   When we ask, ‘Does smoking cause lung cancer?’, we ask it with the expectation that there is an answer to the question.

Sounds obvious, right? But why is this important? Well, we can take reassurance from this that there is purpose to our questioning; that we will not infinitely be pursuing a nebulosity.

That isn’t to say there isn’t nuance or complexity within these answers, but our pursuit of truth is not in vain. Before this starts sounding too philosophical (which is definitely beyond the scope of this post (and my expertise..)), let’s move on to the second part…

2. “…of information expressed are not equal.”: Here, we receive a stark warning that information in itself does not express truth. Bill Gates, Rashida Jones, Yuval Noah Harari discuss this well in Bill and Rashida’s recent podcast episode which explores lies, fiction, models, over-simplifications.

The good news is that there ARE ways to weigh up these varying bits of information, to make sensible conclusions about the truth (or lack of) contained within each. I’ll be writing a series on how to make sense of information in our daily lives to ultimately make better decisions.

Critical appraisal is likely not a skill you will develop overnight. But if you can emerge from this year’s lockdown with the ability to critique and weigh up information in order to form form your own nuanced ideas on a particular topic, you will make smarter.

📣 Action Point: Filter the BullS***

Next time someone presents you with advice, a claim, or generally anything that could possibly not be true, here are a few questions you can ask yourself:

1. Start by reframing their advice/opinion as a question
e.g. statement: “Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart. The more you eat them, the more you fart”
question 1: Are beans good for your heart?
question 2: Do beans make you fart?
2. Do they present any evidence to answer it?
3. Is there any concrete evidence or data that exists to support their claims?
Bazzano LA, He J, Ogden LG, Loria C, Vupputuri S, Myers L, Whelton PK. Legume consumption and risk of coronary heart disease in US men and women: NHANES I Epidemiologic Follow-up Study. Arch Intern Med. 2001 Nov 26;161(21):2573–8. doi: 10.1001/archinte.161.21.2573. PMID: 11718588.
4. Is there any existing evidence against their claims?
Winham DM, Hutchins AM. Perceptions of flatulence from bean consumption among adults in 3 feeding studies. Nutr J. 2011 Nov 21;10:128. doi: 10.1186/1475–2891–10–128. PMID: 22104320; PMCID: PMC3228670.
5. Where do their conclusions fall within the hierarchy of evidence?
6. Are they a credible source? Do they have recognised special knowledge of the field?
7. Does their conclusion make sense in light of the world that you see around you?

4. DON’T Stick to Your Guns: Learn How to Change Your Mind

Ever scrolled through your social media feed, and seen this?

Bob: “I read this interesting article on [insert hotly-debated and highly-contentious social/political issue]. I found this to be really convincing and I think [A] based on points [B,C]. I’d be interested to hear people’s experiences and views on this.

Jim: “Hi Bob, what an interesting article. I have always held the viewpoint of [X] based on [Y,Z], but haven’t ever seriously considered that [B,C] may be factors. I’m still not entirely convinced as I’m concerned that these biases/factors in the article might be skewing the picture a little. Nonetheless, I wonder if my pre-existing social and environmental exposures have given me a one-sided view on this matter. I’m going to go away and have a think”

[a few hours/days later…]

Jim: “Bob, I’ve done a bit more reading and exploring of the issue, and I’m overwhelmingly convinced that I’ve been wrong this whole time. *I’ve changed my mind*…thank you.”

Never? Me neither…

Call me a dreamer, but to be able to do this in a world which is constantly feeding us new information is not just a wishful notion — it is a necessity.

To be able to revisit old information with fresh eyes and a sense of humility, ready to have your mind changed, is not just an incredibly freeing idea, but makes you agile, and gives your the opportunity to communicate effectively with those to whom the door has always been closed. In the end, you don’t have to agree, but use this opportunity after lockdown lifts to seek the opposing view.

📣 Action Point: Seek the Opposing View

Next time you find yourself disagreeing with someone, ask yourself, why might he/she see things that way? Could they be right? Why or why not? What are your biases and assumptions on the subject? Is anything stopping you from changing your mind?

5. Hold on to Beautiful Things…

A final point. And I’ll keep this one brief.

As much as it has been stripped from us during lockdown, the intangible value of human interaction has never been more obvious.

In a world where everything seems to be able to be purchased at a price, a hug, holding hands, a kiss — these things are invaluable.

And here, there lies a broader concept — there is value in the human senses. -

Sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound.

And this value surpasses our society’s ability to define and quantify it.

So until we are able to engage all of our senses with the world once more, practice them in the little things now.

📣 Action Point: Engage your senses

Grab a pen and paper and create the following headings: “Sight, Sound, Touch, Smell, Taste”.

Spend 5–10minutes writing a list of all of the people, places and things in your life that engage these senses. Many may fall into multiple sensory categories (e.g “Holding my partner/spouse” and “Listening to the sound and tone of their voice (as well as what they are saying!)”).

Pick 2–3 of these to focus on each day, spending time to familiarise yourself with them, and what makes them unique or special.

Whenever you are ready, pick another 2–3 and do it again. Build the habit.

So start now by looking around for those things in your life that surpass quantification; practice sensory appreciation of those things can be touched, smelled, heard, tasted and seen, and as soon as we are all able to hold each other once again, hold on and don’t let go.

Conclusion

Amidst the chaos, there is opportunity for us to be a changed people as a result of this lockdown.

As the world grinds to a halt, this is a key opportunity for personal growth.

So start by looking inward;
Develop a lens for truth;
And as soon as you are able, throw yourself into world around you.

I was taught as a cross-country runner, that when you reach a hill, you push though, and as you near the crest, you accelerate.

With 2020 having come to a close, and vaccination programmes being rolled out this year, we are at the crest of this marathon. Now is the time to accelerate.

And although personal growth must start with the betterment of ‘me’, it is made most precious when it ends in the benefit of ‘us’.

Originally published at https://intelligentimprover.com on December 19, 2020.