Health Priorities
Is fitness THAT important?
The past 3 months Ive been working hard to bring the Athanor project to life.
As you might expect, my focus on fitness has declined. My energy has simply been elsewhere.
For most of my adult life, fitness was number 1. My career and my time was built around going to the gym. When I got married, this didnt really change. But once I went from one child to three children, and then starting this company…Fitness is now probably in 4th place if Im being honest. (5th place would be hobbies. Im not a hobby guy).
That is not to say I stopped working out or caring about my health, I DO immensely. But the mental energy and time spent on it certainly less than it was even 5 years. I lift around 4 days a week. I try to do at least 30 minutes of cardio daily. I get my labs done every 6 months.
Depending on who you ask, this is still a very dedicated schedule, and more than most people. But its certainly not double digit training hours.
My working out is all done on mental autopilot largely. I am in a building stage of life. I need to be fit enough to build. My goals are not my fitness.
Life evolves
Many years ago, a ghost mentor of mine (Amir Siddiqui) shared a mental model that became an integral filter to my Life philosophy
His concept was this
There are FIVE Core Focuses of Life that you can direct your energy and time into.
Your focus will define your life and your identity.
There is ONE focus that always leads over all others.
This framework is not a moral judgement or commandments. Rather its an objective hierarchy to identify one’s personal values, and how they form an individual.
People value different things. Ones mans passion is another mans passing interest. There is no universally agreed upon answer to “what is best in life?”. There are themes.
The defining themes of your life may not be mine, and vice versa.
Many dumb arguments can be avoided when accounting for this fact. There are obvious differences in perspective that should be accounted for.
The Five Focuses
Your Health and/or Fitness-Health is prioritizing longevity, energy, and qualitative wellness. Fitness is task and goal oriented. Bryan Johnson would be a defining example of being health focused. A professional athlete in contrast would be fitness focused (with health being an immediate but distinct second), and there are whole subsets of specialisation. Fitness specialization can be done at the cost of health.
Your Profession-A profession is concentration of skills applied to a specific problem domain. Some people LIVE for this. They get paid for it, but the money is not the motivating a factor. Its the challenge, the passion, the domain experience that brings them to life. A true professional builds their identity around their work.
Your Family and Friends-Some individuals prioritize relationships above all else. They may find themselves in careers where they are connectors of people. Or they at least operate in a profession that requires social skills. They will forego other priorities in favor of their family. Historically its women for whom family life and relationships take precedence, as this is most natural for women. For some men, they prioritize husband and fatherhood over all else, and will sacrifice other areas to fulfill this.
Your Money-The desire to accumulate wealth is a singular one, one that is uniquely motivating. Entire careers are also built around this pursuit. Some individuals are driven by money from a very young age, and will seek out any way to make it. This the only focus in which their a moral warning across religions. Money is not evil, but making it the driving force of ones life can be a critical mistake.
Your Hobbies-Hobbies are artistic, creative, even intellectually competitive passions that people pursue passions at the cost of all other focuses. This is the archetype of artists, writers, and savants. Unlike a sport in which fitness or health is paramount to success, hobbies do not require this. One need only consider the many world class, famous musicians throughout time who were notorious libertines with total disregard for health. Chess would be another example. While requiring incredible mindpower and endurance, chess is not a “physical” sport, and those who excel at it often do so at cost to everything else. True passionistas want to die doing what they love. Similar to the professional, they can define themselves no other way.
Energy and time are finite.
Its impossible to give “100%” in every single category, regardless of overlap. And overlap does happen, but there is always ONE thing that will take some level of precedence. And there will always be the 5th level priority (or should we say non priority) that you barely give any energy to, or maybe none at all.
Your day to day life will be structured and arranged in accordance with this prioritization.
What you prioritize will be determined by your personality archetype, your values, your upbringing, your environment, your genetics, and your particular talents. Your stage of life will always be hugely influential.
If you are a 25 year old single person with disposable income, your stack will look very different from a married 35 year old with children.
This becomes a good filter for who you should take advice from. Listening to life perspective from someone whose life is wildly different from your own can be a waste of time.
My Suggestion: Be radically honest with your Number 1
For MOST people, health and fitness is NOT their number 1 priority. More often than not its number 5.
The “average joe” simply wants to wake up each day, not be in pain, have reasonable energy levels, and thats it.
They dont want to go to the gym. They want to do the bare minimum for exercise. They dont care about the particularities of muscles, exercises, sets reps, macros, or anything else that Fitness first people obsess over.
I’d like to not be fat.
This is why GLPs are popular and why minimalist routines get so much attention.
My Second Suggestion: If health is a low level priority, DELEGATE IT
Youre not a bad person if health isnt a priority. That said, the smart move isn't to do nothing and not worry about it. It's to delegate.
A coach handles your programming and thinking so you stop wasting time on decisions you won't optimize anyway. A concierge doctor monitors your bloodwork, hormones, and metabolic markers so problems get caught early instead of diagnosed late.
You outsource your legal work. You outsource your accounting. Health is no different, and the downside of getting it wrong is considerably worse than a bad tax return. Delegation isn't weakness. Refusing to delegate when you lack the time or knowledge to do the job right, but have the means to do so, that's the mistake.
Be smart instead. Turn it over to someone else.
Talk again,
Alexander
-For concierge medical care and coaching in one, I recommend working with Velocity Health
If you don’t have the will the skill and the time, find someone who does. Great post sir!
I oscillate between the Five Focuses every so often and I 100% notice.
It most recently used to be hobbies (especially studing Latin) but I let those fall by the wayside.
Before that, it was health, as I was trying to unfat myself and get strong.
Right now it's definitely profession.
I still work hard on the other ones, but I am honest enough with myself to know that most of my mental energy is directed at PROFESSION.
Interestingly, once I got good enough at the health aspect, I was able to continue working hard in the gym without it being the main thing. It's set on "autopilot" in a manner of speaking.