Getting Stronger

The election is over, and I’ll say what everyone feels—thank God, and not because Donald Trump or any other individual candidate won. For months all we’ve heard about is politics. Almost every non-political podcast was infiltrated by election talk this fall. If your social circles are like mine politics has been an unavoidable conversation. For months leading up to election day, American life has been consumed by politics. Don’t get me wrong, politics are important. With every right comes responsibility and in the case of our democratic republic the right to choose our leaders comes with the responsibility to be well-informed voters. But allowing life to be consumed by politics is a recipe for disaster. Now that the election is over, it’s time to decompress and understand what a healthy relationship with American politics looks like.

A few weeks ago I made the mistake of saying, "I can't remember the last time I was sick." I came to regret those words because the next day I came down with a nasty case of brain fog, fatigue, and respiratory infection. The sickness knocked me out for a week but did greater harm to the lifestyle progress that was built over the past year.

Through the experience, I learned about my psychology and human nature in general. This episode contains three lessons that will prevent you from falling away from your goals.

Last Saturday afternoon I blew a tire. Everything went to hell in a handbasket when my friends and I discovered what happened. We ended up sitting on the side of the road for four hours because I wasn't prepared.

After the issue was resolved, I told Maddie how awful I felt for making everyone sit on the side of the road. She told me I was the only one who felt bad. Her statement made me realize I was focusing on the wrong details.

Experiences only feel as bad as we let them. People have known how powerful controlling perspective can be for thousands of years. We all have a certain disposition towards emotional reactions, but that doesn't mean we are a slave to our disposition. We can control how we react to situations.

When we are calm and choose to focus on what we can control, we become stronger.

Time is the most valuable resource we have. Choices about how we spend our time may be the most important choices we ever make. To make our time valuable, we have to stick to our priorities.

I believe we all have something that lights us on fire and does good in the world. As people spending time, we have a responsibility to prioritize that thing. If our calendars don't match our priorities, we might need to make a change.

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Throughout middle and high school, a narrative lived in my head. It said, “You aren’t athletic, so you can’t compete.” Failures in sports backed up the narrative. Eventually, I became convinced athletic competition wasn't my thing. A feud with sports became part of my identity.

Last April I joined Red Dirt CrossFit. The atmosphere was supportive. Members scored workouts for the sake of improving their fitness, not for first place. In July I signed up for the "Battle at the Base" competition in Oklahoma City.

The experience was eye-opening. I learned it is possible to change the things we believe about ourselves to fulfill new potential. Beliefs are formed by stacks of evidence we collect through experiences. This competition was the last piece of evidence that changed my beliefs about athletic competition.

We can all change the things we believe about ourselves. It is possible to change our identities and uncover untapped potential. The only way out is through.

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Last week, my biology lab professor announced we wouldn’t have lab this week due to Labor Day. It occurred to me we enjoy Labor Day weekend every year without understanding why.

Labor Day is meant to celebrate workers' contributions to society through their toil. That contribution is massive, but Labor Day is not. Most Americans treat it like a "get out of work free" card.

Doing hard work for ourselves makes us stronger. Not only does it improve our health and personal agency, but it gives us a more accurate perception of the world around us. When we understand how hard laborers work every day, we become nicer, more grateful people.

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Motivation won't solve your problems. No matter how many Goggins or Jocko videos we watch, our motivation will come and go on its own. Fortunately, we don't need motivation to change our behavior.

B.J. Fogg is a professor and founder of the Stanford Behavior Design Lab. His research looks at how behavior works, specifically how habits are formed. It is summed up in his book, “Tiny Habits,” where Fogg breaks down his model for human behavior and shares how to use it to develop better habits.

The best way to change our behavior is by changing our environment. We want to make bad habits so difficult we will never do them. We want to make good habits so easy that we will always do them.

Fogg’s book is called “Tiny Habits” because we have to start small. Small changes are sustainable changes, and sustainable changes turn into big changes over time.

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"Tiny Habits" by B.J. Fogg

Health and fitness is the #1 life enrichment strategy.

Health in America is all about the absence of illness or impairment. We live our lives without thinking about health consequences until something goes wrong. When it does go wrong medicine fixes the symptoms with the marvels of modern technology and pharmacology. Although the symptoms may be alleviated, the cause of the issue continues in most cases.

Health problems may be one of the only things we fix by alleviating symptoms instead of eliminating the causes. If nails are lying in your driveway would you patch your tires every day or pick up the nails? You would pick up the nails because patching a tire daily doesn’t make sense. Most Americans approach health like tire repairmen.

We all have the power to fix the root causes of chronic illness. How do we do it: get in better shape. Eating nutritious foods and moving our bodies is the #1 strategy for avoiding the doctor’s office, but that’s not the biggest benefit. The biggest benefit is the life enrichment that comes with health and fitness.

How nice would it be if you could walk up three flights of stairs without breathing heavily? How fun would it be to hike a mountain without thinking twice? What if you could still run around with your grandkids when you are old? Fitness can make it happen; it’s a hedge against decrepitude no matter how old you are.

Getting in shape isn’t easy, but it can be simple. Trade out processed foods for whole foods. Increase your step count, practice bodyweight exercises, and go on a ruck. Small changes to daily life can result in tremendous benefits. Health and fitness is the #1 life enrichment strategy.

Outlive by Peter Attia

Getting Stronger on Substack

Ty Jenkins is the 3x Fittest Teen on Earth. In this conversation, Ty shares his fitness journey, motivations, and goals as a professional athlete. Ty is living proof of how strength can improve one's life.

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Supplements that make you stronger.

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Less manual labor is seen as a marker of societal progress. We are doing less physical work than ever, but there are consequences to quitting the type of work humans have completed throughout history. This is a look at the physical and mental rewards of manual labor and the costs of the modern workplace.

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