"The person who grasps principles can successfully select their own methods. The person who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are two guiding principles that I have found within my health and fitness journey that always steer me in the right direction if I find myself wandering off course or questioning what to do.
I hope they can help you dramatically cut through all the noise within the online fitness space and guide you toward daily actions that enrich your life now and for years to come.
In our last article “Core Beliefs for Health & Wellness” we talked about the importance of beliefs, semantic understanding of the words used in said beliefs, and how to go about creating more empowering beliefs.
This article can of be thought of as “part 2ish” to that article.
Starting with beliefs before principles is beneficial because knowing your beliefs can help you start in the first place while principles can help you optimize or guide you to better actions and therefore outcomes.
Before going on it’s important we both have a mutual understanding of what I am referring to by principle(s).
According to Google, principles can be defined as: a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning.
For our use of the word we will really emphasize the last part ‘foundation of a system for a chain of reasoning’ and pair it with fundamental truth(s) that will allow us to get the results we want.
ex.) You want to start Exercising consistently (again)
-You Value: Health & Wellbeing
-Your Belief: You can get results with effort, therefore you take action.
-Principles: WHY the methods work (fundamental truths) and HOW to apply them to your current life (mental reasoning)
-Methods: Style/“Genre” of exercise you do, Equipment used, Supersets, etc.]
—>Side Note: This article isn’t going to go into the weeds of various methods of exercise themselves (Free PDF members section & Free Gym Basics course for more on this), rather, it will go over how principles can direct your actions and behaviors as it relates to your fitness/wellness goals, and current life situation.
Two Principles for Individualized Fitness, Health, and Wellness:
A.) Everyday Enriching Efforts
B.) Fit For…
There are multiple reasons and levels why these two principles are so powerful.
A few listed (and then further detailed later) are;
- allows individuality of end goal
- allows individuality of circumstance
- allows minimal friction or barrier to entry
- allows individuality of methods
- follows the foundational truths needed for physical transformation/improvements
- follows the foundational truths needed for mental transformation/improvements
- simple
Let’s dig into why these two principles could be the “bumpers” to your fitness and wellness keeping you on track no matter what life has in store day to day.
The Principles:
A)Everyday Enriching Efforts
B)Fit For…
–Allows Individuality of End Goal:
No matter what your end goal is (whether long term or short term) you can always
a.) do something enriching (to either yourself or the goal) everyday
b.) reflect on the goal (aka what you’re Fit For) to either give you motivation, track progress and see if your actions are in integrity to it, or see if it’s still your desired goal at all.
–Allows Individuality of Circumstance & Allows Minimal Friction or Barrier to Entry:
Whether you work a 9-5, are a stay at home parent, a professional athlete, student, or anything in-between you can still apply these two principles.
a & b.) you can do something everyday for your health, fitness and wellness. If you don’t believe so then it is a belief problem on what’s required. “Not enough time” or “being too busy” misses the fact that doing 1 push up is better than 0 push ups. 20 seconds of conscious breathing is better than 0 seconds of conscious breathing. Not having access to a gym detracts from the fact that you can do bodyweight exercises or yoga flows etc. Progress is progress, it’s about choosing to act no matter how small and being ok with the fact that some days will be more productive than others when working toward your goals. All that matters is, Something > Nothing.
–Allows Individuality of Methods:
No matter what style of exercise you enjoy, or what way you best relax and recover the principles do not change and can be applied.
a.) do something enriching (to either you or your goal) everyday
b.) No matter what your end goal may be there are multiple methods or means of getting there.
Time to get into the real juicy ones!
–Follows the foundational truths needed for physical transformation/improvements:
If we view fitness and wellness as a skill that we work to develop then,
a.) doing something or “practicing everyday” is better than doing so 2-3x per week. Even if you spend less overall time doing so each day.
ex.) 30 mins walking x 7 days = 210 minutes for the week
60 mins walking x 3 days = 180 minutes for the week
b.) depending on your goals you can modify intensities and methods to match your goals WHILE doing something everyday and following the foundational truths of exercise.
ex.) 2 days 60 mins of weights, 2 days 30 mins of walking, 3 days 15 mins of stretching/mobility work while watching TV.
–Follows the foundational truths needed for mental transformation/improvements:
One of the biggest benefits of these two principles is the way it also works on our minds subconsciously. Just like the physical benefits above we can add to them with
a.) James Clear (author of Atomic Habits) talks about how we need to adopt the identity of the “person who does the thing”, what better way is there to engrain this than by making the CONSCIOUS choice of doing something everyday. (until one day noticing the actions are now unconscious)
b.) Depending on what your end goal is, it will require different things mentally from you. Whether you are working out to make a team, to be there physically/mentally/emotionally for your family, or to get into the best shape of your life so you can experience activities you always have wanted to but felt incapable, the best place to mentally prepare is in the everyday choices by choosing (becoming) our future selves who do the things required to reach our goal(s).
–Simple:
In order for something to be able to be done everyday while also focusing on the end result, it needs to be easy to achieve no matter what. Throw in the complexities of modern day life and everything being a human in the 21st century involves and it also needs to be simple.
a & b.) These two principles check both of these boxes and allow us to put more physical/mental/emotional energy into all other areas of our lives.
—>Side Note: Speaking of simple, the online fitness/health space is full of information which can be confusing, make us feel restricted, or trapped in not wanting to make a “wrong” decision. Here is a reminder (if needed) that health and fitness don’t have to feel or be restrictive; https://fullstorywellness.com/healthisnotrestrictive/
~
Everyone knows that they should move their bodies, drink water, eat a balanced diet, get quality sleep, and manage their stress.
Yet, on average most people don’t do these things.
A lot of the time what I see with clients (and myself), is that we put our efforts and thoughts into changing methods when it really is our principles or beliefs that need adjusting and could make all of the difference in our success.
Whether you use these two principles or have your own way of navigating your goals and habits I hope you are inspired by how simple it can be to truly create individualized fitness and wellness within your life.
Fitness and Wellness that is just a byproduct of you living your life in the most enriching way to you.
To Your Success,
Josh
