Zooming In Builds Consistency; Zooming Out Manages Expectations.
Learning to do both effectively leads to quicker results and the longer road (the one less traveled).
To Health Advocates—
Keep your head in the clouds, but feet on the ground— a common mantra passed around when discussing the mindset required to lead an organization to a brighter future. Rarely though, do we consider this framing as something that can be impactful on our personal lives, to lead ourselves to higher highs.
It’s no secret that to achieve peak performance in our own lives the ultimate outcome is to develop habits and routines around the most impactful areas of our health: exercise, sleep, nutrition, unstructured activity, etc. A habit is defined as a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up. When we deconstruct our health into habits, we create or acknowledge regular tendencies or practices that are hard to give up (again, hard to give up). People that have this perfected know that excellent health and longevity are a result of keeping their head in the clouds, but feet on the ground → Putting together a plan that they enjoy and find “hard to give up.”
Committing to habits for the long haul require someone to not lose sight of who they are, and who they want to become. That underlying “why,” or reason, that keeps them following the path even on their worst days. This is what is meant by having your head in the clouds: a continuous pursuit towards the horizon where that person you envision yourself as awaits. All great endeavors are reached when people keep a clear focus on their “head in the clouds” goal.
On the flip side (and paraphrasing Denzel Washington), dreams without actions, ultimately will lead to disappointment. On a day to day basis, having our head in the clouds doesn’t actually carve a path for us to follow. We need our feet on the ground. That’s where the dirty work of habit building happens. The day in and day out routines, tendencies, and practices that we commit to so often, they become hard to break. We have to live with our feet on the ground, daily, for months, and then years. After a period of time do we only then realize that we’ve moved slightly closer to that end goal.
Below, I want to walk through the idea of zooming in on a day to day basis and zooming out to manage expectations for our goals. When we zoom in, we realize that the plan we put together for ourselves is extremely manageable and easier to execute. When we zoom out (for better or worse) we realize what we have done on a single day, isn’t really that much, but over a period of time, becomes substantial. This helps us set reasonable expectations for our goals. Perfecting both of these things ultimately leads to excellent results, and the longer road ahead, which is unfortunately, the road less traveled.
I hope you enjoy it and have a great weekend!
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Zooming in: Working out for 45 minutes each day would double the guidelines set for American adults by the Department of Health and Human Services. The 20 minutes per day (150 minutes per week, to be exact) guidelines that are currently set, are only hit by 23% of Americans at this point in time (!). Only 23%.
Zooming out: For most, 45 minutes per day would be an exceptional week of activity. Despite this, at only 20-25 minutes per day, less than 2% of your total week would be spent performing physical activity. If you doubled the guidelines to 45 minutes, you’d still be only spending about 3.5% of your time in a physically active state.
Solution: The barrier for entry to be considered physically active is very low. Despite that, most Americans can not hit the requirements. Getting caught up in structured workouts as the only modality to achieve physical activity would be failing to acknowledge a bigger opportunity.
Using unstructured activity to turn our 2 or 3% into let’s say, 6 or 7% without any additional planning. Humans were built to walk long distances. Commuting on foot, taking meetings out of the office with team members, phone calls, running errands without a car or Uber, parking as far away as possible, or intentionally taking the stairs. These are simple ways to double our output without ever having to put on gym clothes. Relying solely on structured activity to grow our fitness level can be an unrealistic expectation in modern society, especially when we have daily opportunities to be more human.
Not only that, but if we want exceptional outcomes for ourselves then we have to make the most of the opportunities we have. For physical fitness, this requires a plan of action that contains both structured and unstructured activity (Recall, our world record octogenarian completed 90 minutes of structured activity per week, and 2 hours and 30 minutes of unstructured per day)!
Want to know the power of unstructured activity on your brain? A group of hotel room attendants were told that the work they do actually meets the physical activity guidelines set by the Surgeon General. After being provided this information, though their behaviors didn’t change, this group of attendants saw a decrease in weight, blood pressure, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, and body mass index.
Let’s look at this another way…
Zooming in: Four resistance training exercises would roughly take 25 minutes to execute. This can be done at home, at a gym, or even at an office. A very approachable daily habit.
Zooming out: Performing this habit daily would result in 3 hours of resistance training per week.
Zooming in: A brisk walk to get coffee, lunch, or water each day at a destination that is 1/2 mile away from your home or office would roughly take only 20 minutes of your time.
Zooming out: Repeating this task daily would satisfy the physical activity guidelines set by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Add those two together and you would put yourself in rare company in today’s society.
Zooming in: An average workout is made up of 7 or 8 exercises over the course of 60 minutes.
Zooming out: Two workouts per week would require you to complete 16 exercises in a 7 day period. Three workouts per week and you’re looking at 24 exercises.
Deconstruct it into a daily habit and you only have to do 2-4 exercises per day with intense focus to completely reframe the way we view structured exercise.
Zooming in: Break the task down to very approachable parts.
Zooming out: Accumulate as many of these in a day or week as possible.
Zooming out even further: World class health, on the basis of physical activity, could be achieved by 2 large tasks, or 4 small tasks, completed daily. The honest truth, you don’t have to put on your gym clothes nearly as often as you think.
My intention is, of course, not to discredit the value of structured activity like resistance training, group fitness, etc. There is, of course, infinite value in exploring more complicated components of activity like developing muscle, posture training, different energy systems, breathing patterns, the list goes on. After all, I make a living teaching people a well-balanced approach to structured training. I just also believe that exceptional health is very attainable, without complication. Deconstruct your “head in the clouds” plan into the tiniest components and you’ll see that they fit quite simply into a busy work day, a phone call, or a daily commute.
Combine structured and unstructured activity daily with relentless pursuit? Years of healthspan and lifespan added to the tail end of your time here.
A personal note:
My “head in the clouds” plan for myself is to still be going for light jogs when I turn 100 years old. It would be an accumulation of a lifetime of healthy living with serious consistency. What would make the moment even more surreal? My 30 or 40 year old grandson or daughter pacing with me and my bride-to-be.
Despite this vision, my “feet on the ground” plan consists of healthy, home cooked meals daily, commuting on foot every possible moment, 35 minutes of structured workouts daily, occasional long runs and hikes, and the continuous pursuit of happiness.
I read somewhere once that at some point in everyone’s life their health will be the most important thing to them, so you might as well just accept it now. A simple truth, and hopefully today’s newsletter serves as a small tool in how to reframe the way you view a physically active life.
No Need to Grind it out Alone
I loved this tweet and study that Dr. Sian Allen highlighted this week. Having poor social health is just as detrimental to your health on mortality as alcohol consumption and smoking.
My favorite part about an approachable mindset to health and fitness, and learning to block out the toxic pseudoscience we become so accustomed to seeing, is that it’s inclusive for everyone. It really doesn’t have to be complicated.
Again, thank you so much for reading this week. If this brought you any value or you just enjoy reading it, please consider sharing with a friend or family member to help support my work. If you were sent this, and would like to subscribe, you can do so here.