1: The global wellness economy is $4.4 trillion.
Wowza.
“With each new fitness gadget promising perfect abs and each new miracle health food promising youthful vigor, we are forced into a silent battle against the overwhelmingly strong and savvy energy of the world’s best marketers,” Sahil Bloom writes in his book The 5 Types of Wealth.
“Their jobs depend on convincing us that we need all of it to live a healthy, happy life—and they are very, very good at their jobs.”
Sahil calls it “our modern obsession.”
“They shine a light on the imperfections of our current world,” he observes, “show us what our perfect world could look like, and then position Gadget X or Health Food Y as the only thing standing between us and that perfect world.”
What happens when we step back and look at what they are selling?
“It’s (mostly) nonsense,” Sahil believes.
2: There is a better way.
If our goal is to create true “Physical Wealth,” we are better off using the “80/20 Rule,” which tells us that a small number of inputs drive most of the outputs.
“Everywhere I looked, I found the same underlying principles,” Sahil writes. “For all the complexity on the surface, there was a common simplicity in the foundation, three core pillars that every routine was built around.”
Most of the results are driven by a few straightforward actions:
- Controllable Pillar #1 of Physical Wealth: Movement—Daily body movement through a combination of cardiovascular exercise and resistance training, as well as activities to promote stability and flexibility
- Controllable Pillar #2 of Physical Wealth: Nutrition—Consumption of primarily whole, unprocessed foods to meet major nutrient needs, supplementing as necessary to meet any micronutrient needs
- Controllable Pillar #2 of Physical Wealth: Recovery—High-quality, consistent sleep performance and other recovery-promoting activities
Sahil writes: “This is not to say that there’s zero value in the seemingly endless list of health products, services, foods, and beverages—I’ve used, tested, and enjoyed many of them on my own journey—but it is to say that they should always be secondary and never confused with the primary building blocks of Physical Wealth.”
3: To improve our health, we are wise to narrow our focus.
“While the three pillars of Physical Wealth are simple,” he explains, “they can feel intimidating, particularly when you consider all the detailed information available on each pillar and the extremes to which people seem to take them.”
Sahil’s strategy to make taking action less intimidating is to use a video-game analogy: we have three levels for each pillar, from a baseline Level 1 to an expert Level 3.
We begin by executing Level 1 consistently before taking on Level 2, and eventually, Level 3.
Stay tuned! In the coming days, we will embark on an exciting journey to analyze each of the three controllable pillars of physical wealth, as well as explore the three levels within each pillar.
Together, let’s unlock our full potential!
More tomorrow!
__________________________
Reflection: Am I chasing shiny wellness gimmicks while neglecting the simple, consistent habits—movement, nutrition, and recovery—that actually build my Physical Wealth?
Action: Choose one of the three pillars—movement, nutrition, or recovery—and define a simple Level 1 habit I can start this week, then commit to executing it every single day.
What did you think of this post?
