The Three Things

Hi Everyone -

Over the past few weeks, I’ve picked up a bunch of new subscribers so I’m going to take a moment to introduce the purpose of this newsletter.

I think people make things too complicated, including information about wellness.

I write Prime Cuts to share stuff that might help others improve health and mindset and do it in a way that is simple and straightforward. 

If I help a few people, it will have been worth it.

The Three Things

I began this strategy five or six years ago and it has helped foster health and happiness so I’d like to share it.

Life is complicated and I’ve had difficulty staying focused on the most important things since forever.

One New Years (I think 2015 into 2016?), I resolved to focus on only 3 things. I always managed to get involved in a ton of stuff and spread myself too thin so I wanted to focus.

I’ve made a lot of resolutions over the years and broken a lot of them but this time I stuck with it and have gotten progressively more successful on all fronts. 

Now I say no a lot. I miss stuff. Whatever.

These are the three things I committed to in order of priority.

1. Health

2. Family

3. Work

I wrote the first letter of each on a file card and taped it to my dresser, looked at it almost every morning and still do. Here’s a pic:

At first, this was a lot more about cutting things out, especially going out, hanging out with friends, taking on side projects, and lending others a hand.

I began spending far fewer evenings in the city and picked up my jogging game which led to push ups and pull ups. I’ve missed a ton of live music.

I passed on a lot of stuff, which was difficult at first but now I relish it. 

This is the essence of JOMO (The Joy of Missing Out) which I discussed on a podcast with JC Parets here.

Saying no has become a pleasure instead of a dread as the payoffs have become more apparent.

I find the three things are complementary as getting healthy leads to more positive energy for family and work etc. I put health first for this reason as it compounds mightily.

If you feel like you are getting pulled in too many different directions and having trouble committing to the things you realize are the most important, I recommend this strategy. 

It doesn’t have to be the same three things. You might have different priorities.

Yo Adriene

If you guys don’t know about Yoga with Adriene yet, check it out. She has a ton of excellent videos and some of them are as short as 10 minutes. I do the short ones in the early AM and it gets the day going in a positive way.