One of the first things I started recognizing when I began my personal growth journey was how important it is to focus on your well-being before you can begin to make any real progress on your larger goals. When you prioritize your well-being, you’ll have more energy to show up as your best self. and a better ability to focus.
For many people, one common goal might relate to developing better practices around well-being, so this is a fantastic place to start if you want to make small improvements in your life that will lead to meaningful change.
No matter what goals you are focusing on, you will be much more likely to succeed if you are taking care of your physical and mental health along the way.
It can be easy to get caught up in the excitement of rushing to the finish line of a new goal you’ve set for yourself, but if you are working relentlessly towards something without stopping to take care of the fundamental needs of your body and mind, you’ll end up sacrificing your health and, ultimately, your overall productivity.
Well-being can mean different things to everyone, but there are a few key questions that may guide you in developing your own definition of what well-being means to you.
- When do you physically feel your best?
- When do you feel the most confident about yourself?
- When do you feel the most productive?
- When are you most at peace with yourself and your life?
As you ask yourself these questions, pay attention to the choices that you’ve made leading up to feeling this way. The more I began to focus on the choices I was making that resulted in me feeling like the best possible version of myself, I noticed three major factors that impacted my life in exponential ways: sleep, nutrition, and movement.
I truly believe that those who are intentional about their choices in each of these areas on a daily basis will live a more fulfilling life. Sleep better, eat better, move more, and you’ll have more energy to become the best version of yourself.
You might be asking “Didn’t the title of this post promise four?” Yes, and I intentionally separated this one. Why? Because it’s not as intuitive for some people, myself included. This piece is mindfulness.
There are a lot of components to mindfulness that the overwhelming majority of people fail to understand the value of (meditation and breathwork, for example). Most of us need guidance and an open mind to embrace this piece and unlock our true potential.
Universal Well-Being – Sleep, Nutrition, Movement, and Mindfulness
Have you ever noticed a connection between your sleeping, eating, and exercising habits and certain elements of your well-being such as your energy, your mood, and your productivity?
While it may sound obvious that sleep, nutrition, and movement have an impact on your day to day well-being, not enough people consciously pay attention to the patterns they create in these areas and how those patterns influence every aspect of their lives.
When I started to notice these patterns, I got curious about the science behind how our choices in each of these areas affects our bodies, and as I started to do some research I found a book that encompasses all three of these areas, as well as a fourth area (thinking, or mindfulness).
The Ripple Effect by Greg Wells dives deep into how our sleep, nutrition, exercise, and thought habits are directly linked to disease (such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and obesity), cognitive ability, and mental health.
“Our world is facing four interrelated grand epidemics – sleeplessness, obesity, inactivity, and mental illness – that are causing people to struggle on a daily basis.”
– Greg Wells
This book is absolutely fascinating and I would highly recommend giving it a read.
Not only does Wells provide interesting research on the correlation of our habits and their effect on our bodies (physically and mentally), he shows how each of these areas are interrelated (for example, when we get a good night of sleep, the hormones that manage hunger are regulated, which minimizes cravings and results in smarter eating habits).
“Sleeping soundly, eating smarter, moving more, and thinking clearly are all interconnected – you can’t outrun a bad diet, for example, and a proper diet can’t make up for a sedentary lifestyle. These four factors are amplifiers for each other. When you put them together, you end up with much more than the sum of the individual parts.”
– Greg Wells
How is that for an incentive to start making healthier decisions for your body?! The impact on our brain that results from quality sleep, physical activity, nutrition, and mindfulness is unmatched by any quick fix you may think is an easier solution.
The Art of Paying Attention
I’ll digress from the science and research (for any fellow nerds out there that are interested, Dr. Wells also has a lot of great information on his blog).
While I am captivated by a lot of the science behind this stuff, you don’t need to be in order to recognize the benefits of treating your body and mind well. Most of it is intuitive if you are mindful about taking note of how certain choices make you feel.
Start by asking yourself these questions:
- How does a poor night’s sleep affect your productivity, mood, and mental health the next day?
- How do you feel when you eat nutrient dense, healthy foods vs. junk food?
- How do you feel when you’ve gotten exercise during the day (even if it’s just a 30 minute walk) vs. if you sat on the couch or at your desk the entire day?
- How does your mindset affect your day to day life? Do you make time to think clearly, breathe deeply, and set intentions for your day? If not, how do you think implementing a practice like this could benefit you?
Pay attention to the impacts your sleep, nutrition, exercise, and thought patterns have on your day. Be intentional about where you might like to make changes, and keep in mind that even small changes can have exponential impacts and lead to a better life.
A Note on Mindfulness
I want to recognize that a mindfulness practice is often difficult for people to get on board with or see the value in. We are all so busy and taking time out of the day for to practice self-awareness, breathwork, meditation, or reflection probably seems like the last thing you have time for. For most people, this is a result of a lack of understanding of the purpose and benefits of the practice.
If you are one of these people, I completely understand. I was too. But after reading about the importance of mindfulness and hearing countless successful people that I look up to rave about the benefits of it, I decided to give it a try. It has truly changed my life. If you’re on the fence or completely convinced that a mindfulness practice “just isn’t for you”, I’d encourage you to do a little research and explore the idea.
Check out How to Take Your Life to the Next Level with a Mindfulness Practice to learn more about what mindfulness is and for some tips to get started.
Better Habits, Better Results
For most of us, our habits in these areas are deeply ingrained and will take a conscious effort on a daily basis to make lasting changes. The good news is that starting small is all it takes – do 1% better every day, and the results will be compounding.
The “1% rule” is mentioned briefly in The Ripple Effect, but I really like James Clear’s approach to this idea:
“As time goes on, these small improvements or declines compound and you suddenly find a very big gap between people who make slightly better decisions on a daily basis and those who don’t. Here’s the punchline: If you get one percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.”
The graph on James Clear’s continuous improvement page (also found in his book Atomic Habits, where it is discussed in detail) does a great job of helping you visualize the power of tiny gains:
Identify a few things you can start out with to make improvements to your daily routines. While it’s important to recognize that everyone faces different challenges, there are certain things we should all be doing to optimize these areas of our lives. For starters:
- Choosing nutrient dense foods over energy (calorie) dense foods
- No screen time in the hour before bed
- Move your body for at least 30 minutes per day
- Implement a mindfulness practice into your day
If you’re already doing all of the above, amazing! If you’re not, take it one step at a time. For example – I know the no screen time for an hour before bed can seem daunting. I used to be the person that fell asleep with the tv on after scrolling through social media for twenty minutes in bed.
Instead of immediately trying to set expectations to meet the one hour, start with 10 minutes. Move the tv out of the bedroom. Set your phone somewhere you can’t reach from your bed so you aren’t tempted. Use the bedtime feature on your phone to silence all notifications.
My sleep has improved immensely since I shifted from tv and social media before bed to stretching, breathwork, and reading. Good habits can be difficult to develop, but if you put in the work to build them they become just that – habits.
You’ll no longer crave the Friends re-run you’ve seen 10 times to help you fall asleep; instead, you’ll begin to crave to sense of calm and relaxation that come from the healthy new bedtime habits you’ve created (whether that be taking a hot bath or shower, meditating, or reading a good book).
Sleep Better, Eat Better, Move Better, Think Better
Dr. Wells brilliantly summed it up in the subtitle of his book: “Sleep better, eat better, move better, think better”. These aspects of our lives are all interconnected and making better decisions in each of these areas can lead to dramatic improvement in our everyday lives.
“It’s when we combine sleeping, eating, moving, and thinking better that we can make incredible gains in our health and in our lives. I call this the ripple effect.”
– Greg Wells
Don’t sit back and let your unconscious decisions control you – show up every day with specific intentions set to sleep better, eat better, move better, and think better.
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