The 3 main pillars of life 🏛️

When it comes to self-improvement, we can do a lot of stuff. Read 1 book a day, wake up at 5 am, do intermittent fasting, and don’t get me started on morning routines. But you can do all that stuff and still feel miserable. I think there are 3 main things, 3 main pillars we need to focus on before we can start looking at all the small stuff like dopamine detox, etc.

Pillar 1: Exercise 🏃‍♂️💨

Your body is a reflection of your mind, so train it and shape it, and your mind will shape as well. We as humans are designed to move. In the really early ages, I was necessary that we are mobile because the lives of our family and ourselves dependent on it. But now we can have everything basically come to us. There is no real reason to move unless it is part of your job. So we need to work out to get moving again. Exercise in any form is such a great way to 1st keep healthy and secondly to start a better life. It doesn’t even need to be something hard like a 3h Arnold style workout, just go for a quick 10-minute walk, do 10 push-ups, or take your bike to work. The idea is here to get started. CPG Gray said in a video, and I quote: “The core generator of Spaceship You are your health, with two parts: the physical and the mental. (…) The mental and physical are halves of a whole, so accelerating one accelerates the other. Each adds to the total momentum, making additional pushing easier, priming the core, creating motion, making light and order.” I think this is such a nice analogy for what I want to say with this. If you want to feel better, start with exercise.

Pillar 2: Sleep 🌙✨

A lot of people think sleep is overrated. I often find myself deep in work or other stuff while I should be asleep. But our sleep is the most important thing, and I think we need to prioritize it. The only reason I put exercise over sleep is that when I work out intensely your body will be exhausted, and it may help you. Also, you will see faster results. So what I want to say is build a solid sleeping routine.

I won’t go too deep in the topic of sleep right now, but I make an extra blog post for every Pillar in the future.

And in theory, it is pretty easy to build a solid sleeping routine. The first thing is that you go to bed the same time every night, and the second would be to get up the same every day. Easy enough right? Well, it is not. We are humans. We can’t look at ourselves like a machine that functions like a Swiss clock. Not only that, but we are more like a garden. Some days we need more water and some a little less. And the same goes for sleep. Some days we sleep like babies instantly, and on others we still lay in bed awake for hours on end, rethinking our every life decision. The same for waking up, there are days when it just does not click. But we can do certain things to help us get in and out of bed better. And I know you don’t want to hear it, but put your damn phone away. I guess our moms were right with this one. Try to shut your phone off 1 hour before bed and try to not turn it back on half an hour after you get up. Bonus tip would be to place it in your Bathroom or Kitchen, so you have a reason to get out of bed. Use your addiction to improve.

Pillar 3: Food 🍕🥗

Think about what you ate yesterday? Was what you ate good or bad? And I am not talking about good or bad food, I am talking was good or bad for your progress to a certain goal. For example, for some people eating a pizza would be a bad thing, that is true if you want to lose weight, but if you are an athlete and want to gain weight, eating that pizza would be good because it helps you bulk up.

Look at your body like a car for a second. You want your car to drive, to get you from point a to point be, and you want it to be smooth sailing, but for that you need to give it the proper fuel. If you don’t give it the required fuel, it will break down halfway.

The same is true for your body. Think about what you do in a day. How much food do you need? Then you should consider whether your basic needs, such as protein and vitamins, are met. If your answer is no, then you should do a little research on what foods contain a lot of vitamin A, or whatever your needs are.

Bonus tip for those who don't like to a lot of eat vegetables or fruit. Smoothies. You can get a lot of vitamins very quickly without having to eat an extreme amount of vegetables. Another solution that I really like is Aethletic Greens. AG1 is a nutritional supplement with extremely high levels of vitamins and minerals. The whole thing can be taken in capsule or powder form.

Conclusion 📕

I would say that every pillar requires the other. One can’t really stand with another. And please don’t look at this like an extra thing to do, look at it like something you have always done. You don’t think about going to the toilet if you have to, you just do it. And you look at this the same way. This is the foundation of your life, if you have a crumbling foundation, how will you be able to have a strong and beautiful house build on top. I hope that you can take something away from this and maybe try something out for ourselves.

Stay great, and become amazing.

I see you in the next one. :)

If you enjoyed what you just read, please read some of my other posts as well. And if you want advice like this but in a shorter, more compact form, you can subscribe to my weekly email newsletter. Every Thursday, I will send you some advice to help you with your everyday trouble. Click here to sign up.