4 ways you can become a better version of yourself today
First things first…you’re pretty great as you are.
Considering that…
our universe is a result of leaving hydrogen alone for 13.7 billion years…
that thousands of generations had to come before you, successfully live, find each other and reproduce…
with just the right sperm connecting with just the right ovum in an unbroken chain for eons.
That all this had to happen, just for you to be here reading this article, is nothing short of a miracle and shouldn’t be overlooked.
But putting that to one side, I do think that getting more out of this life is a worthy pursuit.
For many years now I’ve been obsessively pursuing just that - being better, doing more.
I’ve tried a great deal…paid for things, patched things together, kept some things going and dropped others. And, whilst there are myriad strategies that I would recommend to increase life quality, expectancy and productivity…here are four ways you can become a better version of yourself today.
1 - Sleep better
I know, you’re bored of hearing this. You’ve heard it enough times to, well, put you to sleep.
But it’s not that easy is it?
I mapped each of my days for overall quality for three months, as well as measuring my sleep. There was, naturally, a direct correlation between the two.
I slept eight hours or more - it was a good day.
I slept seven hours or fewer - it was a bad day.
There are hundreds of places to go to get tips on sleeping better, but here’s something free and actionable you can do right now:
Buy a simple journal and a pen. I like these journals from Moleskine.
Download the calm app and subscribe to their 7 day free trial.
Count backwards from when you want to wake up, give yourself nine hours. That’s your bed time.
When in bed, listen to deep sleep, binaural beats.
In your journal write down:
Three things you nailed that day
Three things you’d like to nail tomorrow
Lights out, lie there, no pressure, enjoy.
When you wake up, record your sleep quality and length in the Calm App.
In total, we’re looking at about five minutes investment and, I promise you, you’ll know more about yourself and your sleep quality in these seven days than you may have ever done before.
2 - Eat better
I would tell you that a whole bag of Malteasers before bed isn’t a great idea… but I’m not your mum.
But think for a moment…
Food companies invest billions of dollars every year into research to make food more delicious, easier to access, cheaper, more moreish… and though the health-food industry is booming… so is fast food and sugar-based products.
I’m no food evangelist, but I do know that I’m a completely different machine when I am conscious about food intake.
We cannot avoid it, we are what we eat. And though thermodynamics ensures that calories in - calories out is a simple equation, there’s a lot more to it than that.
To that end, here are three ways you can eat better.
Free and Easy - Download My Fitness Pal and track your food for five days - you can even use the app to scan barcodes, making life even easier. I don’t want you to calorie count, I don’t want you to change your behavior, I just want you to be honest with yourself about what you eat and when. After five days, I’ll put money on you knowing your eating habits better, and I bet you have at least one shock.
Studious and Serious - Read the 4-hour Body by Tim Ferris or listen to the Blinklist version for something more digestible. It’s well researched, beautifully written and self-tested on good old Tim’s own flesh and blood. You’ll take something from this book which will let you live longer and better, I promise.
Expensive and Intense - Sign up for Zoe and get serious about understanding your body’s reaction to food. Myself and my partner are creating some long-form content about this as we speak and it’s super interesting. I’d also like to say that any company that can make you pay some serious wedge for the pleasure of sending them your poop has a lot to teach us about marketing and sales.
Nutrition is an argument with all the sides and no winners. However, you cannot argue that we are what we eat. Changing my diet has a massive impact on my mood, energy, emotions, capability and more.
3 - Move better
Last year I conducted about 80 interviews with professionals who I think are at the top 10% of their game and who I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the last decade or two.
The biggest influence on their mood, capability and overall productivity was - I’m afraid to say - exercise.
You may already be sold on this… fantastic. You may be dipping your toe… great. You may hate the idea… we can work with that.
Regardless, our bodies were made to move and they respond well to it.
Here are three versions of moving better depending on your current state of fitness:
I worked out… once… when I was a kid - If you’re at this level, perfect! You’re going to get the best results and feel the biggest impact. I would recommend downloading this free Tabata Timer app and then setting up the following thirty for thirty:
Prepare, work and rest, all for thirty seconds
Six cycles (that’s each individual exercise)
Five sets (that’s each group of six exercises)
Choose six movements you can do - jumping jacks, squats, plank, steps - whatever suits you right now.
Choose six of them and do them each for one for thirty seconds (a cycle).
Once you’ve completed the sixth, go back to the first and do it again (a set).
It takes only thirty minutes! Start with once a week, then move it up to twice.
When it gets easy, move to thirty-five seconds active, twenty-five seconds rest… then forty/twenty and so on. Super simple, no restrictions and scalable as hell!
I do lift, bruh - Nice work! Keep it up… but introduce some cardio in there too. Stength and cardio is a powerful combination and they really help one-another out. As an excellent trainer once said to me, “What’s the point in lifting a bus if I can’t run to catch it?”
I am a fitness freak - Gotta respect that! Let’s find an opportunity to do something hard that you don’t usually do. A great framework for the busy professional is:
Monday - HIIT
Tuesday - Endurance
Wednesday - Hypertrophy
Thursday - Endurance
Friday - HIIT
And don’t forget stretching, spa protocols and, if you don’t listen already, subscribe to the Huberman Lab podcast and Drive with Peter Attia MD
4 - Feel better
I once argued with my own quote for the week: “the purpose of life is to be happy”. Certainly a strange scenario - arguing with yourself, in your own blog, on your own generated quote - but there you go.
Bottom line is that being happy, or content, or calm, or peaceful are active states that require work.
People will do nice things for you, but no one will make you content. That’s up to you.
If you are suffering with a poor emotional state, please speak to someone. I pay for therapy once every two weeks, it costs me £70 a session and I’ve cancelled other subscriptions to keep it going.
Our emotional minds are the preverbial christmas light tangle in the box in the attic…you’re going to need help, patience and time to unpick it. But, when you do, it will light up your life.
Therapy, and working on one’s emotional state, is so important, I challenge organisations to start thinking of how we can better include proactive support in our benefits packages. Individuals should take radical accountability for positive emotional progress, too.
Don’t have the cash right now? No worries! Grab a notebook, a piece of paper, your phone…whatever. And do the following:
Each morning, take five-ten minutes to write down what you're grateful for. It can be as obscure as the miraculous nature of the hydrogen given 13.7 billion years, or it could be as specific as a a loved one’s laugh. It doesn’t matter and it may not be easy to begin with, but there is something to be grateful for every day.
Then write a single sentence on what a great day would look like.
This may seem strange, but trust me. Giving thanks, even privately, for the incredible gift life is, can be a real game changer for your own happiness.
So, there are four ways you can invest in yourself right now, all of them simple and accessible. There’s nothing stopping you.
We all have the ability to make the world a better place. In small ways, in big ways, in whatever way that matters to you, your family, your community or your world. We have the power, we can do incredible things.
Let the first incredible thing be to invest in you.
In the miraculous creation you are.
In the impossible wonder that you are.
And thank you… for stopping by.
PS - Many thanks to hydrogen and 13.7 billion years for making this article possible.
