The most important skills for getting (and staying) healthy

In 1933, a woman named Frau wrote a letter to psychologist Carl Jung asking “how to live.”

(I guess she doesn’t have any Instagram influencers shouting motivational platitudes at her)

Jung replied:

“Your question is unanswerable because you want to know how one should live. One lives to the best of one’s ability.

… If you commit to the next and most necessary thing, you are always doing something meaningful and destined.

He is sharing the key to life.

It is part of recovery communities such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

It’s even the title of a song NumberDisney’s “Frozen 2”Number.

“The next right thing.”

Reliving this story made me reflect on how much my perspective on success and progress has changed over the years.

Redefining “Success”

I’ve been doing nerd fitness for over 15 years.

Millions of people visit the site each year, over 50,000 customers purchase through NF, and our coaches have served over 15,000 one-on-one clients.

During that time, my perspective on “success” and “the good life” changed a lot.

I used to believe that the only way to success required the strict discipline of following a specific plan. I never missed a workout and was extremely proud of that.

I didn’t realize how many there were NumberA privileged and simple lifeNumber Where I live, I have 100% control over my time.

(Apologies to any parents and caregivers reading my 25 year old perspective!).

Now that I’m 40, I can see the type of people around us actually With the help of Nerd Fitness, I have dramatically changed my perspective on success and the “good life.”

Success doesn’t happen when we learn how to do everything perfectly, it happens when we get better at making ends meet even when things aren’t going well.

In other words, success is about learning the consistency of inconsistency. Learning becomes good enough over a long enough period of time.

This means focusing our attention on the “next right thing” when life seems chaotic.

do the next right thing

one NumberLatest NewslettersNumber Author Oliver Burkeman tells how he chose to maintain a modicum of sanity in an overwhelming world.

It reminds me of these sentences from author Eckert Tolle:

“What you call ‘life’ should more accurately be called your ‘living situation.’ This is psychological time: past and future.

…Forget your living situation for a moment and pay attention to your life.

Find the “narrow door to life.” It’s called “now.”

Zoom your life down to this moment. Your life situation may be fraught with problems—most life situations are—but see if you have any problems at this time. Not tomorrow or ten minutes from now, but now.

do you have questions Now?

When we reflect on what has happened and fear all that may or needs to happen in the future…

It’s easy to feel out of control and overwhelmed.

Which brings us back to that cliche solution: “The next right thing.”

It’s a cliche simply because it’s true.

We can zoom in and narrow the focus to things that are still within our control. In some cases, Yes, there is a problem now. We can just focus on this one thing.

But in many other situations, we often worry about all the things that could go wrong, or are beyond our control, which prevents us from taking action on the actual things we can control.

Berkman continued:

As for telling myself I just have to do the next thing… you always just have to do the next thing, and the next, whether you like it or not.

In fact, it’s a little weird to call any of these techniques “narrowing your horizons,” as if they’re somehow artificially limiting yourself.

In fact, you are just consciously recognizing how limited you have always been.

We all know how easy it is for us Numbermake things too complicatedNumber.

When the world feels like a dumpster fire, it helps us focus on the next decision, the smallest goal, and doing the next right thing.

It may involve exercising or taking a walk, focusing on your next meal, calling our therapist, or NumberSay no finallyNumber to a promise.

If “now” is the only time that exists, then “the next right thing” is the only thing we can really do.

I’m going to do the next thing that feels right to me: take a walk.

-Steve

Attached: Maria popova has NumberGreat article on “The Next Right Thing”Number As it relates to her life as a writer, it inspired this article.

Polyphenylene ether: Nerd Fitness is recruiting some remote part-time staff (especially flexible nights and weekends) to answer inbound calls from potential clients interested in our one-on-one coaching. NumberClick here to learn moreNumber.

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