take care of your health

A short lesson for my sleep-deprived self trying to get my healthy habits back in order. If you want to feel good and work hard for a long period of time, you must take care of yourself. Discipline is not about pushing yourself past your limit. It's about consistently doing what is good for you. Being a caffeine-fueled, hungry, sleep-deprived workaholic who never rests is not mature. You only bend so far before you break. Guys, the basic foundational health advice is so important. Sleep, exercise, diet. We all know that, yet no matter how many times we are told, we still think, but if I just will hard enough this time, we have to drop the I-can-do-everything-while-running-on-nothing mindset. No amount of willpower will drive a machine that is falling apart. Here is what usually happens. When you are healthy, you feel invincible. You think, I feel so powerful right now, I can handle any level of hunger and sleep deprivation. But you only have that feeling because you are healthy. Once you lose your health, that willpower won't be there anymore. It becomes a cycle. I feel super good, I don't need to be healthy. And then, man, I feel terrible, I need to fix my health. And around it goes. Healthy habits are like maintenance. If you don't keep doing them, you are no longer a fully operational machine. And it doesn't matter how hard you rev the gas, a faulty car cannot be relied upon to win a race. You might get away with it once or twice, but eventually it's going to fall apart. It's such a waste of time though, cooking 3 meals a day, showering, brushing your teeth, sleeping for 9 hours, taking all these vitamin supplements. Yes, but working without doing these things is a wasted effort. If you skip your sleep, you waste all the study you did by not letting your brain store it into the subconscious. If you skip eating, you waste all the exercise you did because your body has nothing to build itself back again with. Here's another big issue. We can be operating at 30% of our usual capacity and not even notice. We get so used to feeling terrible, we assume this is the default state. Be sensible. The harder you work, the more you must sleep. The more you exercise, the more you must eat. Recovery is part of the work. We should make it a main priority in our lives to keep these 3 pillars of health standing. Sleep. Get 7-9 hours, don't use screens an hour before bed, don't eat 2 hours before bed, go to bed at the same time each night. Exercise. Just do something each day, even if it's a 30 minute walk. Diet. Eat 3 proper meals a day, make sure you feel satisfied, get everything you need, vegetables, protein, carbs, fruit. It's always better to do less work with a mind that actually works. If you aren't sleeping, aren't exercising, and aren't eating properly, then no wonder you feel terrible. Take care of yourselves, everyone. Have a great rest of your day.