A very important skill to be (and stay) healthy

In 1933, a desperate and depressed woman named Frau sent a letter to the psychologist Carl Jung, asking “how to live.”

(She didn’t have any Instagram followers to shout her words of encouragement, I guess)

Jung replied:

“Your questions are unanswerable, because you want to know how a person should live. A person lives as much as he can.

If you commit to the next and most important thing, you will always do something meaningful and planned. “

He was sharing the keys to life.

It is part of a recovery community like Alcoholics Anonymous.

It was also the theme song in onDisney’s Frozen 2on.

“Right next step.”

Revisiting this story made me think about how my ideas about success and progress have changed over the years.

“Winning” Redefining

I’ve been doing this Nerd Fitness thing for 15+ years.

Millions of people visit the site every year, 50,000+ customers have purchased products through NF, and our coaches have helped 15,000+ customers 1-on-1.

In that moment, I changed my mind about “doing well” and “being well.”

I thought that the only way to victory required military discipline following a certain plan. I never missed a workout, and I was very proud of that.

It never occurred to me how many a onthe lucky life is simpleon I stayed, where I was 100% in control of my time.

(Sorry to all the parents and carers reading my 25 year old opinion!).

Now I am 40 years old, and I can see the types of people we live with actually With the help of Nerd Fitness, I have changed my perspective on success and “getting fit” in a very fair way.

Success doesn’t happen when we learn to do everything perfectly, but rather when we are good enough to keep going even when things don’t go our way.

In other words, success is learning to be consistent. Learning to be good enough for a long time.

And this means that, when life gets messy, we always look for the “next thing”.

Do the Right Action

A onin the near futureon from author Oliver Burkeman talked about how he chose to stay positive in a crowded world.

It led me to these quotes from author Eckert Tolle:

What you call your “life” should be called your “life”. It is a time of imagination: the past and the future.

…Forget about your life for a moment and take care of your life.

Find the “narrow gate that leads to life.” It’s called Now.

Reduce your life to the present. Your life may be full of problems – many events in life – but check if you have any problems at this time. Not tomorrow or in ten minutes, but now.

Do you have a problem? now?

When we think about what has happened in the past, and we fear everything that may happen or should happen in the future…

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

Which brings us back to this short answer: “the next thing.”

It’s only cliché because it’s true.

We can get wayyyyyy close, narrowing our focus to the thing that is still in our hands. Sometimes, yes, there is a problem right now. And we can only focus on one thing.

But in many other situations, we often worry about all the problems that may exist, or problems that are beyond our control, which prevents us from taking action on the real things that we can control.

Burkeman continues:

As for telling myself that I need to do the next thing… you can always do the next thing, and then the next thing, whether you want to or not.

It’s a little strange, to refer to these methods as “reducing your appearance”, as if they affect you in some way.

Of course, you’re only now realizing with curiosity how little you once were.

We all know how easy it is for us to do that onovercomplicate thingson.

And when the world feels like a garbage fire, it can help to approach the next idea, a much smaller goal, and just do something worthwhile.

It may include exercising or walking, focusing on the next meal, calling the doctor, or onfinally saying noon to surrender.

If “now” is the only time there is, then “the next thing” is the only thing we can do.

I’m going to do the next right thing for me: walk.

-Steve

PS: Maria Popova is ongood post about “the next thing”on how it affects his life as the author who inspired the episode.

PS: Nerd Fitness is hiring a few remote, part-time people (mostly night and weekend shifts) to take incoming, scheduled calls from potential clients interested in our 1-on-1 coaching. onClick here for more informationon.

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