21 Habits to Optimize Your 2021
1. Eliminate Processed Foods
Countless books, research studies, and experts denounce processed foods. Regardless of what diet you support – could be 100% vegan or 100% carnivore – everyone agrees that the best thing you can do to improve your nutrition is to eliminate processed foods.
Humans have spent millenniums eating whole foods, with most highly processed foods only becoming widely available within the last century. There is substantial evidence linking processed foods to modern day illness, with breakouts of disease and a seemingly endless list of health issues.
Eat whole foods in 2021, and you’ll feel a lot better!
How to do it:
- No junk food or fast food
- Avoid pre-packaged food
- Avoid added sugars
- Avoid vegetable/seed oils
- Avoid ingredients you can’t pronounce
- Shop the perimeter of the grocery store
2. Eliminate Alcohol
I may be making some enemies and ruffling some feathers with this one, but the science is pretty clear: Alcohol does more harm than good. In fact, a comprehensive study by WHOOP on student athletes found alcohol consumption led to impaired recovery for up to FIVE DAYS.
One of the main mechanisms is by suppressing restorative sleep. So while you may feel like you slept “well,” you likely had your REM and Slow-Wave Sleep reduced in favor of light sleep. And since restorative sleep is perhaps the most important component of good health, this can become a problem.
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This doesn’t mean you can’t drink alcohol, but at the very least, you should carefully consider the sacrifices you are making to your sleep, recovery, and health.
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Besides, drinking water is always in style
How to do it:
- Limit alcohol consumption
- Avoid alcohol before going to sleep
- Consume non-alcoholic beverages instead
- Be aware that alcohol may significantly disrupt natural sleep cycles (REM & NREM)
3. Drink more water
Building off the previous point, water is always in style. This isn’t a secret or a revolutionary concept: drinking more water will improve your life.
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Water plays an important role in countless cellular processes, and without it, life would cease to exist. Another bonus – water doesn’t come with all the adverse health effects that you may find in other drinks.
How to do it:
- Aim for 3L (~100oz) of water daily
- Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning and right before bed
- Always keep a water bottle with you
- Trade out other beverages for water
4. Sleep more
If you’re questioning if you sleep enough, you probably need more.
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Here’s a little test from Matthew Walker’s “Why We Sleep.” First, after waking up, could you fall asleep by 10 or 11am? Secondly, do you need caffeine to function optimally before noon? And finally, would you sleep way past your alarm in the morning?
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If you answered yes to any of those, you almost certainly need more sleep. Ideally, we should aim for 7 hours of sleep per night as adults. But note, to get that much sleep, most people would need to spend around 8 hours in bed.
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This requires a commitment. This requires good sleep hygiene. This requires making sleep a non-negotiable priority. And of course, this may not be sustainable or feasible for everyone. But we all should carefully consider the priorities in our life and be aware of the consequences of sleep deprivation.
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For a primer on sleep deprivation, check out Episode 005.
How to do it:
- Aim for 7 hours of sleep per night (~8 hours in bed)
- Make sleep a non-negotiable priority
- Take naps as needed
- Practice good sleep hygiene
- Limit blue light
- Turn off devices
- Lower temperature in room
5. Consistent Sleep/Wake Timing
The previous point was about sleeping more, and while that’s important, it’s not enough to just sleep more. To truly optimize your sleep, you need consistent sleep/wake timing.
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A 2017 study published in Nature, the gold standard for scientific research, found a direct association between college GPAs and sleep/wake timing. But here is the real kicker — the total amount of sleep wasn’t indicative of performance, but rather, it was the consistency of sleep timing that mattered.
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To build off this, WHOOP conducted a study using data from 20,000 people, totaling three million sleeps. They also found that sleep consistency correlated with higher performance data, potentially leading to increased slow wave deep sleep, REM sleep, HRVs (heart rate variabilities), and lower RHRs (resting heart rates).
How to do it:
- Go to bed and wake up at same time EVERY DAY
- Develop pre-sleep routine
- Eat meals at same times
- Avoid caffeine at least 6 hours before bed
- Avoid napping after 3pm
- Schedule your sleep
6. Bookend Your Day
How you end one day is how you’ll start the next.
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Sleep is amazing, but it’s not an erase function on an Etch A Sketch. Life is full of stress, pain, heartbreak, and suffering; that is part of the human condition. But we have the power to disassociate from our emotions and manifest a positive mental state.
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Easy? No. But doable, yes. Dr. Joe Dispenza has talked extensively on the importance of mindset and its role in happiness, fulfillment, disease, and depression. I highly recommend checking out his work.
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How to do it? Best advice I got from Ed Mylett was to frame your day with 30 minutes first thing in the morning and last thing before bed with no phone. Be alone with your thoughts. Connect with your emotions. Focus on your growth and happiness.
How to do it:
- Develop positive morning and evening routines
- Phone off / airplane mode for first and last 30 minutes of day
- Dedicate time to reflection, journaling, reading, meditation, stretching
- Eliminate external distractions and obligations
7. Write in a journal
Overwhelmed with emotions, stress, or thoughts? Write them out.
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The simple process of writing in a journal can greatly improve your ability to process information, reflect on your life, and make sense of everything. Seeing things on paper and structuring your thoughts into words can help you zoom out and see things from a different perspective.
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It’s also a great escape from screens and technology. It can be a relaxing exercise in self-development (and skill development – writing will always be a valuable skill!) and a great addition to morning and evening routines.
How to do it:
- Daily journaling
- Pause, reflect, and explore your emotions, thoughts, concerns, fears, etc.
- Write expressions of gratitude
- Write freely or use prompts:
- Something bothering me…
- Today I felt…
- I’m happy when…
8. Meditate
Meditation is one of the most powerful ways to rapidly alter your physiology. When practiced, it can serve as a form of parasympathetic activation, assisting in the reduction of stress and balancing of the HPA axis. For more on the HPA Axis, check out Episode 008.
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At a fundamental level, deep and controlled breathing can induce a physiological response within 30-60s, reducing stress and increasing clarity of thought. The mindfulness and gratitude components have also been shown to have meaningful, quantifiable impacts on brain health.
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It can also serve as a gateway to deepened introspection and spirituality if you choose to do so. All in all, meditation is packed with benefits and can leave you feeling amazing.
How to do it:
- Allocate time to be present
- Even 10 minutes is enough
- Use guided meditations
- Calm, Headspace, Smiling Mind, YouTube
- Mindfulness throughout day
- Awareness of breathing, sounds, body scans, reflect on emotions
9. Practice Cold Therapy
Many of us hate being cold, and understandably so. We put on extra blankets, jackets, and turn the heat all the way up to be nice and cozy. But by always being comfortable, we are depriving ourselves of some incredible benefits from the cold.
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In a nutshell, cold therapy will increase your brain health and performance, longevity, and fat-burning capabilities through three primary channels:
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1. Increasing brown and beige fat
2. Activating the survival circuit
3. Improving health of the Blood-Brain Barrier
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Skeptical? I was too, which is why I researched the topic and put it into an episode. If you haven’t already, the secrets to improving your life by being cold can be found in Learn II Perform Episode 007!
How to do it:
- Daily cold showers
- End each shower with 15+ seconds as cold as it gets
- Go for cold walks in winter
- Lower the temperature in your house and room at night
- Try cryotherapy
- Leave the jacket at home
- Allow yourself to be cold!
10. Practice Intermittent Fasting
As an expert of aging and longevity for over 25 years at Harvard University, Dr. David Sinclair gives us his best advice for living longer. Eat less often. Not less, just less often.
You can eat the same foods as you normally do. You can also eat the same quantity, in fact, that is encouraged. But instead of eating constantly throughout the day, restrict yourself to a designated feeding window.
The primary pathways affected are autophagy, the process of cellular cleansing, and the suppression of mTOR, which is the process of cell growth and proliferation. Stop eating, and your body has a chance to heal, clean, and remove dead and senescent cells. Eat constantly, and your cells continue to grow and divide, like a hoarder buying more things.
To practice intermittent fasting, it doesn’t to be anything crazy. Start by skipping an occasional meal, and then try to compress your eating window. And you may begin to love how you feel!
The science can be overwhelming, but for a comprehensive review, check out Episode 006.
How to do it:
- Skip one meal per day (most choose to skip breakfast)
- Eat in a restricted window
- 8 hours is common (16 hours fasting; 8 hours eating)
- Incorporate prolonged fasts (24+ hours)
- Don’t eat less. Eat less often
11. Incorporate daily activity
They say a sedentary lifestyle is the new smoking.
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The body was designed to be active. This doesn’t mean you have to run a marathon, you don’t even have to run a mile. You don’t have to do HIIT workouts or the CrossFit WOD. You just have to be active.
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For some reason, many people assume exercise means torturing yourself with high-intensity exercise, but that’s not the case. You just need to move.
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Walk more and sit less. Stand more and sit less. Break up your day with a few squats or push ups, go for a walk around the block, or go up and down the stairs a few times. As Joe Rogan said, “If you can walk to the refrigerator, you can exercise.”
How to do it:
- Avoid sitting for long periods
- Get up and move every hour
- Yoga, stretching, walking, stairs, bodyweight exercises
- Incorporate foam rolling, massage, trigger point therapy, reflexive performance reset, etc.
12. Incorporate resistance training
Studies have found direct correlations between longevity and functional muscle mass. In addition to potentially improving your lifespan and healthspan, resistance training can help you look, feel, and perform better.
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An important note, the key word is “functional.” Our bodies were designed to run, jump, and move. Exercise that promotes functional movements and strength can be widely beneficial.
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That’s not to say that bodybuilding isn’t beneficial – it is – but it’s not necessary for everyone. A basic form of resistance training is sufficient for improvements in quality and duration of life for most people.
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What could this include?
– Push ups, sit ups, squats
– Bodyweight HIIT circuits
– Sprinting
– Jumping
– Resistance/rubber bands
– Weightlifting
– Powerlifting
– Sports/athletics
How to do it:
- Aim for 2-3x/week
- Incorporate compound movements (squats, deadlifts, bench press, jumping, sprinting)
- Bodyweight is great!
- Push ups, planks, burpees, jumping, etc.
- Something > Nothing
13. Incorporate aerobic exercise
Similar to resistance training and building functional muscle mass, studies repeatedly find correlations between aerobic exercise and critical health markers.
There could be a number of mechanisms by which exercise promotes improved health and longevity, but one is by improving aerobic capacity, (peak oxygen consumption; VO2 peak), which is a key predictor of all-cause mortality.
Without a deep dive into the science, exercise is also a great form of stress management, helping to manage hormones, sweat out toxins, and clear the mind. By actively engaging muscles, it can also serve to flush the lymphatic system, strengthening the immune system and ability to fend off disease.
The list goes on and on… but what can you do?
– Walking
– Running
– Swimming
– Hiking
– Biking
– Sports
– HIITs
How to do it:
- Aim for moderate to high intensity exercise for 60-90 minutes/week
- Walking, running, biking, HIIT, swimming, sports, etc.
- Don’t need to run a marathon, just force yourself to be out of breath
14. Read
Switching gears from physical exercise to mental exercise: reading. One of my favorite brain coaches, Jim Kwik reminds everyone that reading is exercise for the brain. And soul. And everything. Reading is incredible.
For anyone who wants to learn, and for that matter, anyone with any curiosity or passion about ANYTHING, I don’t know if there is a more effective use of time than reading.
After all, “Leaders are readers.” The Bill Gates, Warren Buffets, and virtually every elite performer, read extensively. Think of it this way, by taking a few hours to read, you can be exposed to decades worth of experience and insights from someone else. Isn’t that amazing?!
How to do it:
1. Determine your passion/objectives
2. Find a book on the topic(s)
3. Read it
15. Listen to a Podcast
Let’s face it, it’s hard to find time to sit down and read. Fortunately, experts and life-changing information is accessible anywhere and at anytime. If you are reading this post, you can access incredible content through podcasts.
It would be easy to tell you to listen to my podcast, but I’d rather you listen to a podcast that YOU ARE INTERESTED IN. Find a person, topic, and episode that you’re interested and dive in. You can find engaging, insightful, and entertaining podcasts on literally any subject.
How to do it:
- Find a podcast about something you’re interested in
- Listen whenever possible: commute, driving, eating, cooking, exercising, etc.
- Take notes – follow up
- Replace music with a podcast
- TIP: Listen 1.5x or 2x speed for increased consumption!
16. Daily breathing exercises
Conscious breathing has the power to change your life by reducing stress, maximizing your focus and memory, promoting longevity, and even contributing to facial symmetry and attractiveness.
With the ability to regulate the autonomic nervous system, breathing is a gateway to controlling many of the physiological systems that govern our health and performance.
Amazingly, despite having unlimited access to this tool, very few people understand how to utilize their breath to improve their lives.
Sound confusing? I did an entire podcast about the importance of breathing and how to do it properly. Check out Episode 008 of “Learn II Perform” where you listen to your podcasts or online!
How to do it:
- Periodically throughout the day, stop and focus on controlled breathing
- Practice deep, diaphragmatic breathing
- Try Wim Hof Method
- Box Breathing (4-4-4-4)
- 4-7-8 Breathing
- The Huberman technique
17. Get out into nature
There is something powerful about spending time in nature. Fresh air, sunlight, and reconnecting with the Earth can provide you will benefits: physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
But it’s more than just a placebo. Adequate sunlight has been linked to incredible improvements with health, nature can serve as a great detox, and there are even incredible benefits from grounding – the process of using the Earth the balance your negative charges.
On the other hand, more time in nature means less time in front of screens. Less stress, less blue light, and less artificial toxins.
How to do it:
- Spend time in nature
- Go for a walk in the park; hike in the mountains; swim in a lake; picnic in the countryside
- Disconnect from technology, reconnect with the Earth
- Observe: Listen to the birds, watch the bugs, feel the wind
- Get more sunlight
18. Practice Gratitude
This was a game changer for me. By practicing gratitude, we can alter our perspective on the world and on life. Regardless of our status, success, opportunities, misfortunes, or struggles, we can manifest happiness.
Being grateful for what you have is the first step. Amazingly, practicing gratitude can actually alter your brain chemistry, so it’s not just a placebo. You can literally train yourself to be happier, more optimistic, and healthier.
Gratitude became such a prominent concept for me, that it became one of my three guiding values, and I now write in a gratitude journal every morning and night, and try to express gratitude to people and things as often as possible.
How to do it:
- Reflect on what your blessings
- Write in a gratitude journal
- What I’m grateful for
- Positive Affirmations
- Great things I experienced
- Read spiritual and/or philosophy texts
- Express gratitude openly
19. Daily Random Act of Kindness
Anne Frank once said “No one has ever become poor by giving.” Take that, and add a little Winston Churchill: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
When you perform acts of kindness, especially those random and unconditional acts of love and generosity, you are making the world a better place. And believe it or not, you’re making your life better too.
When kindness and serving others becomes habitual, rather than a deliberate task, your life will begin to change. You may realize that your definitions of happiness and prosperity start to look a bit different.
How to do it:
- Make an unconditional act of kindness every day
- Compliment someone; offer to help; take time to listen and support them
- Service to others before self
- Generosity is contagious
- Make someone’s life better
20. Learn a New Skill
SKILLS HAVE UTILITY. I first heard this sentiment from Tom Bilyeu and I could not agree with it anymore. Utility creates value.
Skill acquisition is the key to achieving greatness. To become successful, you must be able to provide value, be efficient, and diversify your talents. Skills enable you to do that.
If you’re ambitious about improving your life, career, relationships, or anything in between, skills are the vehicle to doing that. Personal development is a journey – we should aspire to always be learning.
Learn to cook the perfect waffles, learn a new language, get a forklift license, or find any of the thousands of certifications available online and practice.
How to do it:
- Reflect on something you want/need to learn
- Dedicate 10 minutes a day to learning/practicing
- Languages, coding, certifications, courses, hobbies, instruments, etc.
- NEVER STOP LEARNING
- Remember: Skills have utility
21. Practice Self-Care
In essence, this is what all 21 habits are about. To live your best life, you must take care of yourself. Your body and your soul are the most complex, versatile, limitless – and yet delicate – pieces of machinery that you will ever operate.
Dedicating time to taking care of yourself is not selfish. Putting yourself first when you need it is not selfish. Because if you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t help other people. You can’t empower others to change the world until you’ve taken control on your own life.
My challenge to you is to take everything you have learned, experiment, and apply into your life so that you can feel better, be happier, and do more to change the world.
As Norm Kelly once said, “You can’t pour from an empty glass.”
How to do it:
- Make your needs a priority
- Disconnect from the world
- Give yourself space
- Massage, foam roller, facial, rehab treatment, spa day, nap, bubble bath, etc.