The most important skill to get (and stay) healthy

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

(He didn’t have any Instagram influencers to shout motivational words at him, I guess)

Jung replied:

“Your questions are unanswerable because you want to know how one should live. He lives as best he can.

… if you do the next and most necessary thing with conviction, you are always doing something meaningful and destined for destiny”.

He was sharing the key to life.

He is part of recovery communities like Alcoholics Anonymous.

It was also the title of a song ,Disney’s Frozen 2,.

“The next right thing.”

Revisiting this story made me think about how much our thoughts about success and progress have changed over the years.

“Success” redefined

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

Millions of people visit the site every year, 50,000+ customers have purchased items through NF, and our coaches have served 15,000+ unique customers.

During that time, I have changed my view of “success” and “living well” quite a bit.

I believed that the only way to success required militant discipline to follow a specific plan. I never missed a workout, and I was proud of it.

It didn’t occur to me how much a ,privileged and simple life, I lived where I was 100% in control of my time.

(Apologies to all parents and carers who have read my 25 year view!).

Now that I’m 40 years old, I see what kind of people we are really Helped with Nerd Fitness, I have significantly changed my perspective on success and “living well”.

Success doesn’t happen when we learn to do everything perfectly, but when we get better at staying afloat even when things go wrong.

In other words, success is learning to be consistent without being inconsistent. Long enough to learn to be pretty good.

And that means, when life seems chaotic, narrowing our focus to the “next right thing.”

Do the next right thing

A ,last newsletter, From author Oliver Burkeman, he talked about choosing to keep a little sanity in a terrible world.

It led me to these phrases from author Eckert Tolle:

“What you call your ‘life’ should more accurately be called your ‘life situation.'” Time is psychological: past and future.

…Forget about the situation in your life for a while and focus on your life.

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

Reduce your life to this moment. Your life situation may be full of problems—most life situations are—but know if you have a problem right now. Not tomorrow or in ten minutes, but now.

Do you have a problem? now?

When we reflect on what has already happened and fear about all the things that might or should happen in the future…

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

Which brings us to that clichéd solution: “the next right thing.”

It’s a cliché only because it’s true.

We can zoom in on Handyyyyy and narrow our focus to something that is still within our control. In some situations, yes, there is a problem now. And we can focus on one thing.

But in many other situations, we often worry about all the possible problems or problems beyond our control that prevent us from taking action on the real things we can control.

Burkeman continues:

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

It’s a bit strange, actually, to call any of these techniques “narrowing your horizons”, as if they somehow involve artificially limiting yourself.

In fact, you are always consciously aware of how limited you were.

We all know how easy it is for us ,make things too complicated,.

And when the world feels like a dumpster fire, the next decision, the smallest goal, can help you get closer and do the next right thing.

It might be going for a workout or a walk, focusing on the next meal, calling our therapist, etc ,finally saying no, to a commitment

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

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

-Steve

PS: Maria Popova has ,Great write-up on “The Next Right Thing”., as it relates to his life as a writer that inspired this piece.

PS: Nerd Fitness is hiring remote and part-time humans (primarily with flexible nights and weekends) to take incoming calls from potential clients interested in our 1-on-1 coaching. ,Click here to learn more,.

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