I have spoken with many doctors who work in physical and mental health. I have also spoken with people who have achieved interesting things. On top of that, I read quite a bit of philosophy.
What surprises me is how often similar pieces of advice about living well come up in those conversations and books. They are simple. Sometimes so obvious that they are easy to dismiss.
1. As little screen time as possible
Limit the time you spend in front of any screen: your phone, computer or television. Especially when you are using it without any particular purpose.
It is worth choosing consciously when and why we use technology.
2. As little junk food as possible
Eat plenty of vegetables, fruit and whole grains, and as little fast food, salt and sugar as possible.
There is no need to overcomplicate nutrition or obsessively analyse every ingredient. In most cases, common sense is enough.
3. As few harmful substances as possible
Limit substances that harm your physical and mental health.
It is worth asking how many things we do purely out of habit or under pressure from those around us, even though they do us no good in the long run.
4. As much movement as possible
Move whenever you get the chance. This is about ordinary, everyday activity as well as workouts and sport.
If you can walk somewhere, walk instead of driving. If you can cycle instead of taking the bus, choose the bike.
Try to organise everyday life so that movement becomes a natural part of it.
5. As much time as possible with real people, doing real things
Spend as much time as possible with people you like and who matter to you. Create things and share experiences together.
These are precisely the kinds of experiences our brains need.
6. Take care of what you feed your mind
You are what you eat. The same principle applies to your mind.
That is why it is worth choosing content that is relevant to us, helps us grow, teaches us something valuable or helps us understand the world better. And skipping the stupid, harmful and mind-numbing content that people with bad intentions try to flood us with from every direction.
7. Take care of sleep and rest
Do not organise your days so that sleep gets whatever time is left after everything else. Give yourself enough time to sleep and try to go to bed and get up at similar times.
Leave some room for rest during the day too. Not every spare moment has to be spent learning, creating or improving yourself. You can do something simply because you enjoy it.
8. Take care of good habits
We are made up of habits. We overestimate bursts of effort and underestimate everyday routines.
Small behaviours repeated over the years can produce the biggest results. That is why it is worth consciously building habits, both small and large, and looking after them.
9. Take care of your professional foundations
Career success rests on three skills:
First, be useful to other people. Learn to solve their problems. The more important the problems you can solve, and the better you solve them, the more value you can create.
Second, learn to persuade. You need to be able to show others the value of your work, earn their trust and persuade them to pay you appropriately for it or recognise its worth.
Third, be adaptable. The world keeps changing. That means continually learning, observing reality and knowing how to adjust your actions accordingly.
10. Step out of the race for social status
As primates, we have a strong, deeply rooted tendency to compete for our position in the group. We want to be more important, richer, more admired and to achieve more than others.
The problem is that winning this race rarely brings lasting happiness. There will always be someone richer, more influential or more successful. And we quickly get used to each new level and start looking for the next one.
Meanwhile, a healthy, happy life requires much less than we tend to think. And much less than our herd instinct suggests.
That is why it is worth consciously limiting comparisons with others and letting go of the idea that life is a never-ending competition.
Try to be a little better each day than you were yesterday, instead of trying to be better than everyone around you.
A final thought
These principles help me make decisions, both small and large. They do not guarantee success, but they maximise the chances of an enjoyable, good life, regardless of your starting point.
They also help prevent many problems, and preventing problems is worth far more than solving them.
That is what I wish for you, and for myself.
