Solving Your Own Problems, Money Free Time and Health, and Finding Happiness
Hi Folks! Connor and Nick here from Healthy Living With Nick and Connor. Thanks again for being on our email list, it means a lot, and we are excited to share our weekly email with you. We hope you enjoy it! Here is what we hope you take away from this one:
Other people’s problems present clear solutions to us, while solutions to our own problems seem incredibly hard to come by. Imagine your problems are someone else's, and you may just come up with a solution faster.
How do you split your time between money, free time, and health? Sit down and figure this out and make a plan to split up your time so you are living the life you want to live now and in the future.
Just because you change your environment doesn’t mean that it will solve your problems. Face your problems head on, let your actions lead you to your own personal happiness.
Starter Mindset Tip: Pretend Your Problem is Someone Else’s
One thing that we are all really good at is giving other people advice. For some reason, everyone else’s problems present a crystal clear solution to us. Meanwhile, the problems that we are facing in our own lives seem to be surrounded by dripping mud monsters blocking our way to the solutions. Next time you are struggling with something, instead of going through your normal processes for finding a solution, try and imagine that your problem is someone else’s, and ask yourself what advice you would give them. Pretend that your problem is not a big deal, and you merely have to come up with an easy solution. The better you get at this skill, the easier it will be for you to work through your own problems. You will be freeing up more mental space to tackle the other aspects of your life, you will be reducing the anxiety that your life's problems can bring along, and most importantly, you will be teaching your brain to think differently. “When the cause of our problem lies outside of us, we are better off accepting it and moving on. For ceasing to kick and fight against it, and coming to terms with it. The stoics call this attitude the Art of Acquiescence.” (Holiday, p. 146)
Health Recipe: Money, Free Time, and Health
Timing: 10-30 minutes to check in with yourself and make a plan
Level of Difficulty: Easy, fun, motivating
Serving Size: Make the plan once, and check in with it every now and then
Spiciness: Mild - Spicy depending on how getting real with yourself makes you feel
INGREDIENTS
Just yourself and a true view into what you should be focusing on
REASONING AND BENEFITS
Money, free time, and health, what do these have in common? These three aspects of your life are intertwined and impacted by each other. When you focus a lot of your time and energy on one of these, you have less time for the other two. Creating an awareness on how you would like to split your time between them will create a life plan for yourself to avoid stress, and will lead to a more intentional life. This health recipe is inspired by the author Bill Perkins from the book “Die With Zero.” He describes money, free time, and health as the three main buckets in your life that need filling. You can find yourself filling them evenly, or you may be focused on filling one bucket at the expense of the other two. A great example of this is the quest for money. We are not saying that is a bad thing, we just want you to be aware of what the quest for money is doing to your health and free time. In order to reduce stress about what you are focusing on, create a plan for yourself describing which buckets you are focusing on now, and in the future. Maybe by filling up one bucket now, you will be setting yourself up to fill the other two after that one is filled, or even equal filling. This is a great activity to do at any stage in your life. Sit down by yourself or with your partner and jot down which buckets you want to focus on right now, write how you are filling them, and create either yearly plans, or plans in 5 year periods. Life goes in stages, think about when you want to focus on money, free time, and health during each stage. “Realize that every moment you have a choice. The choices you make reflect your priorities, so be sure you’re making those choices deliberately.” (Perkins, p. 190)
INSTRUCTIONS
Sit down by yourself, with your partner, or with your whole family with pen and paper. Make 3 columns on the paper with the headings “Money,” “Free Time,” and “Health.”
Start filling in the columns with what you are doing in your life that fits into each bucket. Ask yourself if you are more heavily weighted in one or two of the buckets. If there is a bucket that is barely filled, are there things you could be doing now to fill it up?
Once you have a good grasp of how you are living now with regards to your buckets, it is time to look long term. This can be a rough outline of what you would like to do and focus on moving forward. Decide on any time frame you want such as quarterly, yearly, or even multi year grouping like 5 years.
What buckets do you want to focus on in each time frame? What are some examples of things you want to do to fill up those buckets? Set goals, create plans, fit in different trips, activities, and experiences in the time frame that you think it would fit best in.
Have fun with it. Do you want to do an African safari one day or visit ‘The Shire’ in New Zealand or hike the Camino de Santiago? Throw it in the time frame of your life that you think makes the most sense.
Sit down and look at your plan every now and then to make sure you are following it or if you want to tinker with it. Be honest with yourself, and have fun.
PRO TIP: “Nothing has a greater effect on your ability to enjoy experiences at any age, than your health.” (Perkins, p. 120) Try to make sure health is always a part of your yearly plan. During the really busy times in life, make sure to sneak in little moments of healthy behaviour.
* “As you get older, your health declines, and your interests narrow, creativity declines. The utility, or usefulness, of money declines with age. Shift the money you have earmarked for late in life to earlier to really enjoy it.” (Perkins, p. 115)
** During your early and middle years, if you earn enough money to lead a comfortable life, consider being happy with that current income in order to add more free time to your life to do the things you want to do.
*** “In order to enjoy the experiences in your life, you need a combination of health, time and money.” (Perkins, p. 156) Make sure you think about this while you create your life plans. Instead of waiting for retirement when your health is a little more unknown, how about you do some of the things you plan for retirement right now.
Dessert Quote:
“Ernest Hemingway wrote “You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another.” Our happiness often depends more on what we do than where we are. It’s our actions – not our surroundings – that bring us meaning and belonging.” — Adam Grant, “Think Again,” p. 239/240
Now we want to hear from YOU! Please let us know what you think of today’s newsletter, and send us an example of how you applied the health recipe to your life! We would love to share how you introduced this week’s recipe into your life’s unique menu. Thanks and have a great Sunday!
Sources:
Learn more about living intentionally and focusing on what is important:
Holiday, R. (2014). The obstacle is the way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph. Penguin.
Learn more about deciding how to focus on money, free time, and health:
Perkins, B. (2021). Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life. Mariner Books.
Learn more about finding happiness and meaning in what you do:
Grant, A. (2021). Think again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know. Random House.
