Don't Major In The Minors

“Don’t spend major time on minor things.” - Jim Rohn

A Matter of What Really Matters

Majoring in the minors is a phrase I've come to like quite a bit lately. It means over attendance to that which moves the needle least. Human beings tend to bias ourselves towards more complicated answers for a number of reasons stretching from implicit biases all the way to circuitous ways to avoid that which challenges us the most. Plain ignorance can be to blame as well. The reasons for majoring the minors are in no shortage in any domain of human involvement, not least of which is the realm of health and performance.

So often we concern ourselves with the minutiae before turning the biggest stones over. If I had a nickel for every time somebody who clearly did not have sleep, nutrition, and movement dialed asked me about supplements I'd be a wealthy man indeed. Part of this is that humans are wired for rapid gratification and solving short term problems based on our ability to associate changes in our perceived state with actions we've taken. Unfortunately, the things that matter over the longest timeline often don't produce immediately palpable shifts except in cases where things had already gone to complete shit.

Luckily there is no shortage of charlatans, imposters, and shills lying in wait to take advantage of this chink in the armor of human psychology. Knowing this tendency and being on the lookout can not only protect us from nonsense that wastes resources but will also more successfully move the needle in the things that really matter when it comes to sustainable health and performance.

Hacking

In the last decade or so the term "biohacking" has come to use in the health and wellness industry with increased frequency. On one hand I'm generally culturally agnostic in regards to performance and try my best not to internet argue over which flavor of ice cream is better. On the other I do have a problem with some of the terminology and the sentiment in general.

The implication for the term "hacking" as it's borrowed from tech culture is a short cut to getting where it is you want to go. The overall issue that I have with this framework is that it implies you can shortcut your way to performance longevity. You cannot. On that same token, performance longevity is not a destination at all. Meaning there are no short (or long) cuts there. These are continuous and ongoing processes that require our focused participation. Hacking also tends to be hyper-focused on fractional improvements in health that are usually gained through, what seem to me at least, overly sophisticated means that are out of reach for most people.

Not only all that but over reliance on the super special can make us fragile and a little too precious. I say that quasi-sarcastically. It's nice to have nice things. I like supplements delivered to my front door. Creatine by mail is pretty cool. With that said, what if I don't have access to all my special tinctures, tonics, and devices? Can I still execute? Do I still feel good? Can I compose myself? Or am I pile of broken glass? As cool as they are, it's not the gadgets that make Batman awesome. It's the grit, it's the commitment, it's the training. It's the collection of the things that matter most being done with consistency and attention over and over and over again. Exercising with focus and regularity, going to bed on time, eating real food in appropriate quantities, and having meaningful social connections are among the boulders in wellness.

Admittedly, I'm a minimalist by nature. That's a personal bias that comes through in all of my work. A linchpin concept of my approach to human performance is the idea of Proximal to Distal. What tools are you going to have access to with frequency and under the most conditions? Those should be the anchor points in your performance longevity toolkit. However, if you're doing all of the big stuff perfectly and you've got the time and money to pour into nutraceuticals to squeeze out that last 0.5%, I'm not here to stop you. But before you go all Jimmy Neutron be sure to get the things that matter most right first.

Stable Change

One of the weak points of focusing on the majors is that they seem boring. To be honest, sometimes they are. If you are a person who is especially rewarded by novel experiences then one way to curtail the tendency to fall down rabbit holes to Minor League Wonderland is to explore the wide range of ways to approach the basics.

Trying different forms of exercise, strategies for improved sleep and nutrition, etc. will satisfy the need to explore while staying true to the essential habits that drive performance longevity over a life time. Doing so not only quenches the thirst for the new but also gives us an opportunity to probe for potential blindspots we may have in whatever practices we are using to stay fit.

Additionally, staying rooted in the majors while exploring differing applications helps us adjust to contextual changes. It's not that there is some super secret code to skip strength training and stay strong. (Insert trope about having cake and such). If you don't work against resistance of some kind - you will get weaker. But if you know that if you want to be strong, you must produce force then you can find a million and a half ways to do that. Know what really counts and build a robust set of tools that provide access to the big ticket items in lots of different conditions that life might impress upon you.

The Big Leagues

In the big leagues of any sport what looks like fanciness is really just the fundamentals expressed in a state of extraordinary variability. The skills of athletes in the majors are not overly sophisticated, they can just express the necessary behavior in a wider variety of conditions and under higher demands.

Our ability to finely track, measure, and manipulate at increasingly granular levels has the upside of measuring the effects of our actions. The downside is that we often think acting on the most granular level also has the most potent impact. In complex systems like biology, this type of centralized action often fails to hit home runs.

If you want to be in the big leagues of managing health and performance it's not really the neurotic pursuit of minutiae that will sustain you. Commitment to finding creative applications for the basic skills of health over the course of time will however land you in the big leagues and if the wind blows your way, maybe even the all star line up.