How To Live Longer Than 99% Of Humanity.

Hi friends! Today we're going to talk about the three power laws of health. We are going to accomplish, in the next 5 minutes, the basic health habits that are going to make you feel the best you've ever done. I'm not going to get into the scientific details. I'm just going to tell you what to do, and you're going to do them because you know what? You know they work.

Let's start.

Number one: you're going to reframe your identity that you are a professional sleeper. That means you're not going to sleep when it's convenient, or when your show is done, or when you're finished playing with your friends. You are going to set a bedtime and meet that bedtime every single day. You're going to follow some health habits.

So, there are five things I want you to do.

Number one is eat earlier and lighter in the day. So, for example, if your bedtime is at 10 p.m., have your last meal of the day at 8:00 p.m. Then try 7:00, and then 6:00, and then 5:00, and try pushing it back earlier and earlier, and watch your sleep improve. Find your right timing, but you will learn that the earlier and lighter you eat, the better you will sleep.

Number two: you need to have a wind-down routine, which means your body needs to be physically ready to sleep. You can't just work up until the last minute, lay your head on the pillow, and expect great sleep. The body needs to adjust itself from an aroused, high-energy, ambitious state—whether you're socializing or working—to a calm-down, ready-to-sleep space.

Now, you can fill this hour with your wind-down routine that is going to be 1 hour from your bedtime. You can fill it with breath work, meditation, reading a book, or going for a walk, but you need to be in a relaxed, calm state: screens off, getting your body ready.

Number three: the lighting in your environment matters a lot. So, turn off screens. I have a red light bulb in my house and a lamp. We just have red light in the house. It's amazingly effective at calming things down and making everyone very tired.

Number four: consistency matters a lot. Your body loves routine. So, if your bedtime is at 10 p.m., try to be in bed every night plus or minus 30 minutes—no more. When you deviate, the body gets confused, and you're not going to have as good of sleep.

Number five: avoid stimulants, for example, like caffeine. So, if you go to bed at 10, be mindful. You may want to have your last cup of coffee before noon or so, so by the time your bedtime arrives, you're good to go.

All right, so this is the first one. This is the most important one. Sleep is your number one life priority. When you feel well, you're going to want to also exercise, which you also know from life experience. When you exercise, you feel great.

So now, you're going to start an exercise protocol if you haven't already, and you're going to do two simple things every day. Do 30 minutes of exercise, and that can be something like swimming, running, biking, hiking; it could be strength training. That's a basic starting point. Now, of course, we'll jump into more advanced things in other videos, but it's really establishing the basics.

And then two: you want to be moving throughout the day. For example, every 20 or 30 minutes or so, I get up from my desk, whether I'm standing or sitting. I'll stretch, or I'll do a little exercise. I'll go for a little walk. But moving throughout the day—there's an infinite rabbit hole on what to do for exercise, and that's great, and we're going to cover it.

Yes, also the daily practice of being active in both an active manner and throughout the day is the power law of activity.

All right, number three is diet. Now, this is the most complicated of them all because I guess I speak from personal experience. Food is a place we go to self-soothe, and it's also a source of addiction and all sorts of emotional problems. I have been there, and I know how complicated food is. I was trapped.

So, the reason why it's number three is because if you're well-rested and you exercise, we all know the feeling we have of wanting to eat well. So, it's nice to have those two pillars in place versus if you're not well-rested and you're not exercised; it's so much easier to be naughty.

Number one is try to never rely upon your willpower. So, if you have a particular risk zone, let's just say it's 7 p.m. and you're exposed to, let's just call it cookies, you know, decide you are a person that does not eat cookies at 7:00 p.m. Because if you wait to make the decision at that moment, you will certainly eat the cookie.

Now, that was true for me, so never put yourself in a situation where you're relying upon your willpower. Build systems and make commitments ahead of time.

Okay, now number two is trying to avoid eating. Now, I'll tell you from my personal experience; this is impossibly hard to do. Of course, any one of us can say it, but we all know that we just can't control ourselves in those moments. So, I did something where I fired evening Brian. This is the version of me from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., who would unquestionably overeat no matter what. Every single day, I had to fire him.

I had to basically make a rule of my existence that I, as a human, do not consume food between 5:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., no matter what I say. That's the kind of extreme I had to go to to control my overeating habits. Now, I think a lot of us probably share similar behavioral profiles, so this solution may not work for you, but the point is this is a struggle. It's real.

And so, the invitation is for each one of us to try to find a system. For me, it was just saying I never trust myself to make the right decision in that moment. And so, systems far exceed willpower. In addition to avoiding bad foods, also I want you to avoid smoking and excessive alcohol.

Okay, number three is a Mediterranean-like diet. You want to try to have healthy fats, healthy proteins, and try to generally be on the right track. It’s good enough. You don't need to wrestle over every calorie and every macronutrient. There's diminishing returns. We live in a society where health is impossibly hard.

Controlling our own personal behaviors is impossibly hard. Now, I know I have felt hopeless and helpless my entire life in this regard just until the past few years, where I actually have the systems now. In this video, I don't expect this to solve things for you. In fact, you know what? Tonight, or maybe right now during this video, maybe you're eating junk food. That's okay. I understand.

The point is we're building a community; we're trying to change the norms where being healthy is the right way to live. You're not going to feel pressure to do these self-destructive behaviors, and there's power in you and me making these very small decisions.

So, if it helps you in your moment of torment, when you're sitting there deciding, do you do it or do you not do it? For the team, do it for all of us because if you do it, others will do it. We know this: when we cave, we weaken the entire system.

Wherever you're at, no matter what your circumstances are, we can do this. These health habits will make you the happiest, healthiest person you've ever been. Let's first master the basics, and then we get to play with all the cool new things we'll discover together.

Don't do it. Don't do it! I'm telling you, don't do it.