I was reading work from the ancient philosopher Epictetus this weekend and found a quote that particularly stood out to me and of course, I found a way to tie it back to health.
“….let everything which appears to you to be the best, be to you a law which must not be transgressed.”
For those of us who are trying our best to be better individuals and better contributors to society, we are constantly striving to learn what the right thing to do is. As it relates to our health, we are continuously trying to learn what exercise, diet, and lifestyle influences will help us achieve our health goals and function optimally as humans.
On our path towards understanding our bodies, we acquire a lot of knowledge. Knowledge acquisition is important but it is useless if we do not take the next step which is putting the knowledge to work. Don’t just talk about or study it, be about it. Exemplify what you have learned in your actions. If you have put in the work to learn what is right and what is best for you, why make that time wasted by not implementing it into your life?
Let the knowledge that you gain change you for the better. Let it reframe your belief systems and update your habits. As Epictetus tells us, let it be TO YOU a law which you use as a guard rail for your daily actions.
This is will not be easy. Knowledge acquisition is the easy part. Turning that knowledge into laws that define our daily actions is hard. It will take persistence, it will take mental strength, it will take you practicing both of these so you can be better equipped to carry out your personal laws.
I’m not talking about perfection here and Epictetus wasn’t either. I’m talking about developing a stronger desire to do what you know is right more times than not and understanding that even with the temporary discomfort that it might cause, there will be long term returns on the investment.
Thanks for reading,
Chris Irvin
P.S. New Podcast with Brian Sanders on meat, regenerative ag, and food policy went live today! Don’t miss it.