Hi Reader
Welcome back to 1UP,
my weekly newsletter where I share all things health and mindsets to help you get stronger, feel younger and live longer.
Onward and Upward
In the past 2 issues of 1UP, I shared with you how to review the last 11 months and how imagining who you want to be comes before goals.
Now, it's time to plan for the coming year and redirect your life.
Why redirect?
Because trajectory is what matters.
When it comes to aging and longevity, there are only 2 ways it can go:
decline or ascension.
Decline is the result of neglect. When we don't put any attention or effort into our health, we decay.
But it is becoming clear now that decline is not just the way of age.
It is becoming clear that those who take control can experience an amazing life in their 80s and 90s.
Here's how to prepare for an upward trend.
Your future self as the North Star
When you spend time imagining your future self, a number of things should come to focus:
- the habits this person has
- the attitude this person has
- the skills necessary to become this person
- the way this person spends their time
- what this person says no to
What is great about this is that, instead of feeling overwhelmed by what you want to achieve for your health, family, marriage and business, you will feel energized and compelled.
Guiding words to steer you
A few years ago I've started to use one word to guide the year.
You could describe this as a master intention for the year.
For 2024, my word was "fruit": as in "bearing fruit".
For me, this guided me in pouring in my children, in investing in myself (sowing), in walking the talk of my longevity lifestyle and in giving.
What are 1 to 3 words that could give you focus and direction in 2025?
Goals and antigoals
Now it's time to be specific.
When it comes to your longevity, my overall framework for long-term health includes testing for 3 predictive markers of longevity.
This provides key performance indicators for our health.
This will help you establish your baseline and help you create specific goals.
For example, if you're a man over 40, a healthy amount of body fat should be between 10% and 22%, 20% to 30% if you're a woman over 40.
By getting your baseline, a goal to lose 5% or 10% body fat will emerge.
Then a plan can be crafted when you think about the choices you need to make to achieve this goal.
It's equally important to reach your goal to spend time thinking about things you must avoid: antigoals.
In this example it could be avoiding to skip more than one workout or avoiding alcohol.
Without defining antigoals, failure is more likely.
Here's an example: people often claim that their belly fat is stubborn and they're doing everything they can to lose it, not realizing that avoiding processed food is critical. They end up spending hours doing cardio and abs workout, hungry from cutting their total amount of calories, and seeing no result.
I'd love to hear from you, share with me what you want to achieve in 2025.
Here to cheer you on,
Jihane