Hi friends,

Maintaining physical and mental health is one of my top priorities. But in times of stress and higher workloads, it can be difficult to take the time to take care of yourself.

These past few months have been some of the busiest I’ve had in my life. In June, I started my mentorship hours for a physical therapy fellowship program. Meaning, that I work my regular caseload, and an additional day with my mentor while also studying regularly to stay on top of the new material.

That being said, I thought I wouldn’t be taking care of my body and mind well over this period, but I was wrong.

As I reflect on the past couple of months, I’ve been consistent with getting to the gym, eating healthy foods (most of the time), reading, and getting out in nature. And because of this, I feel great both physically and mentally.

I attribute the consistency in improving my health despite less free time to a few things. One is Parkinson’s law: "Work expands to fill the time available for its completion."

With limited time to take care of myself, it forces me to cut out all the other unnecessary things that used to consume my time—scrolling Instagram, watching YouTube, and binge-watching a Netflix series.

Another thing that has helped me stay consistent with my health is being more respectful of my time. I’ve been following the advice of Derek Sivers and living by the motto “If it’s not a hell yeah, then it’s a no.” This has been liberating and has allowed me to accept the short-term discomfort of saying no to something I don’t want to do instead of the long-term regret of saying yes.

Habit stacking is also an easy way to build and keep healthy habits. For example, after I workout in the morning, I meditate. It makes it much easier to have healthy habits when you stack them together and they become automatic.

Remember that just because the rest of your life gets busy doesn’t mean that you need to put your health on the back burner. You can use it to prioritize your health and to start saying no to things you don’t want to do.

Until next week,

Kevin

❤️ Things I’m Enjoying This Week

1. Podcast - How to Make $10k/Month as a Writer with Nicolas Cole on the Deep Dive Podcast. This was an inciteful listen and opened my eyes to the fact that you don’t need a large audience to make money writing online.

2. Book - Lincoln by David Herbert Donald. I’m about halfway through this one, but so far it has painted a clear picture of Lincoln’s life while growing up and through his law and political career. It is incredible to think that arguably the greatest president in the history of the United States suffered from severe depression, low self-confidence, and lived with such humility.

3. Exercise - The reverse Nordic curl is an incredible exercise to build quad strength and left me sore for days after my last leg workout.