How To Overcome Anything In Health, Fitness, and Life

This morning I was reading the book The Almanack of Naval Ravikant.

There was one sentence that stopped me in my tracks.

I put the book down, leaned back in my chair and thought to myslef "damn that hit hard."

I have heard people say different versions of this, but for some reason the way this one was written stuck with me.

Life is a constant battle of challenges.

And it feels as if these challenges never end.

Some of these challenges are physical.

Such as moving into a new home. Chasing a new deadlift PR after months of plateaus. Grinding through yardwork on a Saturday morning when every part of you would rather be on the couch.

Others are mental, and most of the time, these are the ones that really mess people up.

Those challenges that leave you lying awake at 1 a.m. because work stress won't shut off no matter how tired you are.

Feeling your stomach drop when your doctor tells you that your bloodwork puts you at risk for diabetes.

Getting winded and having to stop after three flights of stairs — and feeling that quiet flash of frustration and embarrassment because you know it didn't used to be this way.

Different challenges. Same underlying question: what do you actually do about it?

Most of us were never taught how to face challenges like these.

Nobody sat you down in school and taught you how to process the anxiety of a health scare, or how to handle the slow-burning frustration of watching your body change as you get older.

Instead, most of us were taught to just push these things down. Ignore them. Deal with it later, when you have more time, more energy, more motivation.

The problem is that "later" rarely comes, motivation fades, and now the problem you are facing becomes harder and harder to fix.

It compounds, and not in a good way.

The stress that keeps you up at night starts affecting your relationships.

The health scare you brushed off becomes a bigger issue at your next checkup.

The frustration about your fitness turns into avoidance, which turns into more frustration, which turns into avoidance again.

I see this cycle constantly, both in my own life and in almost every client who walks through my door for the first time.

Most people don't know how to actually approach a challenge and figure out what to do with it. I certainly didn't for a long time.

What changed things for me wasn't more willpower or more motivation.

It was a simple mental model for sorting through problems instead of just absorbing them.

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant is a book I'd recommend to pretty much anyone regardless of their goals.

One idea in particular reframed how I think about literally every problem I run into now, both personally and with the people I coach.

"In any situation in life, you only have 3 options. You can leave it. Or you can accept it."

That's the whole framework. No fourth option. No secret shortcut. Just three honest paths forward, and your job is to figure out which one actually applies.

Change it.

This is the option most people jump to first, and for good reason — it's the one that feels the most within your control.

If your doctor tells you that you need to get healthier, you can start changing your diet, adding in exercise, and building habits that support the person you're trying to become.

I had a client last year who came to me after a routine physical flagged her triglycerides as high. She could have shrugged it off.

Instead, she had the will to change it. We restructured his meals, started strength training 2 days a week, got her more active and within six months her numbers dropped out of the high range.

Changing it worked because she actually took action instead of just intending to.

The catch with this option is that it only works if you follow through.

Deciding to change something and actually changing it are two very different things, and most people stop at the deciding part.

Leave it.

Sometimes the problem isn't something you need to fix. It's something you need to remove.

If opening Instagram makes you immediately compare your body, your progress, or your life to everyone else's highlight reel, and it leaves you feeling anything but proud of yourself that's not a "change your mindset" problem.

That's a "get it out of your life" problem.

Restrict the app. Delete it. Quit cold turkey if that's what it takes.

I've had clients who made more progress in a month of not scrolling fitness influencers than they did in six months of trying to "not let it bother them." You can't always out-mindset a bad environment.

Sometimes you just have to leave it behind.

Accept it.

This one is the hardest for most people, myself included.

Sometimes things happen whether you want them to or not. Your car breaks down.

You get let go from your job. Your partner ends the relationship.

These are genuinely crappy situations and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.

But dwelling on them, replaying them, and playing the victim doesn't change the outcome. It just keeps you stuck.

Accepting a situation for what it is isn't the same as being okay with it happening.

It's recognizing that the only thing left in your control is how you respond.

And more often than people expect, the unwanted change ends up being the thing that pushes them somewhere better.

I've watched clients get laid off and use the unexpected free time to finally prioritize their health in a way their old schedule never allowed.

Nobody would have chosen the layoff. But plenty of them wouldn't undo it now.

So what does any of this have to do with fitness and nutrition?

Everything, actually.

You have the power to change your body, your health, and what you're physically capable of.

That starts with the decision, but it only becomes real once you follow through with consistent action, not perfect action, just consistent action.

You have the power to leave behind the habits, routines, and places that are holding you back from living your healthiest, strongest life.

That might mean leaving behind a training style that beats you into the ground every session.

It might mean leaving behind an all-or-nothing mindset around food, or leaving behind those fast food stops on the way home.

Whatever it is, you're allowed to walk away from what isn't working.

And you have to accept some hard truths. 

You're not 20 or 30 anymore, that's not a defeating thing to accept.

It just means your approach to fitness, nutrition, and expectations needs to evolve alongside you.

Recovery takes longer now and progress might look different than it did a decade ago.

That's not a sign of failure. It's a sign that it's time for a smarter, more sustainable approach.

The next time you're facing a challenge in your health or anywhere else in your life, try running it through these three questions:

Is this something I actually have control over and can realistically change?

Is this something I need to remove from my life entirely instead of trying to manage it?

Is this something outside my control that I need to stop fighting and start accepting?

You won't always land on the "right" answer immediately, and that's fine. The goal isn't perfection.

The goal is to stop absorbing every challenge passively and start actively deciding what to do with it.

The framework doesn't change. Only which option you choose does