Fitter, happier, and more productive?

Are you running on fumes heading into the end of the year? Speaking of fumes, I just read that the Russians have put a new kind of satellite into outer orbit that could someday wipe out all the satellites in low orbit and send us back to the Stone Age. Or at least, 1981. While that would be catastrophic on many levels, it would give us a break from social media and videos about optimizing our lives.

Whether your addiction is Instagram, X, or YouTube, you’ve probably found yourself more than once down this optimization rabbit hole—an endless set of tips and hacks on how to be fitter, happier, and more productive. An entire industry is dedicated to refactoring Peter Attia and Andrew Huberman clips into bite-sized nuggets that feed on our authentic impulse to feel better.

I love Attia’s work. In many ways, all of these videos were a validation for me of my general approach to health and wellness for the last 25 years. But even he—a leading thinker on how to live not just a long but a healthy long life—makes a startling and vulnerable admission. In the last chapter of Outlive, he ditches the metadata and talks about his biggest challenge on the journey, his emotions. He talks about his emotional world, owns up to being a lousy husband, and how this is where the real work is.

Like most things, it’s an ‘and’. It’s not either work on increasing your vO2 max or do deep emotional and spiritual work. It’s both. The problem is that the deeper stuff doesn’t easily lend itself to 30-second clips or five-step protocols. It doesn’t adhere to small boxes like that. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. And, most importantly, it’s non-linear. True growth at the human level is chaotic and confusing, and the most important moments are often the ones where you feel like you’re making no progress at all.

In this week’s episode of the Jonathan Raymond show, I shared a reflection and tried to describe what creating space for this type of work might look like. It’s my invitation to you, as we head into 2025 to do something truly different. Instead of making a resolution, try leaning into the feeling of being unresolved.

Let me know how I can help.

Jonathan

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