Create a Toolkit

Improving your health isn’t one swing of a hammer. It’s never just one problem. You’ll need more tools to get the whole job done.

Imagine your doctor has some concern but thinks lifestyle changes could solve it without the need for medication. She suggests you begin to exercise and watch your diet. You hire Coach Gus and begin training three times per week.

After the first week you’re enjoying the training, but some projects at work have been tough and you get tempted to skip a session. You decide your health is important enough so you block off the time on your calendar so that work won’t interrupt it.

Training goes well for another week and having learned more about your situation Coach Gus recommends looking at your overall activity level, not just your new training habit. You agree to using your watch to track your active minutes and steps each day and report back the results.

All this new activity is great and all, but it’s no surprise that now you’re hungrier than ever. But your doctor said to watch your diet! You work with Coach Gus on managing your nutrition so you can keep up the activity level.

You’re a month in and it seems like this project of your health has gotten way more complicated than you expected!

But that’s the thing: the problem was already that messy. You’re not creating new problems to solve, you’re clarifying a big issue (“your health”) that was already there and you’re creating new tools to work on it. The first time you learn to use a power tool, developing the skill to use it well is a project in and of itself. But after you’re used to it, it just becomes another thing you reach for when you need it.

Imagine two years into training you may be up to something like this…

You wouldn’t spend every day sweating every detail of every tool. But you reach for the right one when the time is right. And you know the right time because you got each one by solving a problem in the first place. You don’t buy all your tools on day one – you get them when you need them.