The things I talk about in this guide are nothing new or revolutionary.
In fact, you might be familiar with much of what’s inside.
The main idea is to give you the fundamental principles that actually work in the real world. The basics. The essentials. The things that actually matter that most people forget about.
Because at the end of the day…
80% of Your Results Come From 20% of Your Efforts
You might know this as the 80/20 Rule, or otherwise known as Pareto’s Principle. It states that 80% of effects come from 20% of the causes.
The 80/20 Rule is a concept that can be applied to almost everything in life.
From a business perspective:
- 80% of profits come from 20% of customers
- 80% of sales come from 20% of products
- 80% of sales are made from 20% of the sales staff
In every day life:
- 20% of the things you do bring you
- 80% of your happiness
- 20% of the clothes you own you wear 80% of the time 20% of the people you know make up 80% of your interactions
This principle also applies to fitness.
There are only a few things you you need to do to get the results you want. These are the things that I’ll be covering.
Sure there are hundreds of other minor details that you could be worrying about like comparing the glycemic index of one food versus another, or whether supplement X is better than supplement Y, or trying to figure out whether performing the incline chest press is better at a 30° or 45° angle.
All that complex information? That’s the extra 80% off your efforts that give you the last 20% of your results (Pareto’s Principle works inversely, too).
You simply don’t need to worry about those things.
Instead, we’ll focus on the Minimum Effective Dose that will lead to the majority of your results.
Less Is More: The Power of the Minimum Effective Dose
13 hours and 30 minutes.
That’s how much time I used to spend in the gym on a weekly basis. That’s about 2 hours and 15 minutes per workout, for six workouts a week.
I also spent countless hours in the kitchen weighing, cooking, and packing my tupperware containers of food.
Oh, and let’s not forget the 30+ hours of “research” I did every week trying to figure out the best fitness program.
When I say that fitness took over my life, I wasn’t exaggerating. It literally became a full-time job.
All because I was striving for perfection.
Every time I went to the gym, I was always looking to do more because I wanted each and every workout to be perfect. Every time I ate, I wanted each meal to have the perfect ratio of protein, carbs, and fats. I wouldn’t touch anyone else’s food because I was scared that they weren’t perfectly made.
And when those perfect workouts and perfect meals didn’t go as planned, I’d feel guilty. Disappointed. Upset.
The feeling of failure made me want to start all over, so I’d do more research (which of course led to the distraction of different and new shiny objects).
This cycle of doing everything and anything went on for a very long time.
Things are different now.
I finally learned to focus on the Minimum Effective Dose (or MED).
Author and entrepreneur Tim Ferris describes MED as such:
“The smallest dose that will produce a desired outcome…. Anything beyond the MED is wasteful. To boil water, the MED is 212°F (100°C) at standard air pressure. Boiled is boiled. Higher temperatures will not make it ‘more boiled’. Higher temperatures just consume more resources that could be used for something else more productive.”
Luckily for us, the MED for achieving fantastic results with our fitness doesn’t require any extreme dieting or training. It requires very little time, effort, and most importantly, will-power. And the less of those you need, the easier it is to stay consistent.
Nowadays, I work out roughly 2 hours and 15 minutes PER WEEK (about 45 minutes per workout for three workouts a week) and spend only a few minutes every other day “meal planning” (I’ll show you later how to do it effortlessly).
I put most of my focus on the MED, figured out my 20%, and stopped doing all the little things that didn’t really matter.
Simplifying my fitness, in turn, helped simplify my life.
Every day, I know what it is I need to do. At the same time, I know what it is I DO NOT need to do — which is just as powerful. This allows me to free up time and energy for the things that really matter in my life like reading books, writing, traveling, eating good food, serving my clients, and spending time with loved ones.
And that, my friend, is what I implore you to do.
We have only so much time in the day to commit to our fitness, so ideally we should do the things that make the biggest difference.