When you work with your body instead of against it, you don’t just feel better. You live better. Excelerated Fundamentals™ help you build the capacity to become the person you were created to be and to make the contribution only you can make.
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“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” ~ Jim Rohn
“I Must Be Getting Old”
Let me tell you about my friend Mark. Mark is a pretty average guy, a lot like me. And possibly you. A typical day for Mark looks like this. He usually works late, because there is always one more email to answer. He comes home and has whatever he can throw together for dinner. Then he relaxes in front of the TV, usually while enjoying a big bowl of ice cream.
He gets into bed late, checks email one last time, then scrolls through his social media until midnight. He’s usually deep asleep when his alarm goes off, except on Saturday, when he can sleep late. He is exhausted on Sunday, and still tired and dragging on Monday.
When we talked, Mark said to me, “Man, I don’t understand why I’m so tired every morning. I guess I’m just getting old!”
But I had a different take. Mark wasn’t losing a battle with age. He was simply fighting against his own biology! Mark was neglecting the fundamentals, and had been doing so for quite a while.
Many of us do the same. We push through fatigue with another cup of coffee. We stay up later than our bodies would like. We eat whenever it’s convenient, rather than when our bodies are ready to process food. Then we wonder why we feel tired, distracted, or stressed.
The truth is, our bodies aren’t our enemies. They aren’t obstacles to overcome. They’re remarkable partners. And when we learn to work with them instead of against them, something changes. That is the heart of Excelerated Fundamentals™.
What Are Excelerated Fundamentals™?
Excelerated Fundamentals™ are the basic daily practices that allow your body and mind to function as they were designed to function. They’re not flashy. They aren’t life hacks. They aren’t complicated morning routines that require waking up at 4:00 a.m. They’re the ordinary habits that quietly determine the quality of your extraordinary life.
Eat well.
Move regularly.
Sleep consistently.
Manage stress.
Honor your body’s natural rhythms.
The fundamentals aren’t exciting because they’re new. They’re powerful because they’re timeless.
Why the Fundamentals Matter
We often think of self-care as something optional. “I’ll take better care of myself when life slows down.”
But life rarely slows down on its own. Instead, the fundamentals create the capacity to handle life well.
When you consistently care for your body, you think more clearly. You respond more patiently. You focus more easily. You recover from setbacks more quickly. You have more energy to contribute to others.
In other words, the fundamentals don’t just improve your health. They support every other Excelerated Life™ practice. Without them, everything becomes harder. With them, everything becomes more possible.
Work With Your Biology
One of the greatest discoveries in health research over the past several decades is surprisingly simple. Your body loves rhythm. It was designed around predictable cycles of light and darkness, activity and rest, eating and fasting.
Unfortunately, modern life often ignores those rhythms. Instead of asking our bodies what they need, we ask them to accommodate our schedules.
Let’s look at three simple ways we can begin to cooperate with our biology rather than constantly working against it.
Let Darkness Do Its Work
Most conversations about sleep focus on avoiding blue light from phones and computers. And that’s helpful. But the issue is even broader. It’s not just blue light. It’s bright light.
For thousands of years, the setting sun signaled that it was time for the body to prepare for sleep. Today our homes remain brightly lit well into the evening, sending our brains the message that it’s still daytime.
Try an experiment. An hour before bedtime, turn off the bright overhead lights. Use lamps instead. Dim the lights if possible. Allow your home to grow gradually quieter, not only in sound but in light.
You’re giving your body permission to do what it already knows how to do.
Give Your Stomach a Bedtime Too
I came across a phrase that made me smile: “Your stomach is not an all-night diner.” It’s memorable because it’s true.
When we eat late into the evening, our digestive system continues working long after we’d like the rest of our body to begin resting. Research increasingly suggests that finishing meals several hours before bedtime allows the body to shift its attention from digestion to restoration.
You don’t have to become rigid about it. Simply aim to finish eating earlier in the evening whenever you can. Sometimes the simplest changes produce the greatest benefits.
Respect Your Internal Clock
Many people treat weekends as an opportunity to catch up on sleep. While occasional extra rest is certainly beneficial, regularly sleeping several hours later on weekends can confuse your body’s internal clock. Imagine traveling across several time zones every Friday night and returning every Monday morning.
Your body prefers consistency. Going to bed and getting up at roughly the same time each day teaches your physiology what to expect. Consistency, more than perfection, builds lasting energy. Your body doesn’t ask for flawless routines. It asks for reliable ones.
How the Fundamentals Help You Live an Excelerated Life™
These habits may seem small. After all, we’re talking about lights, meal times, and bedtime. But their effects ripple outward into every area of life.
o When you’re well rested, you’re more focused.
o When your energy is steady, you’re more productive.
o When you’re less stressed, your relationships improve.
o When your mind is clearer, your decisions become wiser.
o When your body has reserves, you’re able to contribute more generously to others.
The fundamentals don’t exist for their own sake. They exist so you have the capacity to pursue everything else that matters.
Start Small
Now, you don’t need to overhaul your entire lifestyle this week. Simply choose one small adjustment.
Perhaps you’ll dim the lights after dinner.
Maybe you’ll finish eating three hours before bedtime.
Or perhaps you’ll simply commit to going to bed at roughly the same time each night.
One small change. Repeated consistently. That’s how the fundamentals become habits. And that’s how habits become a lifestyle.
The Fundamentals Build Capacity
We often believe excellence requires extraordinary effort.
More often, it requires extraordinary faithfulness to ordinary things.
Healthy food.
Daily movement.
Consistent sleep.
Light.
Rest.
These practices rarely make headlines. But they quietly build the energy, resilience, clarity, and emotional reserves that allow us to flourish. Excelerated Fundamentals™ aren’t about living longer. They’re about living better. They’re about building the capacity to become the person you were created to be and to make the contribution only you can make.
Because when you work with your body instead of against it, you don’t just feel better. You live better. And that’s another step toward embracing your Excelerated Life™.
How can you work with your body today instead of against it?
If you could improve just one fundamental this week, what would it be?
Share your experience by leaving a comment below.
Excelerated Fundamentals™ is the practice of consistently caring for the essential needs of your body and mind so you have the energy, vitality, and resilience to live an Excelerated Life™. It is one practice for creating your Excelerated Life™, a life of flourishing and well-being, and a life of meaning, purpose, and service.
Read more about the Excelerated Life™.
Resources:
Huffington, Arianna. The Sleep Revolution – Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time. New York: Crown
Rath, Tom. Eat Move Sleep: How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes. Arlington, VA: Missionday, 2013.
Walker, Phd, Matthew. Why We Sleep. New York: Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2017.
This blog post includes research information and suggestions provided by ChatGPT, an AI language model developed by OpenAI. The content was generated with AI assistance and is intended to provide information and guidance. Please note that the suggestions are not official statements from OpenAI. To learn more about ChatGPT and its capabilities, you can visit the OpenAI website.
(Please NOTE: The material in this document is intended for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice in medical, psychological, legal, or financial matters. The purpose of this article is to educate and inspire. Following the techniques, suggestions, or strategies presented does not guarantee success.)