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Difficulty is Not an Indicator of Value

My health habits toward the end of the 2016 calendar year were pretty horrible. In November and December, I was working out twice a day: once before work (for an hour) and once after work (for 90 minutes). That's a crazy two and a half hours per day. Want to know how much weight I lost in that time?

None. Actually, I gained ten pounds.

How could this be? I was working out so much. Surely, putting in that much work would yield good results.

Well, exercise is only one factor in promoting good health, and it's actually not the major factor. No, the major factor is diet, and I can tell you my diet in November and December was pretty awful. Any time my coworkers would bring in donuts, I would literally have five or six of them. I would treat myself to peanut butter M&Ms more often. Basically, I was slipping back into the old habits I had prior to losing all the weight.

Of course, I'm using this story as a metaphor, but this can apply to anything. You can work extra hard at certain things and find little to no value at the end. The phrase "Work smarter, not harder" comes to mind here. Don't get me wrong, there are things that are a lot of work that do provide value. Like getting a medical PhD. But don't make the mistake of thinking everything that is difficult is worth doing.

Returning to my health example, I have revised my exercise and diet habits. For the month of January 2017, I worked out only one hour per day (as opposed to the former 2.5 hours) but had a much better diet. How much weight did I lose that month? Five pounds.

(And I'll share specifically what I did to change my diet in a future post!)
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