I’ve always been confused by the common perspective on exercise.

For the longest time I didn’t understand how people did not want to work out. 

The endorphins, clarity of mind and the pure feeling of progress. How could you not be a full blown addict?

Let’s break down the common perspective on exercise:

The average person believes physical activity is something external to them.

They either see it as a tool for achieving extrinsic goals:

• Lower body fat

• Status

• Validation

Or they reject the seemingly superficial aspects of it.

They claim they’ve moved beyond the need for an aesthetic body or the status that comes with it.

Because of this, they either see exercise as a chore and have to force themselves through the motions (because they really want that sweet reward at the end).

Or they reject it all together.

Both are missing the point.

When moving your body becomes foreign to you – you disassociate from yourself and life becomes empty.

when your mind and body isn’t in balance— life becomes chaos:

• You’re not creative because you don’t open your mind with walks

• You’re not productive because energy is trapped in your head

• You’re not enjoying life because a deeper part of you is screaming to break out of your conditioned way of living

Even though I looked down on the common perspective on exercise – I was still trapped in it (just on a higher level)... 

And even though I worked out (a lot) – I would still leave the notion of exercise at the gym.

My creativity, productivity and life enjoyment all suffered because I didn’t see how exercise connected to the other aspects of my life.

Even though it was staring me in the face — I still saw exercise as something other than me.

Activity is code for your being

Exercise is code.

Thoughts are code.

Exercise codes your body to become stronger.

Intentional thought codes your mind to become more efficient.

Mind and body are connected.

Exercise and thought work together to write the program that is you.

And the “you” is larger than just your body or mind –  It’s your life – your external health. (I talk about this in “the fastest cure to a mediocre life”).

If physical activity is what codes the supercomputer that is you, and “you” are more than just your body and mind – then anything you do in life will be either held back or improved by your level of activity.

Just as you can’t escape gravity – you can’t escape the fundamental reality of activity:

• The people who think they’re above working out are still coding themselves

• The people who walk 20 000 steps a day are still coding themselves

• The people who choose Netflix over working out are still coding themselves

The difference is quality:

Are you programming yourself for more energy, creativity and clarity of mind?

Or are you programming yourself to feel tired, unmotivated and anxious?

When you view exercise as external to you – you are closing yourself off from the unlimited opportunities that a well implemented workout routine brings.

• How people perceive you physically will open up opportunities in your professional and personal life.

• How well your body functions is connected to your mind & will open up opportunities of creativity and work in all life’s domains..

• How holistically you implement exercise in your day opens up opportunities of energy, motivation and peak performance.

Think of yourself as a musical chord.

Activity and thoughts are 2 of the many musical notes that make it up.

The harmony of all notes is what creates a beautifully sounding chord (life).

If one note is out of tune – the whole chord sounds off.

Activity is a part of you. It’s not something external and therefore – it’s not something you can ignore if you care about the sound of your life.

You are coding yourself whether you like it or not. And activity is a part of the language you’re writing.

If you want a better life – write better code.

The system that is you

You are a system.

The universe is a system.

Your mind, body and spirit are all connected.

The planets, stars and galaxies are all connected.

For a system to work – energy must be able to flow through all parts for it 

In the system that is you – energy flows through mind, body, spirit and creates the outputs that are your life: 

Experiences, Relationships, Wealth.

In the system that is the universe – energy flows through stars, planets, space and creates the outputs that are all the things you see around you:

Light, Matter, Life.

All systems must account for 1 law:

The fundamental law of the universe is entropy.

Entropy is the tendency for energy to spread out and become chaotic. It’s why heat moves from hot to cold and why your room becomes cluttered when you stop cleaning it. 

You can think of entropy as the tendency for energy to become chaotic and less focused. 

In most cases – entropy equals chaos and disorder.

This happens in all systems (including you).

To understand how this relates to you – we need to understand 2 types of systems:

1. Open systems

2. Closed systems

A closed system means there is no way for energy to be exchanged beyond the system (no energy can escape).

Because of this, the energy will become chaotic because there is no way for energy to exit (entropy ensues).

A closed system has only one outcome: Unfathomable and utter chaos.

Let’s take the case of the universe:

The universe is most likely a closed system. This is why the end of it is called “the heat death of the universe”. It’s when the universe reaches maximal entropy and everything becomes a blend of heat (the energy becomes maximally spread out and chaotic).

Even though you won’t live to see the end of the universe – the same thing is happening inside you.

You, as a system, are always moving towards complete and utter chaos.

And when you ignore physical activity – you are closing that system (trapping chaotic energy inside you)

You are creating pure chaos inside and outside of you.

And when the chaos reaches your mind – the real problem begins.

Opening the system that is you

A system is moving energy.

In exactly the same way, that you are the function of energy flowing through the universe —  your thoughts, emotions and actions are a function of the energy flowing inside of you.

Chemical energy to physical energy, physical energy to psychic energy.

The energy inside of you (like all) is always moving towards entropy.

If you had no way of dispersing this chaotic energy (and was a closed system) – your cells would all overheat and die.

Luckily, you’re an open system. Energy can leave in the form of heat energy and in so doing, disperse entropy.

“This is all very interesting, but how does it relate to my situation?”

Where it gets interesting (and becomes a problem) is when the energy inside your mind becomes entropic – or in other words – it becomes psychic entropy.

Psychic entropy is chaos in consciousness.

It can be described as “a state where your mind is dominated by disordered and uncontrollable thoughts, often leading you away from your goals.”

It’s anxiety, fear, doubt and pain.

When your mind is dominated by this disorder you can’t think, you can’t be creative and life feels too complicated for you to deal with.

It’s a thousand pieces of a million problems appearing in your consciousness all at once. It’s pure and utter chaos inside your head — it’s a mental civil war.

It isn’t an overstatement that psychic entropy stands in the way of everything you want to do in life.

The natural state of the mind is chaos. If you don’t put effort into ordering it – psychic entropy and randomness is the default state (which is the topic for next week’s letter).

But whatever you do – your mind will always move towards entropy.

And the chaos is multiplied when you use it.

When you’re writing, working or using your mind to create – you are containing all energy inside your head. You are creating a closed system and your psychic energy moves towards chaos (psychic entropy).

You become trapped in a mental civil war that you can’t escape from and work, social connections and life enjoyment becomes impossible.

There is 1 way to reverse psychic entropy – sleep (check out “how intelligent people use sleep”).

But there is a way to disperse it — physical activity.

This is where everything falls into place.

You are an open system – meaning, you can exchange energy with the environment as heat energy. When you do this – the chaotic energy inside of you disperses and leaves your system.

This includes psychic entropy.

But activity is a part of this process. Physical activity is wired into the system because that’s how we evolved. So when it’s ignored — you become a closed system. 

You turn yourself into a ticking psychic entropy time bomb.

If you don’t move your body – you trap yourself in constant psychic entropy and mental civil war.

This is the default path people find themselves in. Most people live life in a perpetual fight with their minds.

They’re never opening the system and as a result live life in utter and complete chaos.

And you are on this path unless you’ve made the conscious choice to break out of it. You do this by understanding the depth behind exercise.

Let me paint you a picture.

When you exercise or perform physical activity – you are taking psychic energy and dispersing it as heat energy.

You are opening the system that is you. 

Working out is clearing your mind.

Activity is a part of you. If you don’t move — you’re closing the system that is you and trapping yourself in psychic entropy, pain and suffering. 

To avoid the less than desirable state of psychic entropy — you need a holistically implemented workout routine.

It can’t be something you do for 1 hour then sit at a desk the remainder of the day.

It has to be a part of your being.

Activity and the mind

“To keep the body in good health is a duty, otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.” — Buddha

The quality of your life stems from the quality of your mind.

I used to cringe when I heard the term “mental mastery”.

My perspective used to be pretty closed off – and I only cared about the physical aspect of health.

Now I truly believe that mastering your mind is the key for anything you want to do in life.

The thing is… I was still onto something.

Let’s explore.

For the mind to work optimally – it has to be in harmony with the physical.

In other words…

You have to temper mental activity:

• Writing

• Reading

• Thinking

With physical activity:

• Walking

• Lifting

• Running

When the mental is active the physical rest (and vice versa).

The switching between pure rest and pure motion is how you code yourself for fulfillment. 

It’s also how you’re supposed to function.

Your best work will come from bursts of intensity (mental and physical) – not from sitting at a desk for 12 hours or sprinting for 9.

When you get the balance between mental and physical activity just right – you’ve created the perfect environment for reality to flow through you (AKA doing your best work).

• Nietzsche would walk for 8 hours a day

• Leonardo Da Vinci would horse ride, walk and lift weights

• Marcus Aurelius would hunt, box and wrestle

There is a connection between activity and the mind.

This is what “intellectuals” miss.

You can’t have amazing output from one area of life when you’re ignoring all others.

A sailboat taking in water can’t sail no matter how pristine the sail is.

In exactly the same way — you can’t sit on your ass all day and expect to do amazing work (or have genius ideas).

Mental work is eternally intertwined with physical activity.

This is what I’m trying to stress in every single letter.

All parts of health connect. 

Let’s break activity and mind down further.

There are 2 key functions of the mind that we’ll focus on (because they’re the most relevant):

1. Creativity

2. Productivity

Mastering these 2 and how they relate to activity — is mastering your mind (and life).

The quality of your life stems from the quality of your mind.

Let’s dive in.

Closing The Creative Circuit (The Power Of Taking A Walk)

“All Truly Great Thoughts Are Conceived While Walking” – Friedrich Nietzsche.

A life without creativity is a life of following someone else’s script for life.

Creativity is how you think for yourself.

It’s how you forge your own path and solve problems.

Ignoring your creativity is a sure fire way to make yourself replaceable and miserable. Because it’s the equivalent of giving up your own way of living life.

It’s the same as relinquishing your life to someone else (that “someone else” is often society).

Just as you can’t suppress physical activity – you can’t suppress your creativity.

You can try – but you’ll have one hell of a time.

Let’s deconstruct creativity.

Creativity is about connection.

It’s about seeing the infinite connection between multiple ideas (or the bigger picture).

This requires an open and clear mind — which (as you now know) becomes more and more impossible the longer you sit still.

To counter this, you need to open the system that is you with activity. 

There is one form of exercise reigning supreme when it comes to creativity… 

Taking a walk.

Walking is the sweet spot between mental and physical activity.

Let me explain.

It’s a state where psychic entropy is being dispersed as soon as it is created. 

And the activity isn’t so intense that it forces you out of your mind. All this creates the perfect condition for the flow of ideas.

You can let thoughts in and out of your consciousness without batting an eye. And if the overwhelm gets to you, you have the power to at any moment — detach and enjoy the present. 

To leave the mental workstation – immerse yourself in the eternal now and explore the world with childish curiosity.

There is power in taking a walk.

I want to repeat this: Nietzsche would walk for over 8 hours a day (that’s a fucking lot).

The brain has different circuits for different functions. And I want you to think of walking as the circuit breaker for creativity.

Walking forces you into a higher state of mind and floods you with ideas from the moving scenery in front of you.

I’m sure you’ve experienced something of the kind.

You can:  

• Unlock one of the highest functions of the mind by moving your feet

• Tap into the universe and become more creative than you’ve ever been

• Disperse psychic entropy and make the world clear

The most powerful form of exercise is available to everyone with a pair of legs.

If you’re looking for answers – get moving.

When in doubt –  take a walk.

Fueling Productivity

Focus is your most precious resource.

It’s how you channel your creativity and realize your potential. It’s how you learn new skills and master new parts of the world. 

The amount of focus you have access to in a lifetime is (more or less) your potential.

Where you put your focus on a daily basis will determine your future.

We instinctively know this. Yet most people don’t protect it — and so it’s chaotically getting swirled around by the environment.

It’s captured by entertainment, negative thoughts about future happenings and a mix of different priority tasks that needs to be completed.

Focus is the same thing as controlling your flow of energy. When you’re not protecting it — you’re surrendering your mind to the 2nd law of thermodynamics.

When energy isn’t focused it becomes entropic. 

To put it simply — a life without focus is a life in constant psychic entropy and chaos. 

This doesn’t only appear in your head (psychic entropy) but in your life as well:

• Relationships will begin to fall apart because no energy is invested

• Your bank account will spread out into useless purchases

• Your life will become too chaotic to understand (or enjoy)

This isn’t pretty.

It’s how people end up in jobs they hate, with bodies they disgust, and partners they can’t stand.

All of this is to say: Focus is important. 

But it’s a limited resource – you only have so much of it.

Focus and productivity are linked. 

And both require a few things:

• Enough neurotransmitters

• Enough chemical energy

• Limited amount of distractions

The neurochemistry of focus is a topic for another letter so for now, let’s stick to the topic of exercise and activity.

All points above can be broken down into 1 sentence:

To focus you need a supply of focused energy and minimal psychic entropy.

The supply of focused energy is neurotransmitters and chemical energy — which are both created from food.

To have a focused supply of mental energy you need to fuel your brain with quality food and sleep (I go over this in the 2 previous letters).

This is the foundation for focus. 

Although it’s necessary – it’s not sufficient.

When you use your mind at full capacity (for too long) – the energy will turn entropic and the system that is you will become closed.

As you now know, exercise has the power to disperse psychic entropy and clear your mind (this is powerful coupled with intention).

Let’s go over how you fuel your productivity with physical activity.

To optimize your productivity you want to leverage 3 forms of exercise…

• High Intensity

• Walking

• Accidental Calisthenics 

To divide your mental output with physical.

1. High Intensity

Exercise clears your mind – but it also drains your psychic energy.

It’s why you can’t think after a hard leg day (and shouldn’t start your day with lifting if you value mental output).

The harder the exercise, the more psychic energy it will drain (and the longer it will take for your “productivity potential” to recharge)

To optimize productivity – time your hard workouts when psychic entropy is at its highest.

The peak time for psychic entropy will depend on your schedule but for most people (including myself) it’s around 14:00. 

If you have the opportunity – this is the best time to schedule hard workouts (lifting, sprinting, cycling).

After your mind has cleared out and you’ve consumed some high quality food – your productivity potential will begin to build up again.

At around 18:00 you will be able to use your mind optimally again.

If you instead decide to push through the afternoon drought you’ll discover that your mind doesn’t work like a robot. 

In the words of Naval:

“you can’t keep cranking and expect linear output… …Machines do that. Machines are meant to work 9 - 5. Humans are not meant to work 9 - 5”

Note: This schedule will be different for everyone. But there will always come a time of day where your mind is at its limit. That is the best time to schedule high intensity exercise.

1. Walking

Walking is closing the creative circuit (and clearing your mind). 

It’s important for creativity but also essential for productivity. It’s the easiest way to clear your mind and recharge.

But we just went over this (Scroll up if you forgot).

1. Accidental Calisthenics

I used to think of exercise as something you did in the gym or nowhere at all.

I thought of calisthenics and small forms of exercise as useless (it wouldn’t get me jacked so I didn’t care).

But this feeds right into the perspective of viewing exercise as external to you.

It limits how well your body and mind can function. 

You’re not continuously opening your system and releasing psychic entropy, you’re not delivering high quality oxygenated blood to your brain —and you’re telling your body to optimize for sitting still.

Exercise isn’t something you do for 1 hour in the gym then go home and sit on your ass all day… 

It’s something that should be implemented in all areas of life (especially in creative work).

Let go of the perspective of seeing exercise as external to you:

You need to elevate your perspective to see the infinite opportunities for exercise. 

You need to weave physical activity into everything you do.

You need to implement accidental calisthenics.

This concept was originally developed by “The Bioneer”. He calls it “Incidental Training”.

I’ve chosen to get a bit more specific and call it “Accidental Calisthenics”.

This is how you connect mind and body.

As the name suggests – this concept points to doing calisthenics accidentally. 

Let me give you some examples:

Bathroom break – 10 pushups in the hallway

Making coffee – 20 squats while you’re waiting

Short walk – Randomly start running

Reading – Stand up and do some stretches

This may not seem like a lot – but it adds up.

If you would have told me this 3 years ago I wouldn’t have given you the time of day.

So before you discard it – try it out (it’s zero commitment and can only improve your life).

It seems like a small hack and therefore makes it easy to forget and ignore. But this is how you act to complete your being.

In the old days – we would always have been in motion. So learn from your biology and implement accidental calisthenics.

Because this is how you make activity a part of you.

Exercise is a part of you and therefore it’s a part of productivity.

You fuel productivity by leveraging 3 forms of exercise:

• Walking

• High intensity

• Accidental calisthenics

Your mind works best when your body does. Because both are connected and depend on each other to function.

Both are code for your being.

If you say you care about your health – why aren’t you always looking for a way to squeeze in exercise in your daily routine?

The Conscious Athlete 

When you internalize activity as a part of you – you evolve.

This is the natural evolution of the “fitness enthusiast” or the “gym-bro”:

The conscious athlete.

When you transcend a level of consciousness or “phase” – you’re not discarding it completely.

This is another fault with the intellectual perspective.

“Pursuing intelligence and creation is a higher aim than training your biceps”

Sure. 

But one does not prevent the other.

There are valuable skills, information and perspectives from every stage of mental evolution (look up “spiral dynamics” in psychology).

When you transcend something, you pull out the parts of truth from your previous stage and implement it into the next.

Let me give you an example:

When you transcended crawling on the ground for walking as a child – you still kept the ability to coordinate your limbs, the concept of balance and the idea of actually being able to move.

Let’s break down the conscious athlete.

The conscious athlete is a person who transcends the lower conscious pursuit of status, aesthetics and validation for something bigger.

But he doesn’t discard the value of exercise.

He enjoys the external rewards that comes from working out: 

• Status 

• Aesthetics 

• Validation 

But he doesn’t rely on them. His intrinsic motivation is still stronger.

He understands that exercise is a part of life and that ignoring it is a fatal mistake.

The conscious athlete is the epitome of the perspective we’ve talked about.

It’s understanding how activity connects to every part of life.

The conscious athlete works out to complete his being.

The Holistic Workout Routine

Let’s put everything we’ve talked about into one seamless system:

The holistic workout routine.

It builds on the fact that mental activity has to be balanced with physical activity.

By leveraging the 2 worlds (mental & physical) you’re completing your being and unlocking more opportunities for:

• Creativity & Productivity

• Energy & Motivation

• Life Enjoyment

You do this by following the “work / activity cycle” and implementing the 3 parts of exercise:

• High Intensity – To clear psychic entropy and reset your brain

• Walking – To supercharge creativity and blow of mental and physical steam (entropy)

• Accidental Calisthenics – To implement exercise in everything you do and fuel your brain and well being

We’ve already gone over these points on a deeper level so let’s get straight to the practical steps.

You want to always cycle productivity with either walking or high intensity exercise to blow off mental steam. 

At the same time, you want to always be implementing accidental calisthenics into your productivity blocks. 

The beauty with creativity blocks is that they are best coupled with walking (you don’t need to worry about implementing exercise).

Here is an example of a holistic workout routine:

• Wake up

• Productivity block (accidental exercise)

• Short walk 

• Productivity block (accidental exercise)

• Long walk 

• Productivity block (accidental exercise)

• Gym block

• Research block (accidental exercise)

• Long walk

• Sleep

Note: This is a super general example. Your job is to experiment with life and find the solutions that fit you the best depending on your schedule.

Following the principles of holistic exercise is how you evolve your consciousness.

It’s how you implement activity into your being – and complete it (more or less).

Let’s recap what we’ve gone over:

Activity is a part of you. And for you to function optimally — every part has to be in harmony with the other.

It’s a part of you, and when you ignore it – you are closing the system that is you (and moving body and mind towards entropy).

This is how activity connects to the mind. Thought and activity are both code for your being and are always influencing each other.

Walking fuels creativity, working out clears the mind, calisthenics fuel productivity etc.

The combination of all points and perspectives is the conscious athlete.

It’s seeing the bigger picture of exercise and life. It’s transcending the stage of the gym-bro or fitness enthusiast.

You have the ability to, at any given moment, unlock your potential by leveraging the 3 forms of activity:

• Walking

• Accidental Calisthenics

• High Intensity Exercise

When you truly internalize this process, you will become capable of more than you ever thought was possible.

That’s all for this one.

Subscribe, check out previous letters etc.

Peace.

P.s

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