4 Core Habits To Reach Your Peak Potential

I’m sure you are well aware of the habits I’m about to give you but I’ve noticed that people just tell you what you need to do to become your best self without explaining why these particular habits are so important.

So I’ll do my best to give you the most important details, the reasons why these 4 specifically is what I build my life around.

• Consistent Clean Sleep

• Deep Work

• Reading non-fiction books with a goal in mind

• High intensity exercise

Consistent Clean Sleep

I call it clean sleep because I want to differentiate what I like to label as “dirty sleep”

Most people still believe the simple old notion that getting 8hours of sleep is enough. While that is obviously true, good sleep hygiene is a bit more complex than that.

First and most important point is that not every 8hours are the same. You need to go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning. There are 2 main types of sleep, in simplified terms dream sleep and deep sleep, and they happen at different amounts at different times. So if you sleep 2 hours later than usual and but still get 8hours of sleep you will miss out on majority of your dream sleep which is critical for forming new memories and many other physiological functions.

Second point is screen time. Most people I know are on their phones before bed. The blue light emission from phones disturb your natural circadian rhythm and suppress melatonin production (the sleep promoting hormone). For me I start dimming lights and switching off my devices at least an hour before sleep time.

Thirdly, alcohol and cannabis do not help you sleep better - the cause a sedative effect which is not the same as natural sleep. The same goes for sleeping pills. In the long run all of these lead to sleep deprivation which can cause horrible consequences from depression to high blood pressure and increased risk of cancer.

I can talk all day about the importance of sleep but would just like to highlight those 3 main points for now. If you are interested in learning more about sleep I would highly recommend Matthew Walker’s book - Why We Sleep

Deep Work

I’ll keep this one short and sweet. Deep Work is one of the rarest skills in today’s society because of so many distractions around us. If you implement this you will be ahead of 95% of the world.

Deep Work is simply just cutting out all distractions and working with singular focus on whatever you are working on. 1-2 hours of deep work is enough for me a day to get done what needs real focus. I switch off my phone for the entire duration and work in 30min blocks, while doing absolutely nothing in my 5min break purely for my mind to get rest.

I’m yet to meet someone in my university or surrounding circle that can work as efficiently as me and I owe it all to Deep Work. If you are interested in learning more about it and the science behind it check out Deep Work by Cal Newport

Reading Non-Fiction Books With A Goal

I feel everyone says you should read, I’m sure you’ve heard the maxim “Readers are leaders” growing up. But once again it isn’t that simple.

The way I like to describe it is that an author of a best selling book needed a lifetime of experience to write that book. They distill a lifetime’s worth of knowledge into a book you can consume in 2 weeks with a simple 30min a day reading habit.

Imagine that you read only one book a month (which is literally just like 10pages a day) then you’ll consume 12 lifetime’s of knowledge in a year! 60 in 5 years. Imagine what you can do with all of that knowledge from such a tiny habit?

My next bit of advice would be to choose your books based on self awareness. What area of your life do you want to improve? What part of yourself do you want to understand better? What skill do you want to learn?

Ask yourself these types of questions and find books on the topic. For starters I would say if a book has more than a thousand reviews on Amazon it’s probably good enough to get you in the right direction.

High Intensity Exercise

Yes any form of movement is good for you but the real benefits come from high intensity workouts. Whether it’s running or lifting weights, it’s pushing your body to a point of stress where the real results come from.

Firstly there’s the feel good chemicals - the endorphins- which with time will make it an addiction. Then there’s also a chemical called BNDF, brain derived neurotropic factor, that gets released in response to high intensity exercise. This promotes brain health and the growth of new neuronal connections.

And the obvious other benefits of health, improved sleep, weight loss and muscle building, general happiness and an important factor that is overlooked is that it teaches you discipline. How to do the hard thing when you don’t want to.

My favourite recommendation on building discipline is Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins.

Well that’s it for this week’s newsletter. Thanks for reading and I hope this helped. Feel free to reply to me if you have any questions or suggestions and I’ll try my best to get back to you.

Have an awesome week 💪