When looking at the Good Life heuristic, we can measure our quality of life through 3 major pillars, Health, Wealth, and Love.
The most important in priority is Health. Without our health, we have nothing.
If we're 90 years old with a trillions of dollar net-worth, 99.99% of times, we'd trade that all just to be young again. Because chances are at 90 our body is on the tail-end of lifespan, how long we live, and health span, the quality of life we live.
A common maxim is "Eat healthy and move". That's the secret to health. That people over complicate it. If someone is operating under a baseline of being 50 pounds overweight, sticks to sitting on their chair at work all day with no physical activity, and chugging a diet of McDonald's Big Macs and Cokes, this maxim of "Eat Healthy and move" works. But I realize over the years, with the problem of Infinite Information, the wisdom in the maxim doesn't work quite so well.
Just take the United States Food Pyramid. That's what was deemed healthy. But it's what paved us to the obesity epidemic where 40% of people are obese.
Ironically, the Standard American Diet spells out SAD Diet.
Instead what if we took a playbook from Charlie Munger and use his "Inversion" technique. To get what you want, avoid what you don't want at all cost. Munger is known for saying, "All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there.”
I believe that if we utilized the 80/20 rule and had to only focus on the 20% that gave us 80% of the results. Avoiding the minutiae in information overload it would be asking ourselves, What do I need to avoid at all cost to live a healthy life?
What if I ate a diet of nothing but Hot Cheetos and Twix Chocolate Bars all day. Would that get me to a failing body faster? Yes. Bingo. Avoid that.
What if smoked and sat in a chair for 16 hours a day. Would that get me to cut my health span faster? Check. Avoid that.
Determine what the top 3 is in terms of impact by following the 80/20 rule, and avoid them all cost.
As of now, this is my list of 3. They may change over time but at least for now it's a guiding heuristic that assures me a healthier life than the baseline of something like the SAD Diet (Standard American Diet).
1. Avoid Seed Oils.
2. Avoid not building muscle.
3. Avoid not hitting Zone 2 cardiovascular.
If there was a maxim it'd be this: "Avoid unhealthy activities.." It isn't as easy to take in with the double negatives but if you ask me, I think it's a better maxim.