Tuesday Edition

Low-hanging fruit, 1%ers, and caring less?

December 16, 2024

👋 Hi, legend!

Welcome to your Tuesday Edition. We’ve got so much to cover today!

It was so great to hear from so many of you about your habit-stacking plans. A few of my favourites ideas included routines to improve consistency with journalling, running, and learning Italian. Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply to the email and fight the pesky algorithms! 🥊

Keep an eye out for a special email tomorrow (Wednesday the 18th of December, 2024) - I’ll be announcing an exciting giveaway! 🎁

🦸 The High Performance Hero That’s Been Hiding in Plain Sight

In the pursuit of improvement, sometimes it’s the most basic things that get missed. I’ve seen countless high performers obsess over marginal gains while overlooking simple, critical habits. Hydration is one of these core practices that rarely gets the attention it deserves, with some data even suggesting that nearly half of adults do not consume enough water each day.

Hydration and performance: 

It’s widely understood that hydration is a key determinant of physical health and performance. In the influencer age, everybody seems to have a drink container that is closer to a barrel than a bottle, because ‘hydration is key’ - but what does the science say? 

A broad review of the literature confirms that dehydration can result in deficits of executive function, memory, decision-making, reaction time, critical thinking, and attention, while mood regulation is also impacted [read: everything 🤯].  There is a multitude of evidence to suggest that these effects may begin when water loss exceeds just 1% of total body mass. For many adults this could be just a couple of glasses of water. Furthermore, prolonged dehydration can result in brain cell shrinkage of both size and mass.

Physiological impact:

Dehydration causes many changes, but here are a few that stand out...

🩸 Decreased blood volume, which impacts the delivery of oxygen and nutrients.

⚡ Electrolyte imbalances, reducing the efficiency of electrical signalling between neurons.

🫨 Stress responses, causing hormones such as cortisol to be released.

Considering water makes up approximately 75% of the brain, this shouldn’t really come as a surprise. The good news is, there’s a simple fix.

Maintaining hydration:

As a general rule, adult males should aim for around 2600mL of water daily, while adult females should aim for about 2100mL, though exact needs will vary from person to person. This is also a good time to point out that we have an in-built hydration indicator - it’s called thirst, and if you take a moment to check in with yourself throughout the day, you may be surprised at what your body is telling you!

Here are some other simple ways to check your hydration:

🚽 Urine colour: Generally speaking, the lighter/clearer the better! Check out this chart.

🖐️ Skin turgor: This simple test is used by many medical professionals to get a quick and easy result.

Hydration is pivotal to performance, and if you're serious about optimising your mental and physical capacity, ensure you're keeping the water up! Give it a go for at least seven days, and see if you can feel the difference. 🔮

🏭 Finding Your Improvement Factory

We regularly hear about ‘compounding interest’ in relation to finances and long-term investment, but I think it’s drastically overlooked in the self-improvement space. Here’s why:

❝

If you improve by 1% each day for one year, by the end you’ll be almost 38x better.

Read that again. It’s almost inconceivable.

Don’t believe me? Run the numbers yourself.

Hint: 1.01365

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to sit here and say that it is realistic or even possible to improve by 1% in any given area for 365 days. The law of diminishing returns would suggest that it’s probably unlikely for most pursuits, but this incredible statistic demonstrates the power of small improvements over a long period. If we scale it back a tad: 1% better every week for a year = 67% better by the end. That’s still enough to have a remarkable impact on something that’s important to you.

This concept is really resonating with me at the moment, because sometimes I have a tendency towards an ‘all-or-nothing’ approach. Throughout my life, I’ve been guilty of giving up small and consistent gains, committing to a surge effort to break through to the next level. At times this has served me really well - leading to rapid improvement and opening doors that I may otherwise have never even known about, let alone had the opportunity to enter - but I must also consider what I may have left on the table with a lack of consistency. The all-in approach delivers quick rewards, and sometimes it’s definitely the required course, but the likelihood of burnout is significantly increased.

📚 This Week I’m Reading:

The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*** - Mark Manson

This has long been on my radar, and I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that it’s taken me until now to read it. It’s got mixed reviews, and I’ve had a couple of eye-brow raising moments in the first couple of chapters, but it’s always good to challenge your own ideas and beliefs. It certainly goes against a few of the usual reads in the self-improvement space. If you’ve read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts! 📥

Bonus tip: If you’ve been living under a rock like I apparently have… Spotify Premium has Audiobooks 😱. It revolutionised my commute.

Thanks again for your time. As always, please hit reply with any feedback you have!

Thanks,

Zac

Disclaimer: The High Performance Brief is for general education purposes only. The content is not a substitute for professional healthcare or psychological services. If you have any health/mental health concerns, please consult a qualified professional.