Health Is Wealth

News flash…Master, Minion just won an award. I can’t reveal what award until later this year, but I am surprised and delighted. So…if you want an enjoyable read that gets into the psychological dimensions of a financial war, a good read awaits.

“He couldn’t scream at the right person. He had to scream at someone.” Red Storm Rising, Tom Clancy

“Analyze what exists. Break it all down material and cause.”

Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, roughly 170 AD

Wealth isn’t the goal, a good life is. Money is a tool to help accomplish the goal. Wealth means many things at once—-physical health, but also relationships, and constant learning. While I think about health a lot, as I’m sure we all do, I’m not an expert so I particularly valued my conversation with Bill Gifford, an old friend and co-author, with Dr. Peter Attia, of Outlive, The Science and Art of Longevity.

You can hear the full conversation here.

The big thing I took away from the book and talking to Bill is this—-pretty much everything I think of as an indulgence really isn’t. It’s preventative. And I should do more of it.

For instance, most days I get up in the morning and work out. Sometimes for a few hours. I’ve always felt a little guilty about this. Shouldn’t I be working instead? I also love to sleep. When all the cool kids were pulling all-nighters in college, I couldn’t. In fact, when I’ve tried to learn new things that are really hard, like foreign languages, I need to sleep even more. I also like hanging out and bullshitting with people, which I also feel guilty about. Work I don’t feel guilty about.

However, all the things I feel guilty about turn out to be good for you. In fact, they boost the odds that you don’t end up like both my parents, who died of awful diseases, cancer in one case and a degenerative nerve disease in the other. I watched both of them for years. I know some of the people reading this are either sick themselves or trying to support people who are. Difficult health problems are brutal. Nothing else really matters once your health is shot.

So what is the best strategy? Obviously, good luck matters a lot. But we can’t do anything about that. Instead, it’s useful to have a holistic health framework, which is what Bill and Dr. Attia provide.

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