In my own work and in my clients’ work, I notice a strong desire to dig in, to do some really hard work to get underneath stuff. But it comes at the cost of acknowledging and addressing those things that are clearly needing attention that are glaringly obvious. Like the concept of doing the work distracts us from actually doing the work.
Sometimes what we need to do is just take action on the obvious, address those things that are right in front of our faces before we try to dig deep into the shadow and subconscious. Exploring those realms isn’t nearly as effective when we haven’t handled the low hanging fruit. There’s no need to discover more yet.
Here’s an example.
I have spent a lot of my life experimenting with how I can optimize my performance, recovery, and aesthetics. I spend time tweaking this and that. I have a coach personalize my food and my workouts. I am religious about working out. And when I don’t, it stresses me out! I do cold plunge multiple times a week. Sauna. Massage. Electric stimulation. Foam rolling. I think you get the point.
Recently I decided to get a continuous glucose monitor to collect more data. It helps me see what foods, and what quantities of food cause my blood glucose levels to spike so that I can adjust timing, quantity, and quality of foods to, once again, optimize. It has been really interesting and I have learned quite a bit about how my body responds to the things I eat and drink.
And here’s my low hanging fruit. All of these little tweaks can’t have nearly the impact I would like them to have if I don’t allow my body to sleep and recover. Sleep is the most important thing we do to recover. And I neglect that. I treat it as a waste of time, a poor use of my time, etc. So as long as I choose to ignore this low hanging fruit, I’m not doing myself any favors with all of the other ways I choose to distract myself from dealing with it. It’s all diminishing returns until I teach myself to sleep.
I just need to sleep more.
Here’s the opportunity:
1. What is your low hanging fruit?
2. Why haven’t you chosen to deal with it?
3. What goal could you set for yourself for the next 14 days (we’re trying to build habits here) that would get you closer to dealing with your low hanging fruit?
Thanks for your time, have a great day!