The seven · 01 / 07

The question

Do I wake up strong and capable — is my body ready for what I am asking of it?

Every Sunday, Physical Health gets a number from 1 to 7, the same as the other six. The scale is the same for all seven:

1

Abandoned. Not in the plan at all.

3

Maintenance. Showing up, going through motions, no intention behind it.

5

In it. Deliberate effort, visible progress, a plan being run.

7

Fully lived. Lived at full intent. You would put this quarter on the record.

Goals people set here

Ideas, not assignments. Each one names a number or a date, so you will know whether you did it.

• Three strength sessions a week, each one logged before I leave the gym.
• Walk 8,000 steps a day, measured as a weekly total.
• Cut alcohol to four drinks a month or fewer.
• Twelve minutes of mobility work every morning, before coffee.
• Run a half marathon under two hours by October.
• Cook dinner at home five nights a week.

Things worth doing once

From the fifty-two actions — one a week, the same for everybody, chosen and never assigned. These are the Physical Health ones.

• Book every checkup you are dueDoctor, dentist, eyes, and any screening for your age. Book them in one sitting and put the dates in the calendar.
• Make the bedroom for sleepingDark, cool and quiet. Something over the windows, the thermostat down, the phone charging in another room.
• Write down your shortest workoutTwenty minutes, at home, nothing to set up. The one you do on the days the full one is not going to happen.
• Put the good food where you can see itFruit on the counter, cut vegetables at eye level in the fridge, the snacks somewhere you have to reach for.
• Set a wind-down alarmAn alarm an hour before you want to be asleep. When it goes, screens away and the lights down.
• Plan the week's dinners on SundayFifteen minutes, five dinners, one shopping list. The decision gets made once instead of at six o'clock every night.
• Walk outside in daylight on work daysTwenty minutes at the same time each day, in the calendar like a meeting. The darker months are when it counts.