At the onset of reading the article “The Most Important Question Of Your Life” I almost immediately found holes in the assumptions made by the author, Mark Manson. He assumes that in order to achieve the various things that we want we must suffer and go through pain. For instance, he asserts that in order to have an amazing physique one must live “inside a gym for hour upon hour” while “calculating and calibrating the food you eat, planning your life out into tiny plate sized portions”. This is simply untrue. This vision of what it takes to get fit seems framed out of the endless advertisements for fitness related markets such as gyms and fad diet programs that are really just money making schemes. First of all, “living in a gym” is simply unnecessary for many reasons. Get yourself a bike and you’ll be building those glutes and getting your cardio (reducing your risk of cardiovascular disease) in no time. Not to mention you’ll be saving money on gas because it happens to be free to ride a bike while also eliminating the carbon emissions from your gas powered vehicle. See, two birds with one stone! While you may be sacrificing the amount of time it takes to get from point A to point B, the benefits of switching from a fossil fuel powered machine to a YOU powered machine far outweigh the costs. Everything in moderation of course but simply scaling back on the driving and supplementing your transportation routine with biking can only be beneficial.
We also happen to have access to one of the greatest feats of humankind- the internet. Youtube offers endless channels of motivating, inspiring, and qualified fitness and physical trainers with videos tailored to your needs be it beginner or advanced! Everything from low impact pilates, relaxing yoga, challenging kickboxing, or high-intensity cardio can be found online and the best part is- it’s all free and can be done in the comfort of your own home! Manson makes it seem like living a successful, healthy, comfortable life comes at the price of sacrificing SO much of our happiness and increasing the drudgery. Go on a bike ride around sunset, feel the wind upon your face and breathe in life. Then tell me how painstaking exercising/being active can be.
“Tiny plate sized portions”? Again, simply untrue for this “amazing physique” Manson briefly touches on. Learn to retrain your brain to choose foods that are grown from the earth and are minimally processed and you can eat as much as you want! These foods are packed with nutrients while being generally lower in calories than their processed, high calorie, low nutrient density counterparts. It is also encouraged by health professionals that you eat often to keep a strong metabolism (breakdown of foods to obtain energy) going throughout the day; increasing the bodies processing time and absorption of nutrients. These “hunger pangs” that Manson describes are again, unnecessary.
The point is, be creative in redefining your “sacrifices” and you may find you’re not only not suffering but thriving! We have gotten so used to experiencing our lives according to the status quo that we’ve forgotten how to define our own happiness. What is just as important as being able to define your own happiness is being able to define your own necessities. The perceived status quo is usually what prevents this from happening. Maybe the most important question of your life isn’t about what pain am I willing to go through but, “what do I really need to be happy?” This stuff? This job? This car? Or is it simply- this moment. This breath. This body which is composed of billions of cells that perform just as many tasks every moment in order to sustain the life within it. Life can be easily taken for granted and while I do believe there comes a time for tempering our indulgent habits I also believe in relishing each moment no matter what it’s outward appearance may be. Make a move not only towards a more sustainable lifestyle that serves the outer world, but also make moves towards a more sustainable inner world. It can be done with relatively little suffering involved and with that, I leave you with a quote: “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”. -Haruki Murakami
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