Nailing the Basics in Everyday Life
Matt Dixon coaches professional triathletes to prepare them for international competition. In his Purple Patch podcast, which discusses maximizing performance in sport and life, he talks about the importance of “nailing the basics.” For his triathlon team, that means the athletes should eat well, hydrate well, and sleep well before they worry about trying new supplements or the latest training fad. Most of performance success comes from doing the simple foundational steps on a consistent basis.
This concept got me thinking about what “nailing the basics” might mean in relation to living a full-color life. What are the key components of intentional living that we should focus on? If we identify what “nailing the basics” means in our lives, we can focus on the stuff that does matter instead of getting bogged down with details or life hack fads.
1) Eating well
Your body functions best when you fuel it properly. Studies show that good nutrition not only improves physical health, but also your brain health. Eating better can help improve your emotional and mental health and give you the energy you need to live your life well. Sometimes you can get bogged down with nutritional rules and trying to eat perfectly. For me, it’s helpful to take a small weekly goal to focus on and make small shifts to improve my diet. For example, sometimes I focus on including fruits and vegetables at every meal. Other times, I look at adding high protein foods to balance out my meal planning and help me recover from daily exercise.
For me, “nailing the basics” in this area consists of more fruits, veggies, and whole grains and less processed treats. Focusing on small goals has been more helpful and easier to stick with than strictly tracking everything I eat. I do track food intake sometimes for a few days. It’s helpful for me to see my nutrient balance and get ideas for what I can improve.
2) Moving Regularly
For me to be at my best, I need to move on a regular basis. Exercising regularly can give you more physical fitness and stamina plus it can improve mental health. For me, it helps to be outside if possible. I usual swim, bike or run several times a week, but doing stretching or a dance video is fun too. We all have different fitness levels and physical abilities, but the important thing is to remember to exercise consistently throughout the week.
It’s okay to start small. My endurance training started as only a five minute exercise block during my morning routine. I started by doing literally five minutes of exercise daily and built up to training for 5k races and then triathlons. I have noticed benefits in my physical health and my mental health. It’s become almost like a regular meditation practice for me and it keeps me feeling well through life’s stressful times.
3) Connecting with Spirituality
Speaking of meditation, I feel that a regular spiritual practice is an important part of “nailing the basics.” Brené Brown in her research on whole-hearted living found that spirituality was a common thread to among people who were living well. She defines spirituality here. The key in her research was to tap into the interconnection between all of us, and I feel it’s important to do that on a regular basis. It will be different for each person, but this spiritual practice could be church and prayer, or meditation. I could mean time in nature alone. Like exercise and nutrition, I think your specific personal beliefs are probably less important than your daily and weekly habits of connecting with something bigger than yourself.
As above with nutrition and exercise, it’s powerful to start small and add new elements. I often struggle with maintaining consistent spiritual practices, but it doesn’t mean I stop trying. I’ve tried different kinds of prayer, meditation, group studies and spiritual direction. Even though it’s hard for me to find something that sticks, I’m always trying something.
4) Cleaning Just Enough
Another foundational piece for life to keep running is the keep my house relatively clean. I don’t have it perfect, but I focus on making sure we take care of laundry, dishes and yucky messes on a regular basis. As a working mom of four kids, my house isn’t neat, but I like to keep the bugs away and make sure we all have clean plates and underwear. Another way to keep things running smoothly is to declutter when possible. If you have less stuff there is less to keep picked up. For tips about decluttering, I like Joshua Becker’s blog and books. For a simple home cleaning schedule, I like the Clean Mama Routine and her book as well.
5) Keep an Eye on Financial health
Finances are a giant topic. It’s easy to get bogged down or overwhelmed by new topics and trends in this area. When we talk about “nailing the basics” for finances, I think it boils down to the key small habits. Do you have habits in place for bills coming in and money going out? Are you meeting your everyday work responsibilities? Are you doing professional development regularly?
I have a monthly check into my bank balances and retirement savings. This check up can including looking at budget updates and credit card spending. I also block out time for working on my professional skills regularly. Small consistent habits can help you see problems before they get to be big problems and give you ideas for finding more money in the budget and learning new skills. If you want to learn more about this area, this book teaches foundational financial skills.
6) Cultivate Relationships
When you ask people what they value most in life most people say “family.” What does it mean to “nail the basics” in this area? For me, the important part is about prioritizing time with the people who matter most. Sometimes it’s easy to get bogged down in work and extracurricular commitments and not make time to see and talk to family and friends.
How can you prioritize important people? My first step was making a list of the people I valued most in life and then blocking out regular time to keep in touch with them. I call my mom at least once during the week. At regular intervals, I keep in touch with my closest friends. Each of my kids gets special time with me each week. We often don’t think to schedule friends and close family contacts into our calendar, but regular contact habits and check ins are important. Otherwise, our most important relationships might take a back seat to swim team practice or the busy season at work.
7) Rest and Rejuvenate
It’s hard to put doing nothing on your to do list, but making sure we have enough sleep and downtime is definitely an essential habit for me. Sleep keeps your body and brain healthy. It allows us to recover from exercise and stress. Without sleep, our attitude and our mood suffers.
I build rest days into my fitness plans. In my afternoon schedule, I have a rest block before the kids get home from school so that I am fresh for the evening busyness. Our family makes an intentional effort not to overschedule on weekends and holidays so that we have room to do nothing on weekends and in the afternoon. It may mean that my kids don’t do scouts, but our family benefits from the unstructured downtime.
But that’s a lot!
The seven elements mentioned above are a lot, but if you can nail the essentials consistently, it will give you the time, energy and bandwidth to work toward your big goals. You can start by focusing on your weakest area and set up some new habits to baby step forward. The next month, you can pick on a different area to learn more about and develop. I often pick a book to read or listen to that matches my monthly focus. I’m also a member of the SeaChange online course to look at habit building. It’s been a great tool to build these foundational habits.
When I think about every day life and nailing the basics, the seven elements above boil down to this list:
- Reflection and journaling
- Laundry and dishes
- Fitness block
- Veggies, legumes and whole grains
- Nap or early bedtime
If those elements are in place, I’m doing all right. The journaling often includes thinking about relationships and professional commitments, so it hits all the key areas. Sometimes, I don’t get around to cleaning the bathrooms or I eat too many cookies, but the foundation of the basics are still there.
Once we “nail the basics” in everyday life, we have the foundation we need to start adding in creativity and challenging life goals. Having habits that focus in on nailing the important things, we have time to explore creative writing or sign up a class we’ve always wanted to take.
Are the foundational basics the same for you or did I miss something? What is the keystone habit for your life and nailing the basics? Share below in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!
