This week I almost fooled myself into believing I can hack fitness. Over the last month I’ve travelled and attended several conferences. Naturally I ate too much and drank too much. As a result my fitness has suffered. Only this time I caught myself thinking I could get away with it.

This sounds silly. And it’s painful to admit out loud. I had the thought that I could somehow hack the system. That I could trick my muscles into not growing weaker.

Paul Graham talks about how this is a common problem to coach entrepreneurs out of doing:

“many founders, especially young and ambitious ones, have been trained to win the wrong way. That took me years to figure out. The educational system in most countries trains you to win by hacking the test instead of actually doing whatever it’s supposed to measure. But that stops working when you start a startup.” — Paul Graham, What I’ve learned from users

This feels great to know. If the hustle culture A-players of the world have this problem, I shouldn’t need to worry about it right? Except that Graham is talking about 20 something startup founders right out of collage. I’m a middle aged grizzled veteran from international startups. I should’ve learned this already.

When it truly matters there’s no cheating the outcome.

• You can’t get time with your kids back.
• There’s no second change to kiss the girl.
• The market will not wait.
• And neither will your health.

So next week I will take more responsibility for my health. Eat more meat, lift my weights and get some rest.

You Can Avoid Reality, But You Cannot Avoid the Consequences of Avoiding Reality — Attributed to Ayn Rand