Variability

How adding variations to your routine might yield greater results.

Some of us live incredibly well-structured lives, while others have fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants mentalities. I am in the second camp more than the first.

Previously, I wrote about a great podcast where Jocko interviewed Arnold Schwarzenegger. Watch it here. Or you can read it here.

Another lesson that I would like to extract from that podcast is the benefit of adding variations to your life. Whether or not you are very structured or not, adding variations may be very beneficial.

Why! Glad you asked. One illustration Arnold gives is that you must know yourself and that if you do not try a multitude of different things, then you are not going to know yourself very well. He mentions that when weight training like squats, you should try an entire workout squatting with your feet parallel, then on your next workout have your toes pointed out, and then your heels the next.

Arnold would cycle through all of these small variations and weights for the next day to see if there was any virtue or benefit to doing it slightly differently. He noted that everyone’s body is slightly different, and you have to find what is best for you. Since no one is quite like you, you have to do it yourself. That is why no copying is…