On April 15th, 1452, there was a gentleman born named Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci.
We know him as Leonardo da Vinci.
Da Vinci appeared on my childhood radar due to him combining the arts with sciences along with being the original renaissance man.
His influence has struck a chord across many areas and disciplines. In fact, Nat King Cole recorded a song named ‘Mona Lisa’ in dedication to the portrait.
In case you care, that song also won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1950.
Ok, let’s refocus.
Da Vinci was involved with inventing, drawing, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, paleontology, and cartography.
The point of this article isn’t to rehash da Vinci’s accomplishments nor turn this into a greatest hits compilation.
Instead, what sparked me to write this article was a timeless lesson stumbled upon that eloquently describes what it takes to live an optimized life.
I like to think of it as the da Vinci health code.
And this quote below from da Vinci is the origin for it:
“Experience does not ever err. It is only your judgment that errs in promising itself results which are not caused by your experiments. Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.”
I reread this a few times to let the idea marinate. Afterward, I came up with three magic words that can sum up the da Vinci health code.
Execute. Experience. Review.
There's a trap that many individuals attempting to pursue new endeavors encounter.
This trap is overestimating the value of your results with little action and proof for justification.
When I first started writing around six years ago, it wasn’t very good (and that's me being generous). My grammar, sentence construction, confidence, and everything else you can think about were lacking.
In this instance, it was easy to draw the conclusion that becoming an author was as likely as walking on water (i.e. overestimating the value of my initial results).
Now, let’s look at a common fitness example.
Someone wants to lose 15 pounds and live an optimized lifestyle. The habits, behaviors, and mindset are foreign to this person.
The initial attempts will most likely involve a healthy amount of misfires and frustrations. It’s one step forward, and four steps back—at least according to the way this person is perceiving and experiencing the world.
With all this said, how can you get off the proverbial negative self-talk along with overestimating the value of your initial results?
It's conceptually simple, but difficult in the application.
It comes down to three words.
Execute. Experience. Review.
Let's break each of these sections down.
Execute
The antidote to low-self esteem and taking the reins on your emotions (and life in general) is to have a bias for action.
The more action you take, the more you level up.
It's not magic, it's simply that the specific outcomes begin to emotionally weigh less and less. You become less attached to the outcome and more committed to the process.
Think of yourself as a baseball player. The more at-bats, the increasing likelihood the next swing will be a base hit (or even better, a home run).
Constructing a six-pack, slimming your stomach, restoring your thyroid, building a strong relationship, writing a book, getting a column in that prestigious magazine, improving as a photographer, and becoming a magnetic public speaker all require deliberate and repeated at-bats.
It’s imperative to keep stepping into the batter's box and taking your swings.
Experience
I remember sitting in my Psych 101 class as a freshman and overhearing these girls gossiping about a breakup one of them had.
She was heavily catastrophizing her recent breakup from a 2-month relationship. She thought there was no tomorrow (this mindset is only useful if you're training to fight Clubber Lane).
I remember having a strong crush on this girl in college and my dashing looks weren’t close to arriving on the scene yet. Even more important, my conversation skills were a negative one-hundred.
And to no surprise, a date never happened. I fell into the negative self-talk cycle and began to catastrophize.
I would assume the girl, much like myself, began to put things into perspective a little more logically over the years.
Not only because of age, but also due to repeated action. Her, through continually dating. Me, through continual refining of communication skills.
When it came to approaching and striking up a conversation, the outcome had less power over me because I had more opportunities to step up to the plate and see what happens.
As a result, my sweaty palms, social awkwardness, and sometimes overwhelm subsided due to experience.
And this is what will happen on your health optimization journey. Optimal health has no endpoint, it’s a continual journey in which you become better and better through the experiences you continue to embark upon.
Navigating healthy eating becomes easier with experience. Salsa dancing becomes easier with experience. Lifting weights becomes easier with experience.
With experience comes wisdom and certainty.
Review
Any top flight organization will debrief to analyze what went well and more importantly, identify opportunities for improvement.
Sticking with early adulthood Julian, conversations with women and people, in general, became much easier due to my ever-growing exposure.
While exposure was important, even more, important was reviewing my at-bats.
I had an intense fear of looking bad to people or appearing incompetent in public.
Yet, after a few at-bats, I realized that the world (unfortunately) doesn’t revolve around me. People don’t care as much as I think when it comes to my goals.
People have their own lives to worry about and are insecure as well. We’re all trying to project an idealized version of ourselves with the hopes people don’t see the chinks in our armor.
In my early days of nutrition, I fell off the dietary wagon mid-afternoons.
After reviewing, these were the times that were the most stressful times of the day. I was eating my feelings away just as a lot of my clients initially do.
As you go about living your optimized life, take the mistakes, setbacks, blunders, and embarrassing moments in stride.
Don’t see it as the world ending, see it as the world providing opportunity and clues to leveling up.
The version that you conjure up in your head, the one you think about when your head hits the pillow, and the one you strongly long for is possible.
But only if you execute, experience, and review.
It bears repeating the da Vinci health code:
“Experience does not ever err. It is only your judgment that errs in promising itself results which are not caused by your experiments. Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.”
Execute. Experience. Review.
And listen to some Nat King Cole while you’re at it (here are 20 songs to get you started).
