Good morning,
I wrote this newsletter before heading off on my monthly digital detox for seven days because I had a group call with members recently. We talked about taking action because I think that’s what’s missing in a lot of people’s transformation: implementing the information and the knowledge that they’re acquiring and the wisdom that they have. I decided to nerd out with you all and dive into what action really is, along with strategies to get you to take action. Enjoy 😉
* Side note: since I wrote this before going on Digital Detox, any questions that come in from the previous newsletter and this newsletter, I will make sure to answer in the next issue of our newsletter on Saturday.
Let’s get into it:
What is action? It’s to apply force to cause a change. Inaction on the other hand is the withholding or absence of applied force, allowing the existing trajectory, status quo, or external environment to dictate the outcome.
Choosing not to work out is an active choice. You are making a conscious decision to abstain, rationalize, or prioritize something else in that moment.
In behavioral psychology, deciding not to act is an active choice known as an act of omission.
If action is intentional momentum, inaction is default drift.
From a physical and biological standpoint, your body does not care whether inaction was a conscious choice or passive neglect. The physiological outcome is identical.
Here is how those two sides split:
Mentally, inaction is an active decision. You exert cognitive effort to choose comfort, rest, or distraction over physical effort.
Physically, inaction is non-intervention. Your muscles, bones, and metabolic system require applied physical tension to adapt and strengthen. Mentally choosing not to provide that stimulus leaves the physical system with zero input.
Without applied force, default biological processes take over. Sarcopenia, osteopenia, and metabolic slowdown continue uninterrupted.
Not working out because you are “waiting for certain things to be over in your life (retirement, kids being out of the house, after selling the house, etc…), waiting to have all the information to get started with the “best plan”, waiting, waiting, waiting….
Is the default choice. Is an act of omission wether you like it or not, is what is putting you on the default drift of your current trajectory of life.
This also applies to nutrition. Not choosing to eat less than you need to. No choosing to prioritize whole foods over processed foods. The rules are the same.
So how can we get ourselves to take more action towards the behavior that we want to enforce?
Here are four practical ways to shift from passive omission to intentional momentum:
1. Lower the threshold of applied force When people think about taking action, they assume it requires an all or nothing effort. They think they need two hours in the gym or a flawless meal plan. In reality, any applied force breaks default drift.
I use this rule in my own life with reading. I wanted to build a consistent reading habit, so I committed to reading just two pages every single day. That minimal threshold eliminated friction. Eventually, two pages a day led to finishing full books. Now, reading is an automatic habit where I often read ten or twenty pages in the morning, but my absolute minimum commitment remains two pages. Set your minimum so low that inaction becomes harder than execution.
2. Create an environment that forces the action Willpower is an unreliable strategy. Design your environment so the friction favors the healthy habit instead of the bad one. Keep real whole foods stocked in your fridge instead of processed snacks in the pantry. Make your training setup friction free, whether that means a simple home setup in your living room, dumbbells in your garage, or choosing a gym that is only five minutes away. Keep prepared whole food meals ready in your fridge so you do not rely on the convenience of food delivery apps when you are tired.
3. Focus on identity over motivation Motivation fluctuates because it depends on how you feel in the moment. Instead of asking if you feel like training today, ask what a strong, healthy person after 50 would do right now. When you view action as a vote for the identity you are building, the decision requires far less cognitive effort.
4. Remove the waiting condition with one small daily commitment Stop waiting for a clean schedule or a quieter month. Commit to one small daily action that moves the needle forward today. Because you lowered the threshold in step one, this action does not need to be massive.
This is just like assuming that investing a single dollar a day into your retirement will not make a difference, so you never get started. If you invest $1 a day into an S&P 500 index fund, compounding at an average historical return of 10 percent per year over 40 years, that single dollar a day grows to nearly $190,000. Out of that total, your actual out of pocket contribution was only $14,600. The remaining $175,000 was pure compound growth.
Small daily actions in your health compound the exact same way. The person who invests a small effort daily builds massive physical equity compared to the person who does nothing because they think a small effort will not matter.
This is also where community and accountability change the outcome. Placing yourself in an environment with like minded people reinforces your new behavior and identity. It keeps your mind in an active loop, continuously focused on the exact area of your life you are committed to improving.
Inaction feels safe in the short term, but it carries a compound interest rate that shows up in your strength, mobility, and independence years down the road.
I hope this resonates with you and drives you to apply force in the direction of change that you want to see in your health, in your body composition, in your fitness, in your bone density, and in your life.
I look forward to reading your replies ☺️
Sincerely,
Maxime
📖 Read the Forever Fit Book → Here
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Ps. Ivy and I will be in Washington from August 13 to 15 as a sponsor for the ICNM conference hosted by PCRM. Come and say hi https://www.pcrm.org/events/ICNM-2025
Ps. Ps. My wife Ivy and I post two weekly videos on our YouTube channel, and we’ve had a new cooking video and a new workout video go live, along with our latest podcast. You can see down below 👇
