Naval Ravikant breaks happiness down into four pillars: a fit and energetic body, a calm mind, resources, and a home full of love. From my experience, he’s right, but only if you apply them with intention. Let’s dig into what that looks like in practice.
1. A Fit, Energetic Body
You must be strong, mobile, and athletic to have a fit, energetic body. Athleticism isn’t just about lifting weights, it’s about movement across multiple planes while performing tasks. Think about wide receivers in football: They change direction on a dime, jump to catch a ball, land, secure it, and continue running. Or a soccer player controls the ball while sprinting, evading defenders, and setting up the perfect pass or goal.
Creating athleticism requires consistent training across different modalities. To build this kind of all-around fitness, focus on:
Resistance training to build strength and muscle to prevent injury. Check out these excellent strength training protocols from Rockbound High Performance (RBHP). Bonus: you will support a 501(c)(3) non-profit on a mission to support over $100k in Veteran health and wellness training by 2028.
Endurance conditioning through Zone 2 cardio and high-intensity intervals to increase your VO2 Max. A strong heart equals a longer life. Research shows there is a correlation between VO2 Max and life expectancy seen here. A simple way to test yours? Try the Cooper Test: run as far as you can in 12 minutes. If you hate the results, keep trying weekly.
Mobility work to stay flexible and functional. An excellent source for mobility work comes from Dr. Kelly Starett at The Ready State. Start by spending 10 minutes daily in a deep squat or stretching your hips, thank me later.
Recovery comes from consistent sleep duration (7-9 hours) and the time you wake up and go to bed (+/- 30 minutes). Saunas and cold plunges can also help with muscle recovery.
The goal? I’m always ready. Mountain biking on a whim? Let’s go. A pickup basketball game? No problem. Moving furniture? That one still sucks, but at least I won’t throw my back out.
Here are a few tests as indicators of a fit body:
Can you jump? The Soviet training system had an old saying that if you stopped jumping, you would start dying. Find ways to jump, such as a jump rope, trampoline, or jump shots.
Can you sit down and stand up without your hands? Here’s a test: Start standing, cross your legs, and sit down controlled into the crossed leg position without falling. Now, with no hands, stand up. If you can’t do it, you are not getting on the ground enough.
Can you sprint? Getting your heart rate high once or twice a week improves your cardiovascular conditioning. Sprinting is an easy way to get that high-intensity workout quickly. Add in some hills, and you’ll be Superman in no time.
2. A Calm Mind
A calm mind doesn’t mean silence; it means clarity. It’s about separating yourself from the whirlwind of thoughts racing through your head. You are not your thoughts.
Think of yourself as a diamond miner, not a coal miner. Coal miners see everything as coal, but diamond miners sift through the muck to find gems. Somewhere in your thousands of daily thoughts are diamonds, insights, clarity, and wisdom. The key is learning how to mine for the good ones.
Some strategies:
Daily writing: Dump your thoughts on paper. 95% of it will be garbage, but the remaining 5% will be the occasional gem among the muck.
Mindfulness practices: Recognize and release unhelpful thought patterns. You can’t control the first thought, but you can control the second.
Perspective shifts: Gold was valuable during the gold rush, not because everyone found it, but because most people didn’t. Learn to see value where others don’t.
3. Resources
Resources are more than just money. They come in multiple forms:
F.H.I.S.T (pronounced “fist”)
Financial: Money, capital access, and tangible assets.
Human Capital: Skills, labor, mentors, and collaborators. A mentor who’s been in your shoes can save you five years of mistakes in five minutes.
Intellectual: Knowledge, creativity, and intellectual property (your own ideas).
Social: Relationships, reputation, and community support. Your network is your net worth, but if you only reach out when you need something, you’re burning social currency.
Time: The ultimate finite resource: how well you prioritize and focus matters more than anything else..
Your ability to leverage these resources determines how effectively you can create impact and opportunity.
4. A Home Full of Love
Not everyone chooses to have kids, and that’s okay. But for me, having kids has been transformative. It’s taught me the capacity for love I did not know existed.
Before kids, I thought I knew what love was. Now, I understand it’s a verb. It requires work. Love is how you speak to your partner after a long day. It’s showing patience and kindness, even when it’s tough.
But love isn’t limited to family. It’s about the relationships you nurture and your actions to show you care. Love is built through actions, not words. Love, in all its forms, is essential to a fulfilled life.
Final Thoughts
Happiness isn’t about chasing material possessions. It’s about building these four pillars into your life and nurturing them over time. If you're intentional, a fit body, a calm mind, abundant resources, and a home filled with love are all within reach.
So here’s the challenge: Pick the weakest pillar in your life and commit to improving it this month. Small actions compound into massive shifts.
Connect with Zach
Website • Twitter • LinkedIn • Youtube