Read enough articles, books, and research on better health and self-improvement and you’ll notice a pattern—they almost all encourage a certain activity that seems too simple to have any grand significance. But when you put it into practice yourself, you start to see how powerful it is.
This activity is the backbone of my own financial planning, diet, “fitness” routine, and self-development. I don’t even think about it that often anymore, but was reminded about it by a recent video my wife sent me.
In the video, Codie Sanchez, a young, successful entrepreneur recounts the advice of a wealthy man, David Osborne, who had asked her about her income, savings, and spending to which she replied that she was not certain of the exact figures. Osborne, a mentor to her, gently admonished her and said that “money is a cruel mistress, if you don’t pay attention to her, she will leave you for someone else,” she recounted.
This one simple truth transformed how my wife and I managed our own money years ago. We don’t do much really, but we review all our spending monthly and hold it up against our typically optimistic budget.
Simply watching something, paying attention to it, can have a potent effect on your behavior. In business circles, there is a saying that suggests you need to measure what you manage. That might be more complicated than what I am suggesting, but the ideas hold the same space.
My wife takes an odd joy in measuring her food, calculating the best possible meals, and counting her daily steps. She is the most disciplined person I know in terms of daily health habits and this all brings her great satisfaction—and a glowing presence.
I don’t enjoy these activities as much, but I do partake in some daily exercise and a couple “diet tricks.” At times I will practice the 5:2 fasting method, which involves eating regularly for five days a week and then eating less than 600 calories for the other two days, which should be spread apart. I typically go a bit over 600 calories (women are suggested to eat 500) but for me, the actual calorie restriction isn’t the most effective part of this weight-loss practice—it’s the awareness I get about food.
Somehow, watching my calories for those two days during my 5:2 stints has translated into better habits across all my days.
I like to joke that my midsection is like a tree trunk that gathers an additional ring every year. In truth, I didn’t like my mild pudge, nor the fact that I’d been undergoing a very slow but perceptible weight gain. But that changed once I had a general awareness about what foods were really packing on the pounds.
First and foremost, and probably the key culprit for all my weight gain, was the 18 percent cream I would lavish on my coffee. I would jokingly purr when telling anyone about my daily indulgence, but then I realized I was probably drinking 400 calories worth of cream a day. That might not sound like much, but it’s just enough to push me into a slow and steady girth growth. Cutting back on cream two days a week soon became all days, and now I am down to a bit of half-and-half.
Attention, as you will hear over and over, is also key to any effort at personal growth. For instance, I found myself sometimes carrying frustrations that I wasn’t all that aware of. They would gurgle to the surface when some specific incident touched on them and I would find myself far more irritated than I should have been.
Upon closer inspection, it became clear that I was sometimes running a loop of certain types of thoughts that all had the same emotional resonance: I am right, they are wrong. Once I started paying closer attention to my thoughts, I could erase the key source of my daily irritation.
So if you want to change in your life, it really does start with attention. “Minding your business” will deliver greater self control. And self control, in my estimation, is the key to thriving in this world of temptation.
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