The 3-A.M. Equation: Calculating a Life of Vitality
"The taxes …"
My eyes pan through dead space and meet the clock: 3:13 a.m. I writhe in the discomfort of the chaos of the chatter present in my mind — and the realization that it's both too early to start the day and too late to try to get back to sleep. Now I'm at the mercy of this train of thought. So I head to the computer to accept autopilot instead.
My thoughts, as intrusive as they may be, aren't uncommon in my field of work. People often land on my calendar for one of three reasons: sleep, sex, and sanity, as I often refer to them. Alliteration aside, they all add up to one thing, and that's quality of life. Yet, few people recognize it as such — instead, they’re focused on the immediacy of the nuisance they’re facing.
Like, for example, regular 3-a.m. wake-ups.
Nothing deteriorates quality of life quicker than lack of quality sleep.
The Midnight Paradox
As I move silently through the dark of night and make my way clumsily to the computer, I'm well aware of the lunacy of this concept. I'm about to sleepily turn on my computer, subconsciously attempt to produce something of value, and likely delete the whole thing all before the clock strikes 5 a.m. Just so I can distract myself from my errant mind.
So, if you read that right, I'm going to do something unnecessary to distract myself from something unnecessary while eliminating what is necessary, which is resting. This cycle is almost guaranteed to repeat itself because of fatigue. On it will go, and it makes me just like so many entrepreneurs I work with — and that, in this space, is often worn like a badge of honor. Shared suffering, commiseration, grind.
My life's work came to be not because I had it all figured out but because I, too, played it out. And in full disclosure, I still do. It's what makes the work I do so important and so effortless — I can relate to all of my clients.
What might be different, though, is that I am aware of the equation. The formula for a better life. And because I'm aware of that formula, it makes these random nights and choices that much worse.
The Basic Math of Life
Quality of life is truly basic math. The first framework we must identify so we can quantify it is life itself. Within life, there are two basic quantifiers:
Lifespan, which is purely a measure of the length your life, and healthspan, which is a measure of the positive inclination of life — how long you remain healthy. Having a long life but an unhealthy one hardly seems like anything worth pursuing. A life of sickness sounds more like a punishment. Further, a healthy but short life also seems like punishment. So both are to some degree equally important. You want to live as long as you are healthy, and be healthy as long as you live.
Seems obvious.
However, upon observation — which is what I do for a living — I can say with definitive proof the bulk of every human's actions, especially entrepreneurs and high performers, are not in alignment with either of those factors. In fact, they borderline attempt to ignore or deny them. The midnight oil we proclaim so often with pride is the perfect example. We love to grind, and then act shocked when we are pulp.
The Vitality Equation
Healthspan plus lifespan equals vitality. Seems simple enough.
Length of life is the simplest of the two — it's purely a measure of days and minutes. But it's inside health that things expand. Health, as I have come to know and pursue it, is also an equation, one I have proudly borrowed from CrossFit: Health is defined as your work capacity across broad time, modal, and age domains. Said even simpler, you are as healthy as you are capable; as is your ability to move large loads long distances quickly (FYI, you are yourself considered a large load).
As I move my large load — anything but quickly — through the dark house, banging into every sharp corner, I'm increasingly aware of my mortality. I'm also well aware that this choice is a detriment and risk to my length of life at this point. Yet, I forge on.
As performance-minded people, we tend to lean obsessively toward application and outputs and almost certainly ignore the inputs. Produce or die.
Well, one of those is a certainty. And at 3 a.m., it's definitely not productivity.
The Fitness Factor
When designing a life of high quality, fitness cannot be overlooked. The role it plays in your vitality is cornerstone. It's not a negotiable you will get to if you have time. It's the necessity you engage to ensure you end up with time. Everything in life takes your time; few things give it back — fitness is one of them. The degree to which you are fit is a direct correlation to length of life.
But health and length aren't the only two considerations. Because a long and healthy life locked in a prison cell is certainly not a quality life. So you can have great work capacity and a plethora of time, but if you can't or don't spend it doing what you want, that can hardly be considered vitality. Which brings us to the other metric of vitality:
Freedom.
Redefining Freedom
If you are reading this inside America, fireworks and jean shorts likely jumped to mind. Few words, at least in this country, are so commonly used and yet misunderstood. Freedom, at least for this conversation, is not about liberty and politics.
Freedom, as most people know it, seems to suggest the absence of responsibility: "I am FREEE!" Which does sort of track, but as anyone who has pursued escape often finds out, escape generally leads to recapture. Freedom is the opposite.
Freedom is the intentionality of response-ability. Your ability to respond. Those who are most free are the ones with the most choice, the most agency, and the most ability to respond to the world around them as they choose. Those with the least freedom have the least choice, agency, and ability to respond because they instead have duty and obligation.
The length of your life without freedom is punishment.
Freedom, like fitness, can be easily overcomplicated and subjective. However, in my work, freedom has come to have five definable and quantifiable domains: freedom of time, freedom of money, freedom of purpose, freedom of relationship, and freedom of health. You are as free as you are adept in each of these domains. Each has its own metrics and benchmarks, but for brevity's sake, I'll cover them another time.
The Quality-of-Life Formula
The equation for quality of life is simple: Fitness multiplied by freedom equals vitality.
The quality of your life is a measure of your work capacity and your ability to respond.
Now, do the math — where do you add up?
For most of my clients, the answer is not where they want, and if I'm being honest at 3 a.m., I'm right there with you most days.
But knowing what's essential (fitness and freedom) makes choosing the essential few against the trivial many much easier.
I have not reached the pinnacle of vitality by any means. But I know that choices made that do not improve my freedom are choices that should be avoided. I know that choices made that do not improve my fitness are choices that should be avoided. And having this utterly simple framework to make decisions against leads the majority of choices to favor vitality over sickness. And like anything that compounds, vitality is a game of small wins over long timeframes.
We can't always choose for vitality, so knowing when we can becomes the most important thing.
A Small Victory
So while I pivot to grab a glass of water and return to the restful state of my bed rather than the bright light of my computer, a choice was made here tonight. It was simple; it won't be easy. But at its core, I know I chose the quality of my life rather than reacting to the moment. This is how lives change.
Calculate Your Own Vitality
Are you caught in the 3-a.m. cycle? Are you trading your fitness for temporary productivity, or sacrificing your freedom for illusory security? The good news is that even small recalculations can yield exponential results over time.
At Paradigm Collective, we help entrepreneurs and high performers recalibrate their vitality equation. Through our strategic coaching, we identify which variables in your life need adjustment to maximize both your fitness and freedom metrics.
Ready to improve your quality of life calculation? Book a Vitality Assessment where we'll map your current fitness and freedom metrics and develop a strategic plan to optimize both. The math is simple — implementing it doesn't have to be complex.