TJ Walker presents a seven-level framework that applies to every life sphere (example used: health). The levels are: (1) overarching philosophy about what is possible in that sphere, (2) an individual vision of where you fit within that philosophy, (3) long-term goals, (4) short-term goals, (5) core daily habits, (6) non-core but regular supportive habits, and (7) microhabits or 10-second actions/affirmations. Walker gives concrete examples (e.g., aiming to live to 100, walking 15,000 steps daily, playing tennis weekly, tensing muscles for 10 seconds) and recommends creating plans that cover all seven levels for each life sphere.
Chapters
I've outlined the seven spheres of life where we at ultimize try to help you. There's also seven levels within every sphere. Anything you do in your life is done within a context. So the first level of any sphere is what is your philosophy at a macro level of what's possible here. So for example, in the field of health, if your overall philosophy is everyone in my family dies at 35, they get lung cancer, they have heart attacks, destined to die early. If that is your big picture philosophy of health, then it actually doesn't make any sense if you're then 30 to eat healthy or stop smoking. Why not smoke cigarettes, cigars all day long if you're convinced human beings don't really live more than 35? So that's the starting point. You have to have a philosophy of what's the ultimate in this field. So let's just look at health for example. I have and I try to share the vision that human beings have the potential to live to be a hundred, healthy and active to the end. So that's the macro level. Just what is the possibility, the big picture level, that's the first level. The second level is where do you see yourself? Now you may have a particular health ailment, a disease, and you know, you only have five years, but for so many people we don't really know. That's why it's good to have a particular vision for yourself. Every day I tell myself through my ultim, I'm going to live to be 100 years old, healthy, active, vibrant till the end. Now that may sound like the same thing, it may sound redundant, it really isn't. It's the big macro level. And then where do you as an individual fit in to this overall macro level perspective on it? So that is the second thing, the second level, the third thing you've got to look at the third level within any one sphere is what are your long term goals? If it's health, for example, you may want to get to your absolute ideal weight. If you have a problem with too much sugar in your blood, too much cholesterol, you can have a long term goal of getting that to be exactly where you want it to be. You, you may have a long term goal of running a marathon. I'm too lazy to do that. But you might want to do that. You need to have long term goals for every sphere of life, this one for health. Next you need to have a short term goal, something that you know is realistic, that you can get to quickly. And it may be Losing a couple of pounds, it may be adjusting your cholesterol a certain level. It may be going from getting seven hours of sleep a night to at least seven and a half hours of sleep by turning off all your phones and screens a half hour earlier and going to bed earlier. So you need to have short term specific goals and you need to be able to look at them every single day. Next, you need to have a set of core daily habits. These are things you're going to do every single day. You'll get reminders on them like with everything else through your ultimize. But these are core daily habits. One of my core daily habits is I personally walk at least 15,000 steps every single day. It's a core habit. So no matter what else I do, that one thing definitely helps my health. It is something that's highly specific and works. Now, you might not want to choose 15,000 steps, you may want to go for 10,000, you may want to do 20,000. But there are core daily habits that you do every single day. Next, there are non core habits, things you don't necessarily do every day, but are still really good and they support your overall vision of where you want to be in that sphere. So for me, one of my non core habits is I play tennis several times a week. You don't have to play tennis, but doing intense physical activity like that, a sport that's fun, helps me with my overall health goals. The final level, the seventh level in every sphere are just short little microhabits, things you can do in 10 seconds. It could be an affirmation, it could be something that's so simple that it might not have the biggest impact in the world, but it does support your goal. So for me, I simply tense up every single muscle in my body for 10 seconds. It's a mini workout and it's incredibly relaxing when it's done. It's only 10 seconds. So you need to have either something you can do in 10 seconds or an affirmation that you can see, read here, reflect on for 10 seconds. That is the seventh level. So with every sphere of life, when you're trying to improve yourself and be at the optimum, it's important to really have a plan for every one of these seven levels.
