3-Second Assessment

What’s wrong with the car in the image above? Answer within 3 seconds.

Obvious, right? It’s got a flat tire.

Is there anything else wrong with the car? Probably. Maybe the engine doesn’t run smoothly or one of the headlights doesn’t work. But none of that matters yet, because the most glaring, obvious thing wrong with the car is that it has a flat tire.

Our 3-second assessment of the car’s “health” was fast and effective.

Spot Your Own Flat Tires

Now try this:

What’s a major health challenge, obstacle, or unhelpful habit for you? Answer within 3 seconds.

Even if it takes 5 or 10 seconds, you can probably easily complete this health assessment. No blood work required. No journaling or introspection needed. Just go with the obvious answer.  

Maybe it’s a 3-soda-a-day habit. Or that you can’t get motivated to exercise. Maybe it’s alcohol. Or lack of sleep. Or junk food. Whatever it is—just say it out loud. You already know, so admitting it won’t do any harm. In fact, it will probably do some good.

The 5-Year-Old Mechanic

Truth is, we’ve all got our own flat tires. But instead of fixing them, sometimes we focus on vacuuming the interior or waxing the paint—anything to avoid addressing what’s actually slowing us down. If that sounds familiar, I suggest you try channeling your inner child and adopt the mind of a 5-year-old mechanic.

The child mechanic doesn’t know how engines work. They know nothing about hydraulics. But they can spot a flat tire, and they know it needs air to fix it. They might require help putting air into the tire, but their diagnosis is spot on.

Instead of getting bogged down in your adult mind and its ability to endlessly overcomplicate, approach your challenge with the clarity of a child.

Once you’ve identified your flat tire, you can learn the skills or gather information needed to fix it. But your 5-year-old self has to get the diagnosis right to get the ball rolling.

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

Overcomplication enables us to delay what we need to do by keeping ourselves preoccupied with details. It’s human nature. Don’t waste energy berating yourself for doing it. We all do. That’s why we have so many ways to describe it:

• “Analysis paralysis”
• “Spinning our wheels”
• “Overthinking it”
• “Letting the perfect be the enemy of the good”
• “Putting the cart before the horse”
• “Getting stuck in the weeds”

The list goes on.

These phrases all capture the same truth:

It’s easy to think so much about how to do something that we end up doing nothing.

You don’t need to know the make, model, MPG, and horsepower of a car to change the tire. Just figure out if it needs air, needs to be patched, or needs to be replaced. Then get to work.

As Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify.”

There’s always another detail. There’s always more to learn. You never have all the answers.

It’s Okay to Learn as You Go…Just Go

I’m not pretending that fixing our health problems is as easy as inflating a tire—but finding a good place to start often is.

If you’re not sure where to begin with your health improvements, look for the flat tire. You probably won’t have to look very hard. It should be obvious. Once you start fixing the tire, you can learn the details as you go.

One thing is for sure: you don’t need to worry about vacuuming under the seats while the tire is still flat.

It’s not possible to fix everything all at once. Actually, it’s not possible to fix everything at all. So don’t try—it only leads to exhaustion and frustration.

Start with a 3-second health assessment. Identify the flat tire. Begin working on that. Get some small wins. Use that momentum to move into the more detailed work—but only after you’ve made it a few miles down the road.

As always, thanks for reading. I’m truly happy you’re here.

All the best,

Nate