Are You Living a Healthy, High-Performance Lifestyle? Living in 2024, you’re likely trying to maintain high performance but in an unhealthy way.

Every day, we’re part of a high-performance culture with relentless demands on our time and energy. Technology, endless tasks, and multiple ambitions pull us in different directions. With more information and opportunities than ever, the busier we get, the less time we take for ourselves.

We’re dealing with chronic stress, not from immediate threats like tigers or bears, but from a constant flow of information, emails, texts, phone calls, and various objectives. This lack of downtime wears us down, so you don’t follow through on your intentions, plans, New Year resolutions, and even date night with your spouse… 

In the past, we had natural breaks. Information took time to arrive, transactions took days, and Sundays were for rest because nothing was open. Today, those natural boundaries are gone, and we must create them ourselves. Without these boundaries, it’s ‘easy’ to get worn down, even just hours into a new day. 

Being constantly worn down is not sustainable. Behind every health, personal, and professional challenge is depleted vitality, the electrical cellular energy that powers every function in our body. When this energy is depleted, everything mental and physical function deteriorates.

Markets then offer solutions like nutritional supplements and caffeine, which might seem to work initially, but you ultimately drain more energy as you keep going and become more tired. I’m not saying a periodic cup of coffee or supplements are bad. They’re not. I use nutritional supplements myself, but I avoid those that act as stimulants. I also avoid caffeine because I want to be aware of my energy levels and decide based on them. When I need to increase energy, I aim to choose methods that offer a good return on my energy investment.

For energy to increase, it needs to be regenerated to meet the demands of a high-performance lifestyle. The “RE” in regenerate, replenish, or renew is crucial. It means restoring something to its original state or improving it.

Specifically, it involves:

– Regenerate: Producing new energy or growth, restoring lost vitality.

– Replenish: Filling up again, restoring what’s been depleted.

– Renew: Making something new or restoring it to its former or improved state.

The prefix “RE” emphasizes the need to do something to maintain or improve it repeatedly.

Regenerating energy requires space and time, which some people don’t have, or most people don’t allocate enough of, even if they have it, in their unhealthy attempts at high performance, whether they think in those terms or not. For a busy mom, dad, career professional, business owner, athlete, etc., life force energy, which the universe can supply, is produced best when you rest in the presence of sunlight or red, infrared, and green light. 

That can be done strategically using the sun and/or with light therapy beds or photobiomodulation chambers (a.k.a. red light therapy). Resting in the presence of light accelerates energy production, and time has to be allocated.

Today, it’s essential to regularly and systematically regenerate energy to supplement sleep. Without this, you’ll age unhealthily and struggle to maintain the performance needed for sustained success. It’s key to avoid coping with stress in ways that create more stress and fatigue and instead focus on recharging and restoring your body to function and perform well. 

I produced the never-before-assembled blueprint for living a healthy, high-performance lifestyle. I founded a regeneration facility, and I still get tired and sometimes downright exhausted because life’s circumstances don’t allow constant high energy. But I don’t stay there for long or rely on “second winds” or stimulants to push through because it only depletes your longevity. Skipping your body’s maintenance periods and not regenerating energy leads to inflammation, aches, pains, breakdowns, and more distractions that hold you back. Performance (functioning at the level you need when you need it, healthy, free of lifestyle-induced diseases like fatigue…), especially high performance, then becomes harder, and longevity decreases. The average lifespan is 71 to 81 years, often with long hospital stays in the final years.

To avoid all that, follow these four keys to a balanced and healthy high-performance lifestyle:

1. **Regularly and Systematically Revitalize Your Body:**

– Supplement your sleep with other forms of recuperation, especially rest in the presence of light for short periods throughout the day. This regenerates energy, not just stimulates it. This is what inspired me to start Regenus Center. 

2. **Accelerate Recovery Throughout the Day:**

– Use centers like Regenus Center or strategically utilize natural sunlight to accelerate recovery during the day. This avoids reliance on stimulants like coffee, which depletes you and maintains and increases your energy levels.

3. **Manage Your Energy Like a Pro:**

– Develop a healthy, high-performance lifestyle to manage stress effectively. This includes mindset and an array of lifestyle skill sets that ensure you create more energy and freedom rather than stress and fatigue while achieving your goals.

4. **Establish Alignment in Your Life:**

Align your life structure, lifestyle, and goals. This will help you achieve your goals without burning out, making you effective and sustainable. Set yourself up for energy-efficient success.

As an entrepreneur, family man, and amateur athlete, I’ve learned that leading an ambitious life takes a lot of energy. It’s not enough to work out and manage weight or live a generally “healthy” lifestyle. A balanced, healthy, high-performance lifestyle with the right structure and alignment is essential to thrive and flourish. High achievers maintain their health and well-being by mastering a performance lifestyle, enabling them to achieve their goals efficiently and effectively.

People will always focus more on their success than their energy, health, and performance, even though their success depends on it. Our culture reinforces this, despite paying lip service to self-care. People naturally wake up wanting to be successful, but we never learn how to maintain health and success simultaneously.

I had to teach myself because nobody else was. I was getting advice on building muscle, losing weight, and improving health, but not on being a healthy, high-performing person.

I started by saying that today, we face relentless demands on our time and energy, which can easily wear us down. But now I’m also going to tell you that you can learn how to bridge the gaps between your health and success by living a balanced, healthy, high-performance lifestyle. 

Don’t fall into the trap of being successful but burned out or healthy but unable to succeed. Being a healthy, high-performer, or high achiever means having the lifestyle support to function well and achieve your goals with your health and well-being intact. Many people don’t achieve their goals, but high achievers do, often at a high level, by living performance lifestyles.

The story’s moral is: Don’t just try to be healthy. Step up your game and learn human performance. A better quality of life translates into a lifestyle.

About John Allen Mollenhauer, “JAM”

John Allen Mollenhauer, known as “JAM,” is the co-author of “The Curse of the Capable: The Hidden Challenge to Living a Balanced and Healthy High-achieving Life,” written with Harvard psychologist Arthur P. Ciaramicoli and Superbowl MVP Phil Simms. He is a leading Performance Lifestyle® Coach and, along with his partner and wife, Mariahna Suzan, co-founded the REGENUS CENTER, a cutting-edge biohacking facility dedicated to health and performance recovery.

JAM is the creator of the BioVitality Protocol™, which teaches people how to use advanced rejuvenation and recovery technologies, including red light therapy (photobiomodulation) chambers and the strategic use of sunlight to accelerate recovery. He is also passionate about helping people develop healthy, high-performance lifestyles.

As a driven professional and entrepreneur facing fatigue, periodic burnout, and severe back pain due to overexertion, JAM has dedicated his adult life to helping high achievers live in balance with vibrant health and peace of mind while pursuing their most ambitious goals.

JAM is a father of two, an avid biker, and a lifelong learner who loves to share optimal living insights.