The Ten Principles

I figure everyone has some form of guide. Perhaps it's the sage wisdom of your father (I know I wouldn't know how to do half of what I can do around the house if it weren't for all those hours of "not holding the flashlight right!"). Maybe it's from a self-help book, or just the musings of past scholars like Abraham Lincoln, who reportedly once said, "It's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." Maybe you got most of your learning from the book of hard knocks.

Well, I'm not really sure where or when I came up with my list, but I've been sharing it with medical students and coworkers for years. If I recall correctly, I even had a crazy idea to write a book that never quite came to fruition. Pretty sure I saw a self-help book somewhere along the way — something like Seven Steps to a... — and thought, I could do that. I could write a book that breaks health down into the principles that keep your mind, body, and soul on the up and up.

Truth be told, it started as eight principles, but I've added a couple more in the last few years.

These aren't just pulled out of the air, either. They're habits and principles I've watched patients embrace to live happier, healthier lives — and the best part is none of them are really complicated, although some of them take a little effort to actually undertake. It's pretty hard to be perfect. Even I can't always follow "the doctor's advice," but I know I should keep trying.

So, without further ado, here they are — the ten principles I keep coming back to, both in my own life and in the exam room. We'll dive into each one individually in the coming weeks, so consider this just the preview.

The Ten Principles

1. Eat real food, and not to excess. Whole, minimally processed food, in reasonable portions. It's simple to say and harder to do — but it's still the foundation everything else is built on.

2. Get at least seven hours of sleep. Sleep isn't downtime. It's when your body and mind actually do a lot of their most important work.

3. Move your body. It doesn't have to be complicated or extreme. It just has to be consistent.

4. Practice moderation. Alcohol, indulgences, screen time — almost everything is fine in moderation, and almost nothing is fine without it.

5. Take care of your own responsibilities before trying to fix everyone else's. You can't pour from an empty cup, as the saying goes. Get your own house in order first.

6. Cultivate gratitude. A genuine habit of noticing what's good changes how you experience everything else.

7. Let go of what you cannot control, or will not change. Some things are simply outside your hands. Holding onto them tightly doesn't change that — it just costs you peace.

8. Make deliberate, well-planned life choices. Very few good outcomes happen entirely by accident. A little intention goes a long way.

9. See your doctor regularly. Most of what's quietly working against your health doesn't announce itself with symptoms. Regular visits are how it gets caught early.

10. Always consider the source. Especially these days. Not everything that sounds convincing is true, and not everyone giving health advice has your best interest — or the evidence — behind them.

That's the list. Simple on paper, occasionally hard in practice — which, if I'm honest, describes most of medicine. Over the next several posts, we'll take these one at a time and really dig in. Stick around.

For what it's worth, I'm not the only one who thinks in top-ten lists. Harvard Health has its own take — a little less intellectually driven than mine, and a little more specific (morning stretches and flossing make the cut). Worth a look if you want a second opinion.