The 80/20 of the 80/20—Summing Up the Wellness Ethic
SAGe (Self-Actualized Genius)—Learn More
August 31, 2025
Sunday SAGe Volume 50: The 80/20 of the 80/20—Summing Up the Wellness Ethic
Here is this week’s installment of Sunday SAGe, an email communication that shares wellness inspiration from The Wellness Ethic to help people thrive during the coming week (and beyond!).
To celebrate Volume 50 of the Sunday SAGe newsletter, I’ll offer a summary of the key insights from the previous editions. This is truly the 80/20 of the 80/20, a simple checklist to thrive in today’s unpredictable world (where stupid things can happen).
The 80/20 of the 80/20—Summing Up the Wellness Ethic
An excerpt from The Wellness Ethic:
A constant theme of this book has been to keep it simple by focusing on the vital few breakthrough ideas, the 80/20 concepts that will benefit you the most. So here’s my take on the five most important concepts to live your life with a Wellness Ethic (it’s the 80/20 of the 80/20!).
Live a spiritual life. Embrace your life purpose. Love the universe of existence. Surrender to the ways of the universe. Have faith, if that’s what you choose. Living a spiritual life puts you in the best position to realize the meaning of your life, to feel and share love.
Serve your body. To promote health, apply the STEER model (Science, Treat, Eat, Exercise, and Rest). You can fully engage in life when you’re as healthy as possible (to the extent you can control).
Surround yourself with those who bring love into your life. Wellness is dependent upon thriving relationships. Spend quality time with the important people in your life. Get out and mingle with the community. Make new friends. Distance yourself from toxic people. Make cultivating loving relationships a top priority.
Seek satisfaction-dense experiences. Pry open the oyster and get the most out of your personal and professional pursuits. Align them with your life purpose and what you love. Don’t settle for blah; eliminate never-dids.
Boost your happiness by empowering your SAGe to accept, frame, and respond to your circumstances. By doing so, you’ll stay aligned with your life purpose and values. You’ll cultivate a healthy mindset. You’ll adopt meaningful change. You’ll choose the most loving response to what happens in your life. You’ll put yourself in the best position to thrive.
What It Means
Simply put, adopting the above principles is how you nurture the wonderful gift of your existence.
As for me, I’ve been living those values for over six years as a part of my Wellness Ethic experiment. I’ve had a lot of trials to test how the concepts work. I wouldn’t characterize it as trial and error. I view it as trial and success. Every step forward has yielded progress. I’ve either had positive outcomes—some have been transformational—or I’ve fallen short but have been armed with insights to try again.
Your Call to Action
Keep it simple and pick one opportunity to make your life better. Move forward with that opportunity. You can read The Wellness Ethic for guidance on how to make wellness accessible and actionable. Perform Google searches for more insights. Solicit support from friends and family. Leverage an app. Utilize whatever approaches will help you adopt meaningful change in your life.
Take a decisive, life-affirming step forward this week!
