You Are What You Eat

The Diet You're Ignoring

You won't touch gluten but you'll spend forty minutes watching strangers fight in a comment section.

You track your macros. You know your LDL. You've thought seriously about whether seed oils are worth the risk. But you open Twitter or Instagram or whatever the app is this week and you just... go. No plan. No filter. No exit.

We have built entire industries around what we put in our bodies. Nutritionists, functional medicine doctors, meal prep services, food journals. There is a twelve-billion-dollar supplement market dedicated to optimizing what enters your stomach. People argue about sourdough at dinner parties.

We have nothing like that for our minds.

I worked with a player who was an absolute specimen. Made Schwarzenegger look like DeVito. He was obsessive about his diet, never missed a workout, and was religious about recovery protocol. He spent hours every day focused on optimizing his physicality. In between these sessions, while sitting at his locker or on the training table, he'd be doom-scrolling on his phone: getting lost in the comments section, reading criticisms about his performance the night before, just mainlining garbage on the internet.

His physical gifts were obvious to everyone. But what most people didn't see was the toll this information diet took on his mindset. He started to doubt himself, he got jaded to the criticism, he dove deeper to escape the noise.

Finally, a veteran he respected had seen enough. "Dude, why do you always read that shit? Does that help you in any way? Keep paying attention to what the people sitting in the stands say and eventually you'll be sitting up there with them."

That's all it took. Message received.

A few days later, after getting the game-winning hit the night before, the same veteran started teasing the player, "Hey did you read the press clippings from last night, Big Dog?"

"C'mon man, you know I don't pay attention to that shit."

The body and the mind aren't two different problems. I watched enough guys treat them that way to know how it ends.

Here's what I think about now: the people who build real wealth are deliberate about money in a way most people aren't deliberate about anything. They know the difference between spending and investing. They think about what drains the account versus what compounds. That discipline isn't passive. It's a decision they make on every transaction.

You don't get there by accident. You have to care about the difference.

Information is the same math.

When you open the apps without intention, you're handing control to an algorithm built by people whose only job is to keep you there as long as possible. They don't care if you're a sharper leader in six months. They don't care if you're less reactive. The metric is minutes. And they are very good at their jobs.

Imagine outsourcing your nutrition plan to someone who gets paid based solely on how much you eat.

That's the arrangement you've accepted.

The question isn't whether social media is good or bad. It's whether you're choosing what enters your mind or just letting it happen to you. Whether you're investing or spending. Whether you're eating or just consuming whatever's in front of you.

Your body can't thrive on junk. Neither can the mind running your team. Intentions don't matter. Input does.

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The NOW Podcast

Eric O'Flaherty pitched 12 seasons in the Major Leagues. At his peak, he was part of a dominant Braves bullpen and became the first pitcher in history to post a sub-1.00 ERA across 70 or more appearances. Most people have never heard of him.

That's not an accident. It's the job. One batter, maybe two, then you're done. No box score glory, no highlight reel. Just results — quietly, repeatedly, in the highest-leverage moments of the game.

There's something in that worth sitting with. Episode releases Tuesday.

With gratitude,

Previous Issue: They Asked For It​

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If something in this issue named a problem you've been circling and you want to work it through with someone who's been in the room, that's what I do. I work with executives and team leaders who are already good at their jobs and want to close the gap between where they are and where they know they can be. Not through a framework. Through real, specific work on how you lead, and how you execute. P.S. - What's the one thing in your organization right now that everyone sees but no one is saying out loud? Hit reply. I read everything.

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