My Philosophy: Life & the Pursuit of Happiness

This philosophy will read differently depending on where you are in life – your age, finances, circumstances, career, and capabilities all shape your perspective. After months of research and reflection, this is where I stand today. This article is a living document that will evolve as I continue learning and growing.

Let me set the scene: I’m living in an average 3-bedroom semi with a mortgage, alongside my partner of 17 years and our child. My income sits below the UK average, and I work a compressed Monday-to-Thursday schedule totalling 40 hours, with the option of overtime when needed.

But first, let me tell you how I got here. At 40, I was a mess. Living on a heavy carb-based diet with no real protein, I’d drink six coffees a day – three before leaving the house, three more before dinner – each one heaped with two sugars. I lived on bread and crisps, constantly crashing and needing to sleep as early as 10am. Weekends meant drinking too much and playing FIFA all day. Then came the gout and swollen feet – definitely not normal for someone my age. I found myself on gout medication, thinking I’d be taking pills for the rest of my life.

Something had to change. I started watching diet videos, swapped sugar for sweeteners, experimented with keto, and eventually moved to a mainly carnivore diet.

Here’s what I’ve discovered: discipline trumps everything else. Build your routine. Whether it’s pen and paper, phone notes, or scheduled alarms – I use them all. Write down what a better version of your life looks like. What do you actually want?

My happiness rests on four pillars: diet, sleep, exercise, and family.

The fundamental truth I’ve learned: happiness isn’t about chasing pleasure. Pleasure emerges naturally as a by-product of satisfaction, and satisfaction comes from one source – the compounding effect of achieving the goals you set for yourself.

The Four Pillars

Discipline and Routine

Discipline and routine hold everything together – this is an absolute. Without these foundations, the other pillars crumble. My entire system is anchored by my Garmin watch and the ecosystem that surrounds it. The watch becomes my accountability partner, tracking my heart rate throughout the day, monitoring my VO2 max to gauge fitness improvements, and analysing my sleeping patterns to ensure I’m getting quality recovery.

This isn’t about obsessing over numbers, but rather having objective data that keeps me honest. The watch doesn’t lie – it shows whether I’ve actually moved enough, slept well, or pushed myself during exercise. It creates a feedback loop that reinforces good habits and exposes the gaps where discipline has slipped.

The routine becomes automatic when you have systems in place. The Garmin reminds me to move, tracks my workouts, and even nudges me towards better sleep habits. It’s the digital backbone that supports the physical discipline required to maintain the other three pillars of happiness.

Sleep

Sleep is a massive factor in your wellbeing – perhaps the most underestimated pillar of the four. Everything else falls apart without proper recovery. Your mood, decision-making, physical performance, immune system, and ability to handle stress all depend on quality sleep. It’s not just about feeling rested; it’s about giving your body and mind the time they need to repair, consolidate memories, and reset for the next day.

A good sleeping pattern is essential to your happiness and wellbeing. I have my watch set with an alarm at 20:30 as a reminder that the day is over and it’s time to head up to bed. The watch also has a stress metre so I can see how relaxed I am – if I’m overly stressed, I will take a cold bath. This serves two purposes: it reduces my heart rate and stress levels, giving me a head start before bed.

I wake every morning at 5am, giving me a full 8 hours of sleep. I’ve experimented extensively with my sleep – bedtime, length of sleep – and I find this schedule works best for me. It’s not just about the hours, but the consistency and quality.

Over recent months, I’ve reduced my alcohol consumption to zero after watching the stress levels and sleep impact on the Garmin app. The data was clear: the optimal amount of alcohol is zero. I even tried just one glass of red wine before bed, but even this small amount reduced my sleep quality. The watch doesn’t lie – alcohol disrupts recovery, and recovery is everything when you’re building a sustainable life around discipline and routine.

Exercise

This is another pillar of wellbeing – training with heavy free weights and running 10k two to three times a week. Exercise isn’t just about looking good; it’s about maintaining functionality and vitality as we age.

My goal started with losing weight, but has evolved to building muscle. This shift in mindset is crucial – moving from trying to make yourself smaller to making yourself stronger and more capable. Weight loss was the gateway, but muscle building is the destination that truly transforms your quality of life.

Lifting heavy weights is crucial, especially as we get older. Resistance training to failure stimulates muscle growth and bone density, counteracting the natural decline that comes with aging. After 30, we lose muscle mass at an alarming rate without intervention. Heavy lifting isn’t just about strength – it’s about independence, mobility, and quality of life in later years. I supplement with creatine and glutamine to aid muscle building and recovery, giving my body the tools it needs to adapt and grow stronger.

Creatine is also a fantastic supplement for brain function. Your brain uses enormous amounts of energy, and creatine helps regenerate ATP – the cellular energy currency. Studies show creatine supplementation can improve cognitive performance, working memory, and mental fatigue resistance. It’s not just for muscles; it’s fuel for your mind, especially during demanding mental tasks or periods of stress.

My training split is simple but effective: three times a week rotating between back and biceps, chest and triceps, then shoulders and abs. This allows for proper recovery whilst hitting every major muscle group with sufficient intensity.

Running is equally important. I run 10k at least twice a week, sometimes three. Having a spaniel means I need very little encouragement to get out – she’s the perfect training partner. I set the watch and push myself, keeping an eye on my heart rate throughout. The main goal is to boost my VO2 max, which is essentially how efficiently your body can use oxygen during exercise.

VO2 max is directly linked to life expectancy. Studies consistently show that people with higher VO2 max levels live longer, healthier lives. It’s one of the strongest predictors of longevity we have. Every improvement in cardiovascular fitness translates to better heart health, improved brain function, and reduced risk of chronic disease. The watch tracks this metric religiously, showing me whether my efforts are translating into real improvements in my body’s ability to sustain life.

Diet

Diet consistency has transformed everything. My daily meal routine is identical every single day, removing decision fatigue and ensuring proper nutrition.

I’m up at 5am and in the kitchen by half past on work days. I air fry two Aldi steaks for 16 minutes (£4 each) whilst soft-boiling 6-8 eggs for 5 minutes (£2). I run the eggs under cold water until the steaks are finished, peel them, then place everything in a plastic lunch box. This breakfast-dinner combination costs only £10 and provides exceptional nutrition density.

The transformation has been remarkable. No brain fog, no energy crashes throughout the day. The high protein and fat content keeps me satisfied for hours – something that never happened with my previous carb-heavy diet. If I start losing too much weight, I simply add butter to the meal. On running days, I’ll include some carbs an hour before heading out.

In the first four months of changing my diet, I dropped from 13 stone to 11 stone 6 pounds. The transition from a Western diet to carnivore isn’t easy – the carb cravings are intense and the first four days require staying close to a toilet as your body adapts. The keto flu is real, but temporary.

Once you’re through that initial adaptation phase, the benefits are extraordinary. I can fast for 18 hours without difficulty, my energy levels remain consistently high throughout the day, and the mental clarity is unlike anything I experienced before. The diet removes the constant blood sugar rollercoaster that dominated my previous eating patterns.

Family

Family isn’t just about being present – it’s about building shared experiences and rituals that create unbreakable bonds. My son and I have found this through two powerful connections: training together and our shared passion for Barnsley FC.

We train together three times a week. This isn’t me dragging him along or forcing fitness upon him – we’re training partners. We push each other, spot for each other, and motivate each other to show up. There’s something profound about suffering through those last few reps together, about seeing your child develop strength and discipline in real time. The gym becomes a place where we’re equals, where age matters less than effort and commitment.

But our real ritual is Barnsley FC. We’re both season ticket holders, and between the gym sessions and match days – travel time, pre-match meals, post-match analysis – we spend upwards of 10 hours a week together. These aren’t just hours; they’re opportunities. The car journeys to and from Oakwell become our therapy sessions, our chance to talk things through, our opportunity to discuss everything from personal events to world events.

Football gives us a shared language and shared emotions. We’ve celebrated together, suffered together, and learned together. When life gets complicated or conversations get difficult, we have this common ground to return to. The stands at Oakwell have witnessed countless conversations that might never have happened in the living room at home.

This time together isn’t scheduled around “quality time” – it’s woven into the fabric of our weekly routine. It’s consistent, it’s predictable, and it’s ours. The training builds our physical strength whilst the football builds our emotional connection. Together, they create a bond that transcends the typical parent-child relationship and moves into genuine friendship and mutual respect.

Goal Setting and Achievement

The pursuit of happiness isn’t about reaching a destination – it’s about the journey that goals create. This is the real secret: happiness doesn’t come from achieving the goal itself, but from the process of working towards it.

The pursuit gives you hope, a purpose, something to look forward to. Without that forward motion, life becomes stagnant. You need something pulling you into tomorrow, making you want to wake up at 5am and get after it.

Set a goal, work towards it, achieve it, then set another. This cycle is everything. The goal gives you direction, but the daily grind of progress is where satisfaction lives. When you tick off a workout, meal prep your food for the week, or hit a new personal best, that’s where the dopamine hits come from – not from some distant finish line.

I used to think happiness would arrive when I finally lost the weight or fixed my health problems. But that’s a trap. Those moments of achievement are brief highs that fade quickly unless you’ve already got the next goal in your sights.

The goal is just a tool. It creates the structure for your days, gives meaning to your sacrifices, and provides a measuring stick for progress. But the actual living – the satisfaction, the growth, the sense of purpose – happens in the daily repetition of small actions that move you forward.

This is why my routine is so rigid. Every morning at 5am, every meal the same, every training session logged. These aren’t restrictions; they’re the framework that turns abstract goals into concrete progress. The Garmin doesn’t just track my stats – it shows me proof that I’m moving forward, that yesterday’s effort compounds into today’s improvement.

Set goals that matter to you. Make them specific and measurable. Then forget about the finish line and fall in love with the process. That’s where happiness actually lives.

Reading and Continuous Learning

Reading is a secret weapon. An author has spent countless hours distilling their greatest thoughts, their hard-won lessons, their life’s work – and they’re handing it all to you for the price of a book and a few hours of your time. This is an extraordinary deal that most people never fully appreciate.

Knowledge compounds over time. What you read today builds on what you read last month, last year. Concepts start connecting, patterns emerge, and suddenly you’re seeing the world through a lens that most people don’t have access to. This isn’t about showing off or collecting facts – it’s about building a mental framework that helps you make better decisions, understand yourself, and navigate life with more clarity.

The Kindle has been a game-changer for this. Your entire library in one place, portable enough to take anywhere, with battery life that lasts weeks. No excuses about not having the right book with you or running out of space. Everything you’ve read and everything you want to read is right there, ready when you are.

The books you choose matter. Seek out quality over quantity. Find authors who’ve actually done the thing they’re writing about, who’ve paid the price for their knowledge through experience rather than just research. These are the books that change how you think, not just what you know.

The only real tragedy is that we’ll run out of time before we finish our reading lists. There are more brilliant books waiting to be read than any of us will ever get through. But that’s not a reason to despair – it’s a reminder to be selective, to prioritise the books that will genuinely move you forward, and to actually apply what you’re learning rather than just consuming endlessly.

Reading without application is just entertainment. The real power comes when you take an idea from a page and test it in your own life. That’s when knowledge becomes wisdom, when information transforms into understanding.