Doing Sudoku in retirement will not prevent you from forgetting your neighbour’s name. Doing heavy-load squats religiously once you retire will not prevent you from falling and breaking your arm. Running long distances before heading to the office will not prevent a cardiac event. Do you want to avoid having a heart attack, avoid falling and breaking bones in your old age, and be able to remember both recent and historical details? Understanding the SAID Principle and being able to use it well is what will lead to a life with less pain, heightened pleasure, more joy, and greater fulfilment.

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Contents

Background and Motivation
1234Origins
1234Motivation
1234You CAN see what is SAID
1234You CANNOT see what is SAID
Why you Must Master the SAID Principle
Why we face a General Problem with Specificity
The Types of Errors around Specificity
Practical Questions for Using the SAID Principle
An Action Plan for Leveraging the SAID Principle
1234Blueprint
1234Practical Example
12341234Spaced Repetition
12341234Socks & Shoes
I is for Imposed
Mindset for Mastering the SAID Principle
Tracking
When being Specific is the Wrong Focus
Parting Message

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Background and Motivation [top]

What is the SAID Principle? Do you know that you already understand it… sort-of? Why am I speaking about it today?

Origins [top]

The acronym S.A.I.D. in the SAID Principle refers to specific adaptation to imposed demand and that describes a rule of the universe by which nature operates. The acronym S.A.I.D. has its origins in academia, from the world of physical therapy and exercise science. Often just referred to as the “specificity principle” the idea is simple – you will not head to the pool to swim if your goal is to climb trees better. And, if your goal is to swim better, you will not spend your activity time hanging around on trees. You must focus on swimming to swim better and climb more trees to climb them better.

Motivation [top]

What I said about trees and pools, climbing and swimming might seem obvious to you. Yet, when I look around, I see us all deviate from this idea of specificity numerous times daily for so many things that matter.

The AID of SAID is real – an Adaptation to Imposed Demand is a phenomenon you will not argue against. You go to the gym, you get fitter. You study for an exam, and you pass. However, most people miss paying attention to the importance of S, the Specific part. So, I am specifically (pun!) motivated today to help close the implementation gap between what people believe they want and the actual path they choose to follow. Today it is a very specific nudge for your thought process that I hope will get you on the path to your dream life.

You CAN see what is SAID [top]

Let us first observe what you do express about the SAID Principle. Consider these 3 commonplace scenarios:

Perhaps you went to the gym to workout because you know that there will be a specific adaptation in your physical body to the activity you engage in there. And, it is great because you did get fitter.

You wanted to learn a new language, so you installed and used a language app on your smartphone and quickly made rapid progress specifically with vocabulary and some grammar.

You started to eat fewer calories, finishing dinner by sunset and you could specifically see that your weight was decreasing and you were hoping that your skin would look younger too.

You CANNOT see what is SAID [top]

Where in the above scenarios does your execution plan fail to account for the SAID Principle?

At the gym, you get to a generally better level of fitness but then you plateau and seem to not be moving closer to your goal. No sexy triceps or chiselled abs.

Someone asks you a question in the language you have been learning on your phone and although you know in your first language what you want to reply, you are unable to string together a proper sentence in reply to their question in the new language that you were hoping to have a little fluency in.

The improvement to your diet that you have been consistent with means that you have lost some fat. However, you are puzzled as to why your blood numbers (e.g. cholesterol) are still as scary as they were. And, your skin looks older rather than younger – not everything you had hoped for.

Why you Must Master the SAID Principle [top]

With the basic needs of food, shelter and clothing being met for anyone reading this today, raising life satisfaction beyond just surviving, to a level of thriving, in multiple dimensions of our existence, also becomes a need. As the common non-renewable resource for each of us is our time, not wasting time on ineffective or inefficient processes also becomes essential. When machines save us time, the time saved can be used for leisure – and often “doing nothing, just relaxing” is a good use of our time. The time we have available can help take us to the next level physically (get rid of aches, pains, and diseases), mentally (staying sharp into old age), emotionally (being cheerful at 110) and spiritually (wealthy).

Not being aware of the SAID Principle means we waste resources, especially our time. A student who does not study effectively gets lower grades or does not have enough time for play and their emotional health suffers. A housewife who wishes to prepare healthy meals for her family but does not educate herself on the details of nutrition and cooking methods to enhance health is unknowingly missing her target. A father who works hard to bring home money and is not conscious of the SAID Principle when he invests 20 minutes in daily exercise is reducing the number of later years that he can be useful to his children or grandchildren. A teacher who does not ensure that each student understands and implements scientific methods for learning ends up producing worse outcomes for all their students.

Why we face a General Problem with Specificity [top]

The Unholy Trinity is very real. Avoid pain, seek pleasure, and conserve energy.

We like to conserve energy, not just the energy for physical activity but also the energy required to think. It is the natural drive to conserve energy and not think another level deeper, about the next level of detail, that drives our tendency to miss out on the specificity part. We tend to stop short of becoming specific and settle for the general even when the actual doing of the specific is not more difficult.

When a specific action is physical, it is very visually obvious to you and others that you are not doing it. However, there is no visually obvious sign to yourself that you are avoiding an extra level of thinking. Hold onto that idea and we will come back to it with a solution soon. First a simple illustration of the problem.

Consider studying for an exam. The primary non-renewable resource we have at an individual level is our time. If I am going to invest an hour in study, and if I do not focus on implementing scientific techniques that improve learning then I will not acquire and retain much of the study material. I might have sat down to study for an hour but I will have learned less than someone who is studying using scientifically proven learning techniques.

Is it not fascinating that we go to school to learn, but we are not taught how to learn? We must learn how to learn. We must avoid settling for the general (going to school) and additionally seek out the specific (learning how to learn).

The Types of Errors around Specificity [top]

If we think of any “system” as having an input of some resources by us, some machinery that works in the middle, and then an output we care about, then that “system” can have many specifics that can go wrong.

Using the analogy of cooking can help elucidate what I mean.

The ingredients going in to prepare the perfect dinner dish might be wrong. You might be missing the magic ingredient.

It may be that the ingredients are right but we have too much or too little of something. Think about too much salt or not enough salt – neither is fun! Dose size is important.

The amount of time we invest in the activity might be wrong – too much or too little. The duration of steaming broccoli (better to err with a shorter duration) needs to be dealt with differently from studying for an A-grade (spread out the study over a longer duration).

The machinery into which all the inputs go might not be effective. If your pan is too hot, good luck with avoiding a flavour of burnt spices or burnt garlic. If your oven is not hot enough when you are baking, the dough will not fully rise.

Sometimes the machinery inside has multiple segments and only one segment is a bottleneck but we are not specific in addressing the problem because we are not even thinking about the specific details within the system that encapsulates various connected sub-systems. I have come across diabetic patients whose physicians have prescribed medication to increase their insulin production when in reality they have too much insulin floating around, and the actual problem is that the system that is meant to use that insulin is malfunctioning, leaving dangerously high levels of sugar flowing through the blood.

Practical Questions for Using the SAID Principle [top]

Here are some examples for your typical day. When there are 2 questions, for illustration, the first question is general, and the second is more specific:

• How do I benefit from sleep? Which is the best position for me to sleep in?
• Is it good to drink tea and coffee? When should I consume caffeine and when should I avoid it?
• Am I eating enough for my active lifestyle? Must I consume a protein powder?
• What can I do differently if I am sleepy at work every afternoon and there is always a ton of work to do?
• What single thing can I introduce and/or eliminate that will improve my lipid (cholesterol) profile?
• How can I have a 6-pack without an ab workout? What is my bottleneck to getting washboard abs?
• Is my meditation helping me? Why am I not able to stay calm under pressure?
• How do I learn my mother tongue? If I can understand my parents when they speak Punjabi but cannot speak it myself, how can I be fluent in 6 weeks?
• How can I pretty much eliminate my risk of getting heart disease? What one thing can I do, or give up doing, starting this week to make me invincible against the risk of a heart attack?
• How can I pretty much eliminate my risk of getting cancer before 100? What one thing can I introduce (or stop) as a habit starting this week to reduce my lifetime risk of getting cancer?

An Action Plan for Leveraging the SAID Principle [top]

How can you go about formulating a plan for leveraging the SAID Principle so that you can live life more fully? Here is an approach that I strongly recommend. First a blueprint that might sound theoretical but is important to understand, and then 2 simple practical examples. Notice how I will use the SAID Principle to explain how you should implement the SAID Principle!

Blueprint [top]

• Start by defining your end goal as clearly as possible. Do not rush this.
• Educate yourself about the mechanisms within the system that produce the desired goal; how many sub-systems does it have and how are they inter-connected?
• Ask yourself questions about the sub-systems. For example:
  • Is it that there are 3 connected sub-systems and it is only one of them that is not working properly?
  • Can I affect the sub-optimally working sub-system directly or indirectly?
• Educate yourself about the input factors that will drive you to your end goal
• Identify which of those input factors are possible for you to provide
• Set out a timetabled plan you need to follow for each type of action required by you. Do no rush with setting up this plan.
• For each action, in any given instance of execution, decide what an appropriate dose size should be? i.e. how much of your resources (time, energy, thoughts, emotion, physical effort, money) should you be investing? Do not risk all your capital. Invest prudently above the minimum requirement.
• Track and log all your related actions along with measures of the outcome. This is what 99% of the population fails in. I suggest you become an outlier in this regard.
• Are the various outcome measures changing in the right direction over time?

Practical Example [top]

The 3 problem scenarios that I described at the very start – avoiding a heart attack, not falling to break bones when elderly or preventing cognitive decline are relatively large and complex problems that I enjoy helping others learn to solve. For today’s illustration, let us pick smaller yet useful examples. (Sneaky tip: you could learn and regularly practice some form of dance from today, well into your 90s to address all 3 of those larger problems.)

(Example 1) Spaced Repetition: Consider something that is common for everyone in the population – learning a small piece of new information. This could be anything from a word or phrase in a new language you are learning, or a dance step. To have it sit in your long-term memory you must re-expose yourself to it after increasing durations from the time of initial exposure. So, you could repeat it after 1 minute, then 10 minutes, then an hour, then half a day, then a day, then 3 days, then 7 days, then a month, then 3 months and so on. This implementation method is specific to learning anything – based on what is called “the forgetting curve” and what spaced repetition systems (SRS) for learning are based on. [top]

(Example 2) Socks & Shoes: Want something even simpler and effective for decades to support good health? Whenever you need to wear socks, shoes, or sandals with straps, instead of sitting down, wear them while standing. The automatic need to balance on one leg (take help initially, do not be in a rush) is something you can keep satisfying until you are 100+ and significantly reduce your risk of falling and breaking old bones. [top]

I is for Imposed [top]

Within the acroynym of the SAID Principle, “Imposed” is not as harsh as the technical term sounds. We acknowledge that nothing changes without a force of non-trivial magnitude. The demand imposed might be something that you do not think about much – for example, just working in the afternoon sun with your skin exposed will darken it and improve your health outcomes, including mental health. Or it might be something that you have to impose on yourself. For example, if you are going to get over a fear of public speaking, you are going to have to impose it on yourself. No amount of practising in front of the mirror will get you over your fear of speaking to an unfamiliar audience. (Power Tip: A midway point to success could be to expose yourself to both [a] speaking to a large familiar audience and [b] speaking to individual strangers as part of your normal day when outside the house.)

Mindset for Mastering the SAID Principle [top]

To master anything, you must have a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. You must believe that you can transform yourself into something better. To execute that you must be mentally available to learn new things. You must be open and willing to change your long-held beliefs about something if the evidence or logic suggests you do so. As you can imagine, an interest in detail is critical. If you like to gloss over details, you will never get to your goals, other than by luck. Finally, closing the implementation gap requires that you are consistent with the actions that need to be taken at the appropriate times that they need to be taken.

Tracking [top]

If you have been reading my articles for a while, you may have noticed the importance I place on collecting data about yourself. For changes you want to make to your life, a process of logging your actions daily would be ideal. For the outcome, the frequency should be as practical as possible. So, you might weigh yourself and log it daily as part of the process, but if you are working on improving an outcome like a bad lipid (cholesterol) profile you might run blood tests to check values only every 3 months.

If you are not in the habit of recording things systematically, even the process of logging is a new demand you are imposing on yourself and you will notice that the SAID Principle applies there too. You will adapt specifically to that imposed demand, and soon logging will not feel as painful as it did on day 1.

When being Specific is the Wrong Focus [top]

Being able to operate at the correct level of zoom or detail is important. To not miss the wood for the trees. To not miss the big picture because of focusing on minor specifics.

If you are arguing about which protein supplement is best when you do not do strength training enough, you have the wrong focus.

If you are dwelling for long on the choice between two comfortable and expensive pairs of shoes for recreational running but have not addressed these game changers, you have the wrong focus.

If you are spending many hours deciding which single company’s share to buy for your average household portfolio when you have not considered the total wealth allocation to various asset classes, you have the wrong focus.

If you are a medical doctor who truly wants to change public health in a big way, then training to become an even more hyperspecialized treatment specialist is the wrong focus – preventing disease with lifestyle should be your focus.

Parting Message [top]

If God or money is in the detail then the importance of being appropriately specific with our thoughts and actions should sit high in our priorities. To row hard and fast but in the wrong boat, pointed in the wrong direction, will not get us to beautiful shores and stunning sunsets.

If everything you do is consistent with your core beliefs and desires, then a long and healthy life of joy is pretty much guaranteed to be yours. If you want to be guided in detail, you know how to reach me, and if you found this useful, please do share it with others.

Puru

Dr Purnendu Nath spends his waking hours focusing on helping individuals and organizations reach their goals, to make the world a better place. He speaks, writes and advises on topics such as finance, investment management, discipline, education, self-improvement, exercise, nutrition, health and fitness, leadership and parenting.