It's quite easy to wander astray in the quest for greater health and a more powerful, vigorous, beautiful body. Thousands of divergent methods, exercises, diets and systems present themselves in compelling terms, charged with all the glitz and glamor that savvy marketers can impart. We may find ourselves wishing we were an elite cage fighter one month, a massive bodybuilder the next, a ninja warrior competitor six months later, then an agile dancer and finally a world-class sprinter. We may only want to be well-proportioned and in reasonably good shape, harboring no great bodily ambitions.

 There are so many enticing possibilities it can be difficult to decide what we ought to being doing with our finite time and energy. All of these activities possess a peculiar beauty and intrigue, but we readily misjudge how much time, devotion and sacrifice it will take to achieve even modest competence in any of them. It's also easy to overlook the importance of heritable traits on performance until one is actually in the arena contending with those who possess greater athletic gifts. If we lack clarity as to the relative importance of the many bodily qualities we could cultivate then we will tend to drift to and fro, stretching ourselves too thin and attaining little more than a versatile mediocrity.

 Creating a concise and unambiguous heirarchy of values to guide our efforts is thus crucial if we wish to actualize our highest potential. We must say no to some things and yes to others, we must esteem some pursuits and qualities more highly and do so consistently for years, even decades. This is every bit as true outside the realm of physical culture, and I may write on this subject more broadly in the future, but for now we consider the care and cultivation of our bodily aspect. My personal ranking is as follows:

I. Health and vitality

II. Combative prowess

III. Athleticism

IV. Aesthetics

 These are broad categories, yet they still clarify things greatly. Utilizing it is simple enough: The foremost quality receives the greatest share of our time and energy, and each one thereafter progressively less. Further, the cultivation of any quality below the first is only permissible insofar as it does not significantly detract from preserving or improving the qualities above it. In my case health and vitality are the most important, so while I value all of the other qualities greatly, and have spent thousands of hours of my life studying and training to improve them, I back off and reevaluate my approach any time I feel they are injurious to my general health and vitality. (If you're curious as to what I mean by health and vitality, see What Is Bodily Health?) Likewise, while I value aesthetics greatly, I would never pursue aesthetic goals that I felt made me a worse athlete or degraded my ability to fight effectively.

 There is nothing sacrosanct in this ordering or these particular categories. If you wish to be an elite athlete then excellence in your chosen sport would likely come first. If you live in a war-torn country, or a crime-ridden and dangerous city, then it might make sense to value combative ability most highly. You get the point. These are the categories I've settled on but you should come up with your own and rank them as you see fit. There is no one correct answer here. Just be aware that there can be dire consequences to prioritizing the wrong things, especially in the long run. Think carefully on this and try to write it out in a way that resonates with your unique situation and aspirations. Many foolish mistakes and poor investments can be avoided if you have an explicit touchstone to return to.

 So what do you value most highly?