Health & Nutrition

The Hippocratic Oath is a beautiful example of inversion as it applies to health. Derived by Hippocrates, it is one of the oldest binding documents in history and had the doctors of the time vow to “first, do no harm.” Much malpractice and heartache would be avoided if this millennia-old inversion could be adhered to as it relates to our health and nutrition.

While the risks are potentially higher in medicine than in other fields, this is an excellent motto to follow in various life domains. When trying to improve your diet, your exercise regime, or your relationships, it can be beneficial to first understand how you can harm yourself or those around you, and then do everything possible to avoid first doing that. This is a great way to “invert” the problem and to honor Systems Thinking. Rather than trying to help as much as possible, first understand how you can harm. The “icing on the cake” would then be to conduct an 80/20 analysis on the situation to see where your time and efforts would be best invested. 50% of the results do not come from 50% of the effort and this is vital to understand and honor.