Health isn’t about being right. It’s about being well.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth most people don’t want to hear at this time of year:

The only thing that matters is the result you’re getting— and whether your life is genuinely better because of it.

Not your intentions.
Not your January motivation.
Not how convincing your argument sounds on social media.
Not whether your approach has a hashtag, a documentary, or a loud spokesperson behind it.

Just outcomes.

Every January we roll into the same ritual. New year, new you, new plan, new rules. The volume goes up, certainty hardens, and suddenly everyone is an expert again. Carnivore versus vegan. Cold exposure versus comfort. Discipline versus self-compassion. Early mornings versus circadian alignment. Supplements, fasting, biohacks, trackers, gurus, tribes.

And the debates get louder precisely because people are desperate for certainty.

The problem is, certainty is the one thing health doesn’t often offer.

There is no “best” way — only your way

People hate this idea because it removes the illusion of control. If there were one best method, one proven approach, one optimal formula, then success would simply be a matter of compliance. Follow the plan. Do the work. Get the result.

But that isn’t how real life works.

Health doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens inside a human being with a nervous system, a history, responsibilities, stress, relationships, deadlines, sleep debt, emotional baggage, and a finite amount of bandwidth.

You don’t live in a lab. You live in a life.

And life is the biggest confounding variable of all.

This is why the endless “what’s best?” debate misses the point. Best for who? Under what conditions? With which constraints? For how long?

There is no universally best diet, training plan, sleep strategy, or stress protocol because humans are not standardised units. Even the strongest scientific evidence can only ever tell us what tends to work on average, under controlled conditions, over a defined timeframe.

That’s not nothing — but it’s not the same as a personal guarantee.

Science doesn’t remove uncertainty — it narrows it

This is where people get uncomfortable. When it comes to human behaviour, science feels like certainty, but it isn’t. It’s probability.

The moment someone says “science proves”, what they usually mean is “this worked often enough, in enough people, under enough constraints, to be statistically meaningful”.

That still leaves a lot of room for variation.

Different genetics.
Different stress loads.
Different sleep patterns.
Different work demands.
Different personalities.
Different coping strategies.
Different seasons of life.

Two people can follow the same plan with equal discipline and get wildly different outcomes. One thrives. The other burns out, rebels, or quietly gives up.

That doesn’t make either of them broken. It makes them human.

So when people argue about the “right” way to eat, train, recover, or live, what they’re really arguing about is whose experience should be universalised.

And that’s where things go wrong.

Outcomes beat opinions — every time

If you strip all of this back, the question becomes brutally simple:

Is what you’re doing actually making your life better?

Not theoretically. Not in six months. Not “once I’m fully adapted”. Not “when things calm down”.

Right now, over time, in reality.

Are you sleeping better or worse?
Do you have more energy or less?
Are you calmer or more wired?
Do you recover faster or slower?
Is your mood improving or deteriorating?
Are you more resilient or more brittle?
Is this approach expanding your life — or shrinking it?

Because results don’t care about ideology.

You can argue all day online, but your nervous system is keeping score. Your sleep quality is keeping score. Your consistency is keeping score. Your relationships are keeping score.

If your chosen approach is improving your health, your mood, your capacity, and your sense of agency — keep going. You don’t need permission. You don’t need consensus. You don’t need to win an argument.

If it isn’t — or if it’s making things worse — then no amount of justification will save it.

At that point, staying the course isn’t discipline. It’s stubbornness.

The most honest feedback loop is your own life

This is where self-trust comes back into the picture.

Most people outsource their judgment because it feels safer. If someone else is “right”, then failure isn’t personal. It’s just execution.

But health isn’t a belief system. It’s a feedback loop.

You try something.
You observe the outcome.
You adjust.
You repeat.

That’s it.

No drama. No identity crisis. No moral superiority.

The problem is, this requires patience and humility — two things that don’t sell well in January.

It also requires you to accept that what works now may not work later. A strategy that supported you last year might be wrong for this year. A method that helped you survive a stressful period may become limiting once the stress lifts.

That’s not inconsistency. That’s adaptation.

The real skill isn’t finding the perfect plan. It’s knowing when to stay the course and when to change direction.

Consistency only matters if the direction is right

This is another uncomfortable truth: consistency is overrated when applied blindly.

Sticking rigidly to something that isn’t working doesn’t make you resilient. It makes you trapped.

Consistency matters after you’ve confirmed that the approach is improving your life. Before that, it’s just repetition.

And here’s the kicker — most people don’t fail because they didn’t try hard enough. They fail because they committed too early to a strategy that didn’t fit them, then blamed themselves when it fell apart.

The body doesn’t respond to force. It responds to fit.

When the approach fits, consistency becomes easier. When it doesn’t, willpower becomes the tax you pay — and eventually, you run out.

A quieter, more grown-up way forward

So as the noise ramps up, here’s a steadier filter to use:

Ignore certainty.
Ignore extremes.
Ignore the “one true way”.

Instead, ask better questions.

Is this sustainable for me?
Does this support my nervous system — or fight it?
Does this help me show up better — or just look better on paper?
Is this making my life feel calmer, clearer, and more workable?

If the answers are yes, carry on — even if it doesn’t match the current trend.

If the answers are no, course-correct — even if it’s popular.

Health isn’t about being right. It’s about being well.

And the only proof that matters isn’t found in an argument, a study headline, or a social media post.

It’s found in your energy, your sleep, your mood, your consistency — and whether your life actually feels better to live.

That’s the standard.

Everything else is just noise.