Survival always beats performance.

We often think that it is a matter of will and determination that will bring us the results we seek.

But resources matter more than we sometimes like to acknowledge and not paying attention to the resources we have available will in the end make our performance decline.

The amount of inputs the brain constantly receives must give meaning and create a safe environment for decisions and actions. 

If we do not feel safe all actions will be modified to accommodate the lack of precision and to secure survival. 

I can work on 5 hours of sleep ! Yes but that is a survival mechanism, not a thriving one.

I can skip breakfast and feel more energised ! That is possible, but energy is still required for everything so the backup system that is activated will break down tissue to provide the missing resources.

We sometimes refer to the historic past when we argue for things that are healthy. 10.000 years ago we did only eat...... insert carnivore, paleo, no sugar, only eat once a day, etc.

But. Availability is not an argument. It does not equals causation. 

If the caveman could open a fridge first thing in the morning and eat, he would have. Because it would raise his chances of survival greatly.

We are remarkable in the sense that we are very adaptable to changes in our environment and that we can survive and endure adversity.

But using an evolutionary survival system to argue for the health benefits of said system is a misunderstanding. Human brains love simplicity because it require less resources to process. And having enough resources are the most important survival security.

In a high performance setting many people cant regulate themselves optimally. They are running mostly on their back up survival systems, which makes it more difficult to process incoming informations from their systems in a precise manner.

Unfortunately that leaves a lot of room for guessing. And a lot of room for chance.