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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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The 4 Pillar Plan summary
How to Relax, Eat, Move and Sleep Your Way to a Longer, Healthier Life
21 mins
Brief summary
The 4 Pillar Plan by Rangan Chatterjee is a health and wellness book that focuses on four key pillars: relaxation, food, movement, and sleep. The author offers practical advice on how to improve your health and well-being by making small changes in each of these areas.
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The 4 Pillar Plan
Summary of 9 key ideas
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Key idea 1 of 9
Maintaining a healthy body isn’t just about treating symptoms of illness, it’s about a progressive approach to managing your lifestyle.
What would you do if you woke up one day with a rash on your arm? You’d likely book an appointment with a doctor. The doctor would, in turn, probably prescribe you an ointment to soothe and treat it.
Situations like this might not strike you as odd, but they conceal a deeper truth: medicine today concerns itself almost exclusively with diagnosing and treating symptoms. What’s forgotten is that the body is a complex, interconnected system, so the causes of an ailment may not be straightforward.
It’s true of mental conditions too. Go to the doctor with symptoms of depression, and the doctor is likely to send you off with a prescription for antidepressants once he’s said something about the chemical imbalance in your brain. However, according to the author, depression is caused by a variety of factors including poor diet, stress, or too much or too little physical activity.
The author believes doctors should stop focusing so much on symptoms. Instead, they should take a multipronged approach that recognizes the body's complexity and acknowledges that all its parts are connected. He calls this approach progressive medicine.
Let’s return to the rash. A rash could indicate an overly reactive immune system; this, in turn, could be due to stress or food intolerance, or perhaps abnormal bacteria in the gut.
You see, sometimes applying an ointment on the skin is not enough. If you’re going to take progressive medicine seriously, then your lifestyle is where you can make a real difference.
There are four pillars that the author considers critical for staying in good health: relax, eat, move and sleep.
By encouraging his patients to adjust their lifestyles in one or more of these areas, Chatterjee says he has helped many of them out of depression, reversed type 2 diabetes, and even relieved symptoms of menopause.
So what exactly do these four pillars involve? Let's go into more details in the next blinks.
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What is The 4 Pillar Plan about?
The 4 Pillar Plan (2017) is a practical guide to living a healthy life. These blinks will show you what it takes to create the best possible conditions for both your body and your mind. It’s all based on the four pillars of healthy behavior: relax, eat, move and sleep.
The 4 Pillar Plan Review
The 4 Pillar Plan by Rangan Chatterjee (2017) is a valuable resource that provides practical advice for improving overall well-being. Here's why this book is worth reading:
- It offers a holistic approach to health, focusing on four key pillars - food, movement, sleep, and relaxation - to help readers achieve balance and vitality.
- With its down-to-earth explanations and relatable examples, the book empowers readers to take control of their health and make sustainable changes.
- By providing actionable strategies and highlighting the power of small steps, it proves that leading a healthy lifestyle doesn't have to be boring or overwhelming.
Best quote from The 4 Pillar Plan
The future of medicine will be about more doctors being super-generalists, rather than super-specialists.
—Rangan Chatterjee
Who should read The 4 Pillar Plan?
- Stressed or overworked business owners and entrepreneurs
- Anyone looking to improve their overall health
- Patients with chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes
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The 4 Pillar Plan FAQs
What is the main message of The 4 Pillar Plan?
The main message of The 4 Pillar Plan is that small changes in four key areas of our lives can have a big impact on our overall health and well-being.
How long does it take to read The 4 Pillar Plan?
The reading time for The 4 Pillar Plan varies depending on the reader, but it typically takes several hours. You can also read the Blinkist summary in just 15 minutes.
Is The 4 Pillar Plan a good book? Is it worth reading?
The 4 Pillar Plan is worth reading because it offers practical advice and insights for improving our health and lifestyle. It's a valuable resource for anyone looking to make positive changes.
Who is the author of The 4 Pillar Plan?
The author of The 4 Pillar Plan is Rangan Chatterjee.
What to read after The 4 Pillar Plan?
If you're wondering what to read next after The 4 Pillar Plan, here are some recommendations we suggest:
- Are You Fully Charged? by Tom Rath
- Happy Mind, Happy Life by Rangan Chatterjee
- The Power of the Downstate by Sara C. Mednick
- Feel Great, Lose Weight by Rangan Chatterjee
- You'll See It When You Believe It by Wayne W. Dyer
- “You Just Need to Lose Weight” by Aubrey Gordon
- Say What They Can't Unhear by Tamsen Webster
- Life Is in the Transitions by Bruce Feiler
- You Can Do It! by Rob Schneider
- The Longevity Formula by Avanti Kumar-Singh