Steven Bartlett, founder of Diary of a CEO podcast, is accustomed to his interviews with celebrity guests making headlines. Bartlett doesn't hold back from sharing his views on personal development, business strategies and mental health with his 30 million followers and subscribers.
Recently, however, the podcaster found himself the subject of ridicule and praise in equal measure. Talking with television personality Chris Williamson, Bartlett admitted that a recent night out “ruined three days of my life because of the domino effect it caused”.
The entrepreneur, 33, continued: “It meant that I got worse sleep that night, I ate more poorly the next day because my dopamine system or cortisol system or whatever was all messed up,” he told listeners. “Then I podcasted worse and I didn’t go to the gym the day after, and I could track all of this on my Whoop.” Bartlett serves as the global brand ambassador, investor and equity partner for the fitness-tracking wearable.
Bartlett’s admission sparked an ongoing debate about optimisation culture, the mindset that we should be operating at peak levels all the time, and that a day or two of eating unhealthily or missing the gym is tantamount to disaster. Opponents say this performance pressure promotes the unachievable notion of a “perfect” life and demonises fun.
“At its core, optimisation appeals to a fundamental human need: control,” says Devika Mankani psychologist at The Hundred Wellness Centre in Dubai. “The promise is seductive: if we can perfect our routines, habits, diets and mindsets, perhaps we can avoid failure, illness, unhappiness or even ageing itself.”
Rise and grind
Social media is awash with the idea that we should be doing more. Around 2013, an infamous meme emerged, stating: “You have the same 24 hours as Beyonce”, implying that if you weren’t doing or achieving as much as the pop queen, then you were wasting your day.
More recently, the 4am club concept began promoting the idea that waking up at that hour aids productivity and self-development. Elsewhere, posts such as “forget about 9 to 5, it’s what you do from 5 to 9 counts” encourage using the early hours to accomplish tasks before work begins, calling on us to squeeze even more out of the day.
“Optimisation is not a recent trend; it’s been developing for decades through self-help culture, business thinking, performance psychology and a growing emphasis on personal responsibility,” says Zeta Yarwood, founder and chief executive of Zeta Yarwood Coaching.
“Over time, we've moved closer to a culture that tells people they are responsible for optimising almost everything: their health, wealth, happiness, productivity, relationships and even their mindset,” she adds.
Yarwood calls out an element often missing from this discourse: shifting responsibility away from the individual alone and examining how our environment, workplaces and society influence our lives and well-being instead.
While optimisation culture may “encourage empowerment”, Yarwood says it “simultaneously places all the pressure on the individual to improve, and can indirectly teach people that failure is their fault rather than the result of environmental or systemic issues”.
The self as a brand
A fair amount on content posted on various social media platforms encourages us to see ourselves as brands or products to be sold. From promoting marketable skills on LinkedIn to lifestyle choices on Instagram, each post is a choice that reflects how we would like the world to view us.
“In many ways, we have started treating ourselves as if we were businesses to be managed,” says Rita Figueiredo, clinical psychologist and founder of Peninsula Psychology in Dubai. “Sleep becomes something to optimise, friendships become something to invest in strategically, and exercise becomes a performance metric. Even relaxation can feel productive only if it contributes to better functioning later.”
Because social media platforms make all this visible and shareable, the mindset has been amplified, says Figueiredo. “People can now publicly display routines, habits, achievements, sleep scores, productivity systems and health metrics. What was once a private pursuit has become something that can be compared, evaluated and performed in front of others.”
This creates a sense of “obligation”, rather than self-improvement simply being an option, she adds.
Developments such as wearable technology that allow us to track many aspects of our lives – from daily steps walked to hours of sleep achieved, along with extensions such as “Whoop groups” in which you can compare fitness, sleep and recovery data with friends, family or even strangers around the world – while helping with accountability, can also lead to comparison.
“When we are constantly exposed to images of other people appearing productive, healthy, attractive and emotionally regulated, it becomes easy to mistake these curated snapshots for normal standards,” says Figueiredo. “We begin to evaluate ourselves against an ideal that is often unrealistic and incomplete.”
Benefits of optimising
On its own, optimisation is not a bad thing. It has driven human ambition for millennia.
“We’ve always been optimising, from how to hunt better, how to build better shelter, how to get food quicker – it’s always been there,” says Aidan O’Brien, a human performance and business growth expert, trainer and speaker. “It’s just now the tools are different, the communication is different, the opportunity is different, and the visibility is amplified.”
For Michael Sole, owner and founder of The Den gym in Dubai, optimisation can be a healthy mindset once you tailor goals to your abilities and lifestyle. “I have been on the journey myself,” he says. “I had a tracking streak on MyFitnessPal for 800 days or something ridiculous, and I bought every supplement going.”
Sole, however, says he was driven by his own mindset, not social trends and personalities. “I always wanted everything super-regimented. I still have traits of it, just far less obsessive now that I have been through it. I know what works and what does not for me.”
When trying to “optimise fitness”, Sole says people often forget this means something different to every individual. “Not everyone is an athlete. Work, family, stress, socialising and everything else people do day-to-day are massive factors in what optimal means for them.”
From optimisation to alignment
Finding a way to achieve things you want without running afoul of comparison or burnout requires a mindset shift and is a balancing act.
“The problem isn’t self-improvement; the problem is believing that every aspect of life should be maximised simultaneously, otherwise happiness and success will be out of reach,” says Yarwood. “I encourage clients to think less about optimisation and more about alignment. Instead of asking: ‘How can I get the maximum result?’ ask: ‘What actually matters to me?’”
Optimisation works best when it’s a tool in the service of something meaningful. Optimisation itself shouldn't be the goal. Detaching your self-worth from the outcome of a goal can also help you recover faster if it is not what you expected.
“A psychologically healthy life requires both discipline and flexibility,” says Figueiredo. “The goal is not perfect adherence to a routine; the goal is being able to move between effort and enjoyment, structure and spontaneity, ambition and rest. Sometimes you eat the pizza, miss the workout, stay out late, laugh with friends and return to your routine the next day. That is not failure; it is part of a balanced life.”
