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Have you noticed that surfers tend to have nice abs even though they’re not trying to? They’re just out there doing what they love, and abs are the happy byproduct.

Meanwhile, you might be in the gym, cursing your ab-less torso on what feels like your millionth rep of sit-ups.

When you boil it down, there are always two approaches to getting what you want: Head-on, or sideways. The head-on approach is how most of us naturally assume success and achievement work. It’s direct and rooted in cause and effect. “I do this, I get …

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Here’s a metaphor for you:

You’re a tree. You’ve got lots of branches — career, romance, friends, family, hobbies, health — but one root system.

If your “career” branch is feeling lackluster, does it really make sense to spend a lot of time pruning, clipping, and sprucing just that branch? Isn’t it likely that if one branch is withering, all of the branches might be affected? And in that case, why not direct your attention to the (brace yourself for a pun) root of the matter?

It seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised …