Primal Blueprint Law #9 is avoid stupid mistakes. It's not the sexiest and probably gets the least attention. You can't make a diet and exercise regimen based off of avoiding stupid mistakes, but man is it important. In the past I've spoken extensively about listening to those little messages of doubt we get from our body that always seem to precede an injury. Not listening to those messages from our body when it's trying to tell us something is wrong or we're not prepared for the movement we're about to do is a stupid mistake. Or something like this is a real stupid mistake: plunging into a hole in the frozen lake to go swim laps underneath only to not have a real plan about how to find your way back to the hole. What would have been a smarter way to do it? Make two holes with a clearly delineated path from the first to the second (exit). Then have the person filming you guide you back to the exit. Or hell, break a hole to get you out if things were really going south (as they were about to). The double-edged part about stupid mistakes is how often they don't result in death and dismemberment. Most of the time, doing something stupid doesn't hurt or kill you. Just like the guy under the ice in the video above, you usually make it out okay. You get through by the skin of your teeth. You graze tragedy but aren't scarred by it. You luck out. This teaches you that stupid mistakes aren't actually that dangerous. Which they aren't, until one day they are. 99 times out of 100 you can make that text while driving and be totally fine. You'll make it to your destination. Maybe it's even 999/1000. But the one time it doesn't work out, it really doesn't work out. But Sisson, isn't a stupid mistake only something we can identify in hindsight? For instance, me quitting my well-paid job with a wife and two young kids to go all in on Primal Nutrition could have turned out very badly. It could have been a stupid mistake if it didn't go well. How, then, can I classify something whose outcome has yet to be determined as a stupid mistake? Well, that's the thing. It's not a science, it's an art. You gotta know it when you see it and you gotta know when to push the boundaries. And to learn how to see it, you should start thinking about all those times where you did make it out but had every right not to. Think back to the stupid mistakes you made, even if they didn't result in bad things happening to you. Be honest about it, and you'll start identifying them before they happen. Have you made stupid mistakes in the past? Do you actively remind yourself not to make them? How are you about identifying them before you do? Let me know in the comment section of New and Noteworthy. | 
