Research leader @ Mayo Clinic | Follow me for insights on habits, productivity, and self-actualization | On a mission to normalize health

70% of American adults are overweight or obese. 
40% of cancers are preventable. 
72% of adults report health impacts due to stress.

I've worked with 300+ cancer patients as a health and wellness coach at the Mayo Clinic. 
And I've noticed a few things during this time:

-No one wants to be unhealthy
-Medications and procedures can keep you alive
-But it's lifestyle change that will help you build resilient health

And there's an unfortunate misconception out there that health is difficult to build. 
That "exercise" = self-imposed suffering
That "healthy foods" = kale smoothies
That joint pain is normal. 

But if you've got a demanding professional life, you need to implement low-friction habits and routines to preserve your health. 90 minutes at the gym 5x/week is not an option. 

This is the stuff I help people with. 
Simple health that will last a lifetime. 
So you can back to  your mission. 

Over the course of 12 weeks, we’ll develop habits and routines that will help you lose the weight, dissolve the stress, and reclaim your health. 
Should we talk?
DM me. 

About me

I’m a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Zambia) and Mayo Clinic-certified health and wellness coach.

I’m the author of the twice-weekly email newsletter 66.1 (66point1.com), which merges science and common sense to help you live healthier, for longer.

Marcus Frick

Prior authorizations exist for a reason, but is this how they're supposed to work?

Mayo Clinic Wellness Coach | Founder, 66.1

Open article: Prior authorization? by 66point1.beehiiv.com

Are you? 

Is it costing you your health?

Open article: Are you a passive patient? by 66point1.beehiiv.com

Open article: Statins, cholesterol, a trip to the doctor by 66point1.beehiiv.com

66.1 years without a chronic disease isn't enough.

Statins, cholesterol, a trip to the doctor

"In allopathic medicine, we systematically disempower the patient."
(From a meeting with a big time person at a big time institution this morning)

Made me wonder...

Is this intentional?
Who is "we"? 
What would systematically EMPOWERING the patient look like?

Founder of 1% Better™ | Former accountant, future author | Follow me for the best self-development content on LinkedIn

Former accountant.
Future author.

I share actionable, educational, and entertaining self-development content to help my readers live their best lives.

Join 65K+ receiving my top 5 discoveries every week:

https://colbynewsletter.ck.page

Colby Kultgen

A few weeks ago, I caught myself thinking "wow, that was a really good presentation" about someone I work with.

And then I just...didn't say anything.

I've been noticing that this happens pretty often. 

I'll think something genuinely kind about someone, yet I just keep it to myself. 

Why is that?

I think it's because saying something nice to someone feels a bit exposed. There's this tiny moment of vulnerability between the compliment leaving your mouth and their reaction. 

What if it comes off wrong? 
What if they don't take it the way I meant it? 

So we say nothing. 

We let a 0.001% chance of awkwardness win over a near-certainty of making someone's day.

To be honest, I think most of us are walking around with a backlog of unspoken kind words. Compliments we thought but didn't give. Gratitude we felt but didn't express.

So I don't know about you, but I'm embracing the Tell Them Theory.

No more keeping the good stuff to myself.

A reframe that changed my life:

Failure = Data.

Every time you try something (win or lose), you get valuable feedback.
A real-time report on what works—and what doesn’t.

Personally, I let the fear of failure hold me back for wayyy too long.

I would overthink. Overplan. Overperfect. Then never actually do anything.

But then one day I realized something:
The information I needed was in the reps I was avoiding.

The lessons weren't in the planning. They were in the doing.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not out here actively seeking failure. But I understand now that it's an unavoidable part of the process. And if it's going to happen anyway, I might as well squeeze every lesson out of it.

So now, after every failure, I ask myself 3 questions:

1. What went wrong? (Be specific.)
2. What decision or action led to that outcome?
3. What can I do differently next time?

That's it. No spiral. No shame. Just data.

Fail forward.

———
image credit: valuethemind on IG

Hot take:

"Be grateful" is terrible advice.

Not because gratitude isn't powerful (it is).

But because this "advice" almost never comes with practical ways of actually doing it.

We've all heard the “write 3 things down in a journal” advice, but for me it's always felt a bit forced.

And besides, why would we expect one method to work for everyone?

That’s why I gave myself a mission:

Come up with a handful of gratitude practices that don’t involve writing in a journal (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Here's what I came up with:

1. Look for glimmers
Glimmers are the opposite of triggers. They're those tiny moments in your day that make you feel joy, peace, or gratitude. Once you train your brain to spot them, they start appearing everywhere.

2. Snap a joy photo
Take one picture per day of something that brought you joy. A cup of coffee, a funny street sign, the way the sunlight hits your desk. Not for social media, just for you.

3. The "Tell Them" Theory (h/t Vex King)
When someone does something you appreciate, actually tell them. Doesn't have to be profound. Just: "I'm glad you're in my life" or "Thanks for always making me laugh."

4. Practice future nostalgia
Throughout your day, pause and ask: "Will I miss this moment someday?" Your current morning routine, the commute you complain about, even your kid's phase of asking "why?" fifty times a day.

Which of these resonates with you?

Let me know your favorite ways to practice gratitude.

To be honest, I struggle with this sometimes.

As humans, we're hardwired to focus on what we lack. Our brains have literally evolved to notice problems.

This means gratitude doesn't always come easy.

And it doesn't help that the news, the feeds, and the algorithms are all engineered to make us feel like we're behind.

It's a real uphill battle most days.

Something that's been helping me lately is a simple mental trick.

I call it "The Rocking Chair Exercise".

Basically, I close my eyes and imagine I'm 80, chilling in a rocking chair somewhere.

I look back on this exact period of my life, and I think about all the things I'd miss about it.

Waking up pain-free (most days).
Being able to travel when I want.
Having parents I can still call on a Tuesday afternoon.

The little luxuries I take for granted every day.

Next time you find yourself struggling to feel grateful, I recommend you give it a try.

Image credit: world of statistics on IG

The 8 most dangerous words in the English language:

“I’ll do it when work gets less busy.”

I’ve caught myself saying this more times than I can count.

Trying to convince myself that one day everything will settle down. That I’ll finally have time for the trip, the hobby, the experiences I keep putting off.

But that’s just not how life works.

The reality is, you have to make time for those things. Otherwise, work will quietly take over your entire schedule.

It’s Parkinson’s Law in action:
​“Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”

I’ve noticed this in my own life.

When I schedule work first, it expands to consume everything.

But when I schedule something meaningful first, the opposite happens. Work compresses to fit around it.

We’ve even seen this play out at scale with the four-day workweek experiments. Companies reduced working hours, yet productivity stayed the same or even improved.

That’s why I’ve started being more intentional about putting meaningful things on the calendar first.

One framework I love comes from my friend Ben Meer, originally popularized by Jesse Itzler:

The 1-6-4 Method.
​
1. Plan 1 big “year-making” event​
Something that defines your year. A marathon. A major trip. A personal challenge. Something that forces you to grow.
​
2. Schedule 6 mini-adventures throughout the year​
Lock in one small, exciting experience every other month.
A camping trip. A concert. A weekend away. Hosting a dinner party. Exploring a new part of your city.
​
3. Implement 4 positive habits, one each quarter​
Add one small habit every three months that improves your life.
Reading daily. Walking more. Waking up earlier. Being more intentional with your time.

♻️ repost this if you found it helpful.

A non-negotiable exercise I do every month:

Closing my “open loops”.

Let me explain.

An open loop is anything that’s quietly pulling at your attention. 

Something unfinished, unresolved, or unorganized.

- Bills you haven’t paid
- Messages you meant to reply to
- Projects you started and didn’t finish
- Messes you've been meaning to clean up
- Conversations you’ve been avoiding

It’s the mental equivalent of having 37 tabs open in your brain. 

Every time you try to focus on something, those background processes slow you down.

Each open loop eats up a little bit of mental bandwidth.

That's why it's so important to sit down once a month (or more) and close as many as you can.

Here’s how I do it:

➊ Set a timer for 30 minutes.
➋ Dump every single open loop you can think of onto paper or a doc.
➌ For each one, decide to Do it, Drop it, or Delegate it.

About 80% of what you list can probably be dropped completely. 

For anything marked "Do," schedule it on your calendar within the next few weeks.

Bonus tip: Keep your list. Next month, pull it back out before you start. You'll notice the same loops keep showing up. Pay attention to these patterns.

Your challenge:
Take 30 minutes this week to identify and close some of the open loops in your life.

♻️ Repost this if you found it helpful.
Follow me for more.

5 ways to build unshakeable confidence (in work and life):

➊ Do what you say you're going to do
It really is that simple. Set achievable goals for yourself and follow through on them daily. As Alex Hormozi puts it, “You don’t become confident by shouting affirmations in the mirror, but by having a stack of undeniable proof that you are who you say you are.”

➋ Don’t play the comparison game
Comparison is the thief of joy and confidence. Define what success means to you, and tune out the noise. Be so busy watering your own grass that you don’t have time to notice if someone else’s is greener.

➌ Learn to say “no”
Saying “no” isn’t selfish, it’s self-respect. Do things because you genuinely want to, not because you feel obligated. The more aligned your choices are, the more confident you become.

➍ Build your body, build your mind
Taking care of your physical and mental health is one of the highest-leverage things you can do. Everything gets easier when you feel strong, capable, and energized.

➎ Surround yourself with people who lift you up
Confidence is contagious. The more you’re around people who believe in themselves, the more it reinforces your belief in yourself. They remind you what’s possible, even on days you forget.

Confidence doesn’t arrive all at once. It’s earned through small, consistent actions that build trust in yourself over time.

DISCLAIMER: This is just my opinion.

P.S. I made a list of 25 books everyone should read before they die. 

👉 Link in the comments.

Productivity isn’t just about “getting more done”.

It’s about spending the short amount of time you have on this planet intentionally, rather than losing it to distraction.

♻️ Repost this if you found it helpful.

how to finish 8 hours of work in 4 hours

A few free things online I think everyone should take advantage of.

What did I miss?

free things online everyone should take advantage of

A step-by-step guide to decluttering your mind.

👉 P.S. I spent 100+ hours building a habit tracker—link in the comments.

A step-by-step guide to decluttering your mind

7 skills we should have learned in school but never did

34 years of productivity lessons distilled into 20 sentences.

What would you add to this list?

7 addictions you need to break in 2026 to become your best self.

I've been guilty of every one of these.

Awareness is the first step, then you can start to do something about it.

Save this post and send it to someone who needs it.

7 addictions to break in order to become your best self

I've been using Claude as a personal tutor for the last few months.

It's legit the best learning tool I've ever used.

Here are 6 prompts I keep coming back to:

❶ LEARN ANYTHING IN 20 HOURS
"I need to learn [topic] fast. Build me a 20-hour plan focused on the 20% that drives 80% of results. Break it into 10 two-hour sessions with the best resources and a 15-minute review at the end of each."

❷ CREATE A ONE-PAGE CHEAT SHEET
"Summarize the key concepts of [topic] on a single page. Use bullet points, diagrams, and examples so I can review it in 5 minutes."

❸ QUIZ ME UNTIL I BREAK
"I just studied [topic]. Give me 10 progressively harder questions to test my understanding. After each answer, grade me and explain what I missed."

❹ BUILD A LEARNING LADDER
"Break [topic] into 5 levels of difficulty. Show me how to go from Level 1 (beginner) to Level 5 (advanced) with a clear milestone at each step."

❺ FIND THE BEST LEARNING RESOURCES
"List the top 5 resources (books, videos, courses, or people) for learning [topic] fast, and explain why each is worth my time."

❻ USE THE FEYNMAN TECHNIQUE
"Explain [topic] to me in the simplest terms. Then have me re-explain it back. Point out gaps, re-teach what I miss, and repeat until I can explain it clearly on my own."

P.S. These will work with any other AI (ChatGPT, Gemini, etc).

💾 Save and repost this!

Let’s face it...

The modern attention span is cooked.

10-second TikTok videos.
18 tabs open at a time.
7 apps checked before getting out of bed.

This post is designed to help you fight back.

How to build your focus like a muscle

Harsh truths from Harvard's 88-year study of happiness.

Repost if you learned something.

harsh truths from Harvard's 88-year study of happiness

Reminder: your phone is supposed to be a tool.

Not a dopamine machine.

Here are 7 apps that make it feel like one again.

taplio

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Colby Kultgen

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The Battle

Marcus Frick

Colby Kultgen

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Posts

Engagements

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Performance ScoreMarcus Frick's LinkedIn Performance