The phrase applies to more than you think. Most of us will immediately think of vacation time or paid time off or sick days as dictated by some corporate entity as a form of incentive. But “use it or lose it” is also a valuable reminder of much more important situations.

Work

Businesses realized long ago that they needed to attract and retain the best employees without breaking the bank, payroll-wise. What’s the next best offer, other than more money? Time off. At roughly the same wages, the business with better offers of paid time off will be more attractive to much-needed talent.

The problem is that if you offer two weeks off each year, the employee can wait 10 years and take 5 months off with pay. To avoid this situation, a caveat was added to the incentive: you can have two weeks off each year, but it doesn’t accrue. If you don’t take the full amount of allotted time off, it starts again next year at zero, and you have to earn it again.

This HR policy soon became known as “Use It or Lose It.” I suspect most of my readers are well familiar with the concept (if not, you are now - you’re welcome), but the applications go well beyond corporate life.

Body

Muscles and bones are very much assets that have to be used to be maintained. Astronauts in minimal gravity quickly lose muscle mass, bone density and, predictably, strength and stamina. Aggressive musculoskeletal atrophy occurs rapidly with the loss of use of a limb, as in the case of paralysis.

Even in less drastic circumstances, the change is noticeable. If you stop going to the gym, or running or doing yoga (you DO exercise, right?) for six months, the return to fitness is both painful and painfully demoralizing. Where physical activity is concerned, it is far easier (and healthier) to maintain than to regain.

As you age, the effect is intensified. Strength, flexibility and endurance decline more rapidly with each passing decade. And the work needed to even hold steady becomes more intense.

Your heart is, of course, a muscle and the arterial side of your circulation depends upon muscle to do its job; cardiovascular wellness is a function of use. The literature is replete with reasons that a sedentary lifestyle is debilitating. Obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, decreased immune function and increased hospital stays await, among many other maladies. A friend calls it, “death by couch.”

But the physical body is not the only important part of you that needs to be used on a regular basis.

Mind

We all want to be happy. Or at least not depressed and anxious. People who are socially isolated quickly lose their ability to easily and effectively socialize. Worse still, after a period of isolation, they lose the desire to find companionship and communication with others. Again, this effect is intensified in older persons.

Cognition declines with disuse as well. A significant part of memory loss and the ability to reason and problem solve can be attributed to just not having to think and remember things as much.

The ability to effectively communicate in professional situations is not immune to the effect. Teachers, business leaders, professional speakers, musicians and actors are all well aware of just how quickly you can “lose your edge” without regular practice.

The oft-spoken advice to “practice regularly” or “write every day” is based in harsh reality. When I was active in academia, I noticed that even the relatively short summer break would cause me to be slightly “off my game” upon the return to lecturing and teaching in the fall. The effect was minimal but noticeable, at least to me.

The jury is still out on precisely how much of the cognitive decline seen in dementia is due to lack of mental stimulation, but the effect is definitely not zero.

Life

I believe that “use it or lose it” also applies to life functions that are not as readily falsifiable as bone density or sudoku-solving speed.

Mindfulness is a skill, a discipline that must be practiced on a daily basis. Sustained discipline and energy expenditure are required to actively choose your thoughts and actions; to be able to craft your mental, emotional and physical future. Relax and you will swiftly regress to a comfortable but anesthetizing life style that will leave you asking “Where did the time go?” every ten years or so.

The same goes for personal responsibility. Flex the muscle of internalizing your locus of control (difficult), or risk slipping into an entitled “victim” mindset (much more difficult). Remember that you have control over how you react to a situation, even if you can’t control the situation itself. But you have to use that control.

So also kindness, gratitude, optimism, competency, and a host of other factors that make life worth living and you worth being a part of your community and society at large.

An Experiment

I am a pretty busy guy. I write, teach privately, perform (as a musician), travel, proselytize on social media, interact with my family and maintain a small but close-knit community of like-minded individuals. Last week, I decided to just stop. For a week. I did it to see if it would make any difference in my outlook, my perceived energy level, my emotional state or anything else, really.

The results were terrifying. I slept more, and more poorly. I ate more, and less healthily. I craved all manner of things that aren’t consistent with a healthy or happy life.  I stayed up late and consumed mind-numbing “content,” vomited out of my phone and computer at an alarming velocity. I experienced increased anxiety, depressed mood, and - even in that short period of time - a noticeable decline in physical ability as felt in steep hikes and rock climbing.

Most disturbing was the hint of a loss of incentive. I felt as though, should I continue to not “use it,” that I could permanently “lose it.”

That is not an experiment I am likely to ever repeat.

Use It or Lose It

Pursue your purpose. Use your ability to maintain your mind, body, and spirit or risk slipping into the hell of being alive without actually living. You can’t stop - you’re not built for doing nothing.

Create your world.



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To learn more about how to use these concepts or to inquire about working with me, you can contact me on the Hardcore Happiness website, the comments section on my Substack or Medium accounts or the Hardcore Happiness blog page. If you have found value in this article, follow my Instagram account for daily insights, or my X account for occasional tweets. To support this community, you can Buy Me A Coffee or donate through my Patreon account.

- JWW