Topics to study that will make you healthier, smarter, & hotter (for real)

A self-education curriculum for a healthier, smarter, more interesting life

There is something incredibly attractive about being around people who know things. They can hold a conversation, ask interesting questions, connect ideas, and teach you something you did not know before. In a world where so many people spend hours scrolling through content they forget five minutes later, becoming knowledgeable is starting to feel like a bit of a superpower. It makes you more confident, more interesting, more capable, and, dare I say, more magnetic.

The really good news is that you do not need another degree to become that person. You simply need to be intentional about what you choose to learn. Some subjects have a way of improving almost every area of your life once you understand them. They help you make better decisions, take better care of your health, navigate relationships more effectively, manage stress, think more clearly, and understand both yourself and other people on a deeper level.

Today’s post is a collection of 20 topics worth studying if you want to become healthier, sharper, wiser, and a little harder to fool. Think of it as your unofficial curriculum for building a better life!

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1. Habit Formation & Behavior Change

If there is one subject that has the potential to improve almost every area of your life, this might be it. Understanding behavior change can help you exercise more consistently, eat better, spend money more intentionally, break bad habits, follow through on goals, and become someone who actually does the things they say they want to do. Few topics have such a direct impact on your everyday life.

2. Blood Sugar Regulation

Energy crashes, constant snacking, afternoon brain fog, and feeling hungry again an hour after eating are often treated as normal parts of life. Studying blood sugar regulation helps you understand why these things happen and gives you a much clearer framework for making food choices that support better energy, focus, mood, and appetite control.

3. Sleep Science

Many people spend years trying to improve their energy, mood, focus, recovery, and even body composition without ever learning how sleep actually works. Studying sleep science helps you understand why you feel alert at certain times of day, why caffeine affects people differently, what influences sleep quality, and why a good night’s sleep often solves problems that most productivity hacks cannot.

4. Attention & Focus

Your attention is one of your most valuable resources because it shapes what you learn, what you accomplish, what you think about, and ultimately what your life becomes. We spend so much time worrying about time management, yet very little time thinking about attention management. Studying this topic can help you better understand how your phone, social media, multitasking, and constant interruptions are affecting your ability to focus, think deeply, and be fully present in your own life.

5. Emotional Regulation

Understanding your emotions is one of the most practical life skills you can develop. It can improve your relationships, decision-making, stress management, confidence, and ability to navigate difficult situations without becoming completely overwhelmed by them. The better you understand what you’re feeling and why, the less likely you are to let temporary emotions make permanent decisions.

6. Strength Training

This is one of my favorites because the learning never really ends. The more you study strength training, the more you realize it influences far more than how you look. Muscle plays a major role in metabolism, bone health, mobility, recovery, and healthy aging, yet most people never learn much about it beyond a few workout tips. Understanding how your body adapts to training will completely change the way you think about exercise and what it means to be healthy.

7. Nutrition Labels & Food Marketing

This is another one I think everyone should spend a little time learning about. We live in a world where food packaging is designed to sell products, not necessarily educate consumers, and those are two very different goals. Understanding nutrition labels, ingredient lists, and common marketing tactics makes it much easier to make informed decisions, avoid being misled by health claims, and feel more confident navigating the grocery store without falling for every trend that comes along.

8. Stress Physiology

Stress gets blamed for everything these days, yet very few of us actually understand what is happening inside the body when we’re stressed. Studying stress physiology helps you understand cortisol, the nervous system, the stress response, and why chronic stress can affect everything from energy and sleep to mood, digestion, and long-term health. Once you understand stress as a biological process rather than just a feeling, a lot of seemingly unrelated health problems start making much more sense.

To get started on this one, I highly recommend watching Robert Sapolsky’s The Psychology of Stress on YouTube. It is one of the most fascinating and accessible introductions to the science of stress I’ve come across.

9. Cognitive Biases

One of the most useful things you can learn is that your brain is not always an objective narrator. We all have mental shortcuts and blind spots that influence how we interpret information, make decisions, judge other people, spend money, and even remember past events. Studying cognitive biases can make you a better thinker, a better decision-maker, and a little harder to manipulate by headlines, marketing, social media, and your own assumptions.

10. Decision Fatigue

I think we all like to assume that only major life decisions are the ones that drain us, but very often, it’s the hundreds of small choices we make every day that quietly wear you down. What should you eat? What should you wear? When should you work out? What should you do first? Studying decision fatigue helps you understand why routines, systems, and defaults can be so powerful and how they can free up mental energy for the things that actually deserve your attention!

11. Gut Health

This is a highly underrated topic that affects far more than digestion. The gut plays an important role in everything from energy levels and immune function to brain health, mood, skin health, and overall well-being. Studying the microbiome, fiber, digestion, and the gut-brain connection gives you a much deeper understanding of how everyday food choices can influence how you feel, think, and function.

12. The Psychology of Money

This is something many of us spend a huge amount of time worrying about, and yet surprisingly little time actually learning about. Studying the psychology of money can help you better understand spending habits, saving, delayed gratification, financial stress, lifestyle inflation, and why smart financial decisions are often more emotional than mathematical. Few topics have a bigger impact on your long-term freedom, opportunities, and peace of mind.

13. Longevity Research

One of the most useful mindset shifts is starting to think about your eighty-year-old self. Longevity research explores the habits and behaviors that help people maintain their health, strength, mobility, and quality of life as they age. It’s also a fascinating reminder that many of the choices you make today are always shaping the future version of you.

14. Relationships & Attachment Styles

Very few things affect our happiness, stress levels, and overall quality of life as much as our relationships. Understanding attachment styles gives you a framework for making sense of your own behaviors, expectations, and reactions, while also helping you understand the people around you a little better. Fair warning: you may start mentally diagnosing every couple you know!

15. Media Literacy

I took an elective on health communication a few semesters ago, and it ended up being one of my favorite classes. Once you start learning how headlines, algorithms, media outlets, influencers, and social platforms shape the information we see, it becomes much easier to understand why people can look at the same topic and walk away with completely different conclusions. In a world where we are constantly consuming information, learning how to think critically about what you’re seeing is an incredibly valuable skill.

16. Hormones

I think a lot of people spend years feeling confused by their own bodies when a little education would answer many of their questions. Hormones play a role in hunger, sleep, energy, stress, mood, recovery, and countless other processes happening behind the scenes. The more you learn about them, the easier it becomes to understand what your body is trying to tell you.

17. The Science of Happiness

We spend a lot of time talking about success, productivity, health, and self-improvement, yet surprisingly little time talking about happiness itself. I think that’s part of the reason so many people end up feeling drained, lonely, or stuck chasing goals they assume will make them happy someday. Studying happiness research offers an interesting look at what actually contributes to a good life, and the answers are often very different from what modern culture would have us believe!

18. Environmental Psychology

It is easy to assume our habits come down to willpower, but our surroundings deserve a lot more credit than they get. Everything from the layout of a room to the amount of natural light, noise, clutter, and visual cues around us can influence how we think, feel, and behave. This topic will make you look at your home, office, and everyday spaces very differently.

19. Placebo & Expectation Effects

This topic completely changed the way I think about health! The placebo effect shows that our expectations and beliefs can influence real outcomes, even when nothing else changes. The more you learn about it, the more you appreciate how closely the mind and body work together, and how much of our experience is shaped by what we expect to happen.

20. Aging

Similar to longevity research, only the other side of it. Instead of focusing on what helps us live longer, this topic explores what actually happens to the body and brain as we get older. I think there is something empowering about understanding aging rather than fearing it. The more you learn about it, the more you realize how many of today’s habits are shaping your future quality of life, and how much influence you have over that process, starting right now!

Let’s chat! If you could spend the next six months studying just one topic from this list, which would you choose and why?

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The internet gives us endless information and surprisingly little understanding. RCLM™ is where we study the things that actually improve life: health, behavior, mindset, decision-making, energy, and the everyday choices that shape who we become. If you're trying to build a life you're obsessed with, you're in the right place!