If you were building a textbook case study on “how to optimize health,” Jonas Martilli would probably not make the first draft. Or the second. And yet, if you zoom out far enough, he may be one of the clearest windows I know into how health actually works in real life.
Jonas and I have known each other since we were five, maybe six years old. Long enough that memory blurs and stories become legend. Even then, he had an uncanny ability to sell sand in the desert. At eight years old, he ran a roadside stand selling Pet Rocks. No modifications. No enhancements. Just backstories. The venture was so successful that the local news showed up. That was Jonas.
Adventurous. Hyperactive. Mildly allergic to authority in the most disarming way possible. A PG rated version of Tony Soprano with the warmth turned up and the menace turned off. He was and still is a social magnet.
He even has a patented greeting. A super five finger extended handshake with an unmistakable segue into his name. The lean in. The socks in the showroom. Jonas. Dramatic pause. Martilli. Dramatic pause. A finger point. A subtle head turn. Like the name on the building. 😉
Jonas does not ease into new interests. He commits in public and figures out the details later. No research. No warm up. No hesitation. He jumps in head first, acts as if, and figures it out mid air. To borrow from Boiler Room, he learns on the fly, without warning, without preparation, and somehow ascends.
Sleep has never been his thing. Exercise has been sporadic at best. This is a man who once threw his back out doing a barbell biceps curl at Gold’s Gym and laughed as he was stretchered into an ambulance. Diet has been as consistent as a weather forecast. Supplements are a hard no. Doctors are avoided whenever possible.
And yet, in his mid forties, Jonas may quietly be one of the healthiest people in our orbit.
The Variable No One Talks About
Jonas does one thing exceptionally well. He invests relentlessly in his social world.
He says yes. To people. To trips. To parties. To last minute plans. To house gatherings that spill into the night. To traveling up and down the East Coast to support his son’s basketball games. To running a family business while building one of his own. To being present. Loudly. Consistently. Authentically.
His identity is clear. His sense of purpose is calcified. His tribe is enormous. The gravitational pull of his social environment is so strong that it appears to buffer many of the behaviors that, on paper, would raise eyebrows.
This is where things get quietly uncomfortable, at least on paper.
Peers who have dedicated decades to perfecting diet, exercise routines, sleep hygiene, and structure sometimes find themselves staring at early warning signs they never expected. Jonas, whose father and grandfather both died prematurely from heart disease, currently stands at the midpoint of life with a view that is, frankly, alarmingly curious.
We are not at the finish line. None of us are. But standing here, halfway through, it is hard not to notice the pattern.
A Portfolio Built on People
Jonas is constantly investing across multiple dimensions of health, even if he would never use that language.
- social: His calendar is full of connection. Outings. Celebrations. Shared experiences. A deep bench of friendships that span decades.
- emotional: He is unapologetically himself. Joy comes easily. Laughter is frequent. His internal weather is remarkably stable.
- intellectual: New interests are constantly emerging. Distilling wine. Building barns. Learning trades. Curiosity drives action.
- environmental: He places himself in high energy, high connection environments that naturally pull engagement and movement out of him.
- occupational: A business owner. A family collaborator. A contributor. Responsibility is real and embraced.
None of this is accidental. None of it is optimized. All of it is alive.
Jonas does not appear to be healthy because he follows rules. He appears to be healthy because he belongs. Deeply. Fully. Without hesitation.
The Inoculating Effect of Identity
There is something powerful about knowing exactly who you are.
Jonas does not spend energy wondering if he is enough. He does not optimize his morning routine. He does not track his macros. He does not care what anyone thinks of him, though most people love him. His sense of self is so coherent that it seems to create a kind of social immunity.
This is not a prescription. It is an observation.
Within the Health401k® framework, we often talk about how behaviors are downstream of environment. Jonas is a living example. His environment reinforces identity. His identity reinforces behavior. The loop closes without force.
Health Is Contextual, Not Moral
This story is not an argument against diet, exercise, sleep, or medical care. Those levers matter. Deeply. But they do not operate in isolation.
Health is contextual. It is personal. It is shaped by meaning, belonging, and environment far more than most models are willing to admit.
Just like a financial portfolio, your Health401k® is built by diversifying your time, energy, and resources across eight dimensions of health: emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social, and spiritual, based on your unique definition of health.
Jonas is not working on his health. He is working on his life. Health appears to be coming along for the ride.
An Uncomfortable Question Worth Sitting With
I share this story not to elevate Jonas as a model to copy, but as a mirror worth looking into.
What would happen if we stopped fixing behaviors and started fixing environments?
Ryan Travis Woods