Optimize With Brian Johnson | More Wisdom In Less Time

If All You Did Today Was This…   In our last couple +1s, we talked about my Top 3 Work targets and then we talked about my #1 Target: “Recommitting to my Sacred Vow.”     As you may recall, these are my Top 3 Heroic Work Targets:   I. Recommit to Sacred Vow (101 | 1M | 51 2051) II. #1 WIN III. Shut-down Complete   Which begs the question…   What are YOUR Top 3 Work Targets?   I. ______________________ II. _____________________ III. _____________________   Quick check in…   Have you taken a moment or three to reflect on that?    If not, why not?    Seriously…    We’re trying to move from Theory to Practice to Mastery, Hero!!    Let’s GOOO!!!   Now…   Today I want to chat about my #2 Heroic Work Target.   Right after I reread and recommit to my Sacred Vow and BEFORE I allow ANY inputs into my life (no email, no smartphone, no inputs yet!), I decide what THE MOST IMPORTANT THING is that I’m going to do that day and then… I DO IT.    And…   As I like to say, if that was all I

The Foundation for Greatness   In our last +1, I shared my Sacred Vow with you.   Then I encouraged YOU to consider creating your own Sacred Vow.   Today I want to continue that discussion.   We’ll invite Daisaku Ikeda to the party. He is the leader of Nichiren Buddhism and one of the most respected Buddhist philosophers alive whose work has inspired millions around the world.   In Buddhism Day by Day he tells us about the importance of making a vow.   Here’s how he puts it: “In any field of endeavor, making a vow is the foundation for achieving something great. If for whatever reason a person gives up halfway or backslides, his or her commitment hasn’t been based on a vow. Halfhearted desire doesn’t amount to a vow.”   Vow.   It means “a solemn promise.”   It’s on the far right side of the spectrum of kinda sorta committed to ABSOLUTELY ALL IN (!) committed.        (Kinda sorta)                                                                 (VOW = ALL IN)    A vow.   A solemn pro

Here’s Mine… What’s YOURS?   In our last +1, we talked about my Top 3 Work Targets as I encouraged you to get clarity on and then commit to and hit YOUR top 3 targets.    These are my Top 3 Work Targets:   I. Recommit to Sacred Vow (101 | 1M | 51 2051) II. #1 WIN III. Shutdown Complete   What are YOUR Top 3 Work Targets?   I. ______________________ II. _____________________ III. _____________________   Today I want to chat a little more about my  #1 Work target: Recommitting to my Sacred Vow.    I have done this EVERY DAY for over a year and a half. It has been an incredibly powerful thing for me and I’ve been told by many people that it’s inspired them to create their own Sacred Vow so…   Let’s chat a little more about it.   But…   First, a little more context.    As you know if you’ve been following along, on election night 2020, I founded Heroic Public Benefit Corporation.    A couple days later I learned that the crowdfunding regulations were changing such that startups like ours could go

What Are YOURS?   Not too long ago, we talked about my Top 3 Energy Targets.    As you may recall, I said that it’s really hard to have a series of really bad days when I hit my Top 3 Energy Targets.    These are my Top 3 Energy Targets:   I. In Bed for 9-10 Hours II. AM Meditation (1%) III. Movement (30 Min)   (What are YOURS?)   Today I want to chat about my Top 3 Work Targets.    Here they are:   I. Recommit to Sacred Vow (101 | 1M | 51 2051) II. #1 WIN III. Shutdown Complete   Note: If ALL I did in any given day was hit THOSE three Targets, I’d have a pretty good day. Period.    I repeat: The early research on hitting as few as three Targets on our Heroic app shows that you can boost your Energy by 40%, your Productivity by 20% and your Connection by 15%.   And, I repeat with even more emphasis: The extensive research on “checklists” in general is unequivocal: Checklists work.    Whether we’re talking about pilots or surgeons or athletes or construction managers or aspiring Heroes

13.8 Billion Years Ago to NOW   In our last couple +1s, we talked about the Sun and the next-closest star, appropriately named Proxima Centauri.    We did some quick math and realized that the Universe is insanely vast (yes, that’s the technical description) and that 99.999% of the Universe consists of… ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.   Imagining the ineffable VASTNESS of our Universe should help us get a little perspective on our lives.     Today I want to chat about just how OLD the Earth and the Sun and our Universe are.    Why?   In addition to being a fascinating intellectual exercise, it is, as Michael Singer points out in Living Untethered, an equally powerful SPIRITUAL exercise.    So…   Do you know how long ago the Universe was created?   Somehow, scientists are able to peg the number at around 13.8 BILLION years ago.    Think about that. Out of nothing came something.    13.8 BILLION YEARS AGO.    My brain just exploded. !!   Now…   Next question.    Do you know how old the Earth

For 4.2 Years Just to Get to the Next Star   In our last +1, we used the Sun as a trigger/prompt/cue to practice our philosophy and put the virtues of gratitude and humility and awe into action.    As you may recall, we reflected on the fact that the Sun is a STAGGERING 93 MILLION (!) miles away.    Somehow, its rays are so powerful that, even after taking 8 minutes and 20 seconds to arrive on planet Earth, you can soak up their warmth and beauty.    I don’t know about you, but I think that’s CRAZY when you think about it.    But here’s what’s even crazier.    I casually mentioned the fact that the next closest star (Proxima Centauri) is 4.2 light years away.    You know how far that is?   Neither did I until I read Michael Singer’s book Living Untethered in which he walks us through the creation of the Universe and some physics lessons to help us get perspective on our lives.    Get this.    Imagine holding a flashlight above the Earth. Turn it on for ONE second.    That light will go aro

93 Million Miles + 8 Minutes 20 Seconds   This morning I was on the Trail moving for 30 minutes.    I banged out my last couple sets of 11 burpees to hit my 101 for the day. I jumped up to hang from the tree branch that is my pull-up bar to hammer out my 11 pull-ups. I rowed my 1,000 meters to hit that Target.    Target swipe.   Target swipe.   Target swipe.   Target swipe.   Target swipe.     I know I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again….   It’s truly amazing to me how good I feel hitting those Heroic targets in our app every.single.day.    “That’s like me!! Forging Antifragile confidence. TODAY.”   But that’s not quite the point of Today’s +1.    This is…   As I was turning the corner on our trail, I was struck by the beauty and warmth of the sunlight peeking through the trees and, at the risk of getting Rumi about it, I felt the Sun gently caressing my mind and body and soul.    It was a beautiful moment.    I was in awe.    Then I looked up at the Sun and thought to myself, “Wow.

From Doing the Right Thing for the Win!   In our last few +1s, we’ve been talking about The Law of Cause and Effect.   We started with Michael Singer’s wisdom. Then we went old school with Jesus and Epictetus.    I promised we’d talk about what modern SCIENCE has to say about applying the basic ideas of The Law of Cause and Effect to the process of optimizing our lives.   That’s what we’ll do Today.   But…   First…   As we journey back from 2,000 years ago to today, let’s pause briefly and see what another one of my favorite teachers had to say about the subject.   In 1841, the great American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote an essay called “Compensation” in which he did his thing by integrating wisdom from the East with our Western perspective.   He tells us: “Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end preexists in the means, the fruit in the seed.”   Yep.    There you go.   The Law of Cause and Effec

Horticultural vs. Clock Time Revisited   In our last +1, we continued our conversation about The Law of Cause and Effect by inviting Jesus to the party to share his thoughts.   As you may recall, he told us that we can’t expect to grow grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles.   In other words: If we want a noble, virtuous life, we must do noble, virtuous things.   Now…   It’s not possible for me to think about figs without thinking about another ancient wise man who happens to be my all-time favorite teacher, the great Stoic philosopher Epictetus.    Epictetus was born (into slavery!) in what is now Turkey in the year 50 AD—not too long after or far away from where Jesus taught.   Epictetus reminds us that, even if we’re doing it right and growing figs on a fig tree, we’ve gotta know that IT TAKES TIME for those trees to bear fruit.   As we discussed in an old-school +1 on Horticultural Time vs. Clock Time: When you want to grow something and you plant a seed, do you start your stopwa

Thorn Bushes and Thistles Won’t Do the Trick   In our last  1, we talked about The Law of Karma.    Also known as The Law of Cause and Effect.   Same thing.    All the great teachers have talked about it.    And the entire field of modern science is, of course, grounded in this causal relationship between things.   In short: If THIS then THAT.   Today we’re going to rewind the clock a couple of thousand years and see what another wise teacher has to say on the subject. Then we’ll explore some more related ancient wisdom in our next +1. Then we’ll talk about how modern science tells us we should be thinking about it as it relates to setting goals for our optimization.   So…   Let’s rewind the clock to almost exactly 2,000 years ago.    We’re heading to the ancient land of Israel.   Jesus is giving a sermon on a mount.   In Matthew 7:16, he tells us: “You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”   Of course, in that context, Jesu

How to Apply the Law of Cause and Effect   As we’ve discussed, Michael Singer is one of my favorite spiritual teachers.   After reading The Untethered Soul and Living Untethered, I decided to follow Joseph Campbell’s advice and take a deeper dive into his work. I went to Amazon to see what else he’s written. I found a couple of books he wrote nearly 50 years ago.    One of those books is called Three Essays on Universal Laws. The book has a chapter-essay on each of his three Laws: The Law of Karma, The Law of Will, and The Law of Love.   Today we’re going to chat about his (and my) take on The Law of Karma.   Singer tells us we can also call this the Law of Cause and Effect.   The basic idea is really simple.   He tells us: “For example, when we walk up and touch a hot stove the body gets burned, and thus, we learn ‘a lesson.’ Or if we stay up too long without sleep the body gets sick, and, again, we have been taught ‘a lesson.’ This holds true for staying out in the rain, eating the w

Feed the Good Guys   In our last couple +1s, we hung out with a couple of wise Indian masters and their gurus.    We talked about what to do if we’re afraid of ghosts (approach them!) and how to deal with the bitter process of changing our behaviors (keep chewing!).   Today I want to chat about ghosts for another moment.   This time we’ll go a little further east and visit Vietnam where the great Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh was born and raised.   When I searched my Mac for “ghosts” to find the Yogananda wisdom I was looking for, I saw that Thich Nhat Hanh ALSO talked about ghosts in his great book No Mud, No Lotus.   Here’s the passage.   He tells us: “The Buddha said that nothing can survive without food. This is true, not just for the physical existence of living beings, but also for states of mind. Love needs to be nurtured and fed to survive; and our suffering also survives because we enable and feed it. We ruminate on suffering, regret, and sorrow. We chew on them, swallow them

Wisdom From Another Indian Sage and His Grandmother   In our last +1, we talked about Yogananda and his guru’s wisdom on what to do with ghosts/aka how to live fearlessly.   As you may recall, the trick is to APPROACH our challenges rather than try to avoid them.    The story is so good, we’ll quickly review it.   Yogananda’s guru tells him: “My mother once tried to frighten me with an appalling story of a ghost in a dark chamber. I went there immediately, and expressed my disappointment at having missed the ghost. Mother never told me another horror tale.”   Hah. Genius.   The moral of the story?    “Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you.”   As I read that moral from an Indian yogi, I thought of another one of my favorite Indian sages, Eknath Easwaran.    In his great book, Your Life Is Your Message, he tells us about a lesson he learned from his Indian guru—who happened to be his grandmother.   The short story?    Young Eknath was complaining about how hard it was to

Here’s What to Do…   Not too long ago, we talked about how I read a book.   I made the point that the most important part of how I read a book is how I decide what book I will read.   I also talked about the fact that, as I followed Joseph Campbell’s wisdom to immerse myself in the wisdom of an author who “grabs me” by reading everything that author has written AND everything by the authors who inspired them, I found myself going deep into Michael Singer’s wisdom AND deep into the wisdom of one of his biggest influences, Yogananda.   In fact, I read five of Yogananda’s little books/booklets in very short order.   They are PACKED with wisdom.   I was blown away by Yogananda’s PRACTICAL spirituality and I could see why Steve Jobs was such a big fan that he reread his Autobiography of a Yogi once a year and why he gifted that book to his friends as THE last thing they got on their way out of his memorial service.    (Think about the significance of that for a moment.)   So…   We’ll be ta

The Most Frequently Asked Question in Heroic Coach   In our last +1, we talked about some Ryan Holiday wisdom from his new book Discipline Is Destiny.   As you may recall, we brought Cato the Elder, Ben Franklin and Marcus Aurelius to the party to talk about the importance of focusing on all the ways WE can get better rather than worrying about all the ways other people need to improve.   Cato told us: “I am prepared to forgive everybody’s mistakes, except my own.”   Ben Franklin told us: “Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.”   Marcus Aurelius told us to be: “Tolerant with others, strict for yourself.”   We could add Jesus’ wisdom to the mix. He told us to quit worrying about the speck of dust in your brother’s eye and to focus on the BEAM in yours!    Same thing.   This is a really important Idea.   And…   It’s funny because as I created that last +1, I thought of what is probably THE most frequently asked question from people going through our Heroic Mastery Serie

Strict with Yourself   I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.   Ryan Holiday is one of my favorite writers. We’ve featured a bunch of his books including The Obstacle Is the Way, The Daily Stoic, Ego Is the Enemy, and Stillness Is the Key.   He’s currently working on “The Stoic Virtue Series” in which he’s creating a new book for each of the cardinal virtues of Stoicism: Courage, Temperance, Justice, and Wisdom.   We briefly chatted about the first book in the series: Courage Is Calling.   Today we’re going to chat about an Idea from the second book in the series: Discipline Is Destiny.   We’re going to talk about an Idea that didn’t make it into the Note. It’s from a chapter called “Tolerant with Others. Strict with Yourself.”   Ryan tells us: “’I am prepared to forgive everybody’s mistakes,’ Cato the Elder said, ‘except my own.’ Ben Franklin, many generations later, would put forth an even better rule: ‘Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.’ Or as Marcu

At Least I Hope You Are, Hero!   In our last +1, we talked about Abigail Adams and her letter to her son, John Quincy Adams.    As you may recall, she admonished the 12-year-old who would become the sixth U.S. President to LIVE WITH VIRTUE.   And, as we discussed, she wisely declared: “These are the times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.”   As part of that +1, I mentioned the fact that I think she and her family would have been part of our Heroic movement—encouraging their kids to cultivate their virtue while doing the same on our Heroic app.   I also mentioned the fact that I think Be

Abigail Adams and Heroic Mothers Unite   Abigail Adams was one of the Heroic Founding Mothers of the United States of America.   I’m convinced that she and Benjamin Franklin and their families would be part of our Heroic movement if they were alive today.   Why?   Because they were intensely passionate about cultivating virtue in their lives and in the lives of their children.   And…   I’m pretty sure () they would have preferred to have their kids on the soon-to-be-launched social features for our Heroic training platform cultivating virtue together rather than on Tik Tok watching another absurd 20-second video.   What data supports that hypothesis?   Glad you asked…   That’s the subject of Today’s +1.   Have you ever seen this quote from Abigail?    “These are the times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great

Which Will It Be, Hero? As we’ve discussed, Brian Cain is an inspiring human being.   He works with some of the greatest athletes in the world and has helped them go to the next (NEXT!) level.   We’ve talked about a bunch of Big Ideas from his two little fables: The 10 Pillars of Mental Performance Mastery and One Percent Better.   Today we’re going to revisit One Percent Better for ONE more wisdom gem.   But…   First…   Pop quiz!!!   Question: What’s 1% of a day?    Do you recall?   (And do you recall that trying to recall something is one of the most powerful ways to dominate Learning 101? Yep.)   Answer: 1% of the day is 14 minutes and 24 seconds.   Note: I’ve changed the countdown on my Timex watch from 16 minutes and 40 seconds (which is 1,000 seconds) to 14 minutes and 24 seconds (1% of the day!!) so I can measure my meditation and deep work time blocks and, well, a bunch of stuff in 1% increments. Super fun. We’ll come back to that more as we have fun seeing if we can ma

Of Self-Mastery: Reactive + Structural + Expansive   I’ve been thinking a lot about the three forms of discipline that make up Self-Mastery.   Here they are:   Structural Discipline.  Reactive Discipline.  Expansive Discipline.   We talk about them in Objective V of Basic Training and I’ll be writing about them in the Heroic book we’ll be launching in early 2024.   Now…   As I sat down to create this +1, I thought this would be the first time I’ve written about the three disciplines. Then, as I was going through the archives, I found that, in fact, we ALREADY chatted about the three disciplines.   We chatted about them in +1 #669 to be precise—over two and a half years ago.   Perfect.   Let’s dust that wisdom off and shine the spotlight of our attention on them again.    Why?    Because they’re SUPER important.   First…   A little more context.   As we’ve discussed many times, Phil Stutz is all about helping us cultivate what he calls “emotional stamina.”    How?    By getting to a