You Are Heroic with Brian Johnson

This morning I did the normal 1-2-3 (x2) and celebrated completing the Mastery Series. Then I got to work on reading a book called "Together." It's by Vivek Murthy, who was the 19th Surgeon General of the United States. It's AMAZING. I share a few of my favorite ideas from chapter #1 and also give a little behind-the-scenes look at how I read a book, mark it all up and get ready for a Philosophers...

Today I had fun hammering out the Introduction Module for the Mastery Series. Fired up. Done!! YES!! I also filmed this #1 on the fascinating Audience Effect and another test. 9 hours in bed for 8 hours of sleep for the win!! :)

This morning I ran a little experiment and got out of bed a little earlier than I normally do. It's always fascinating to see the data from experiments and use it to get a little better! In this case: I really like 8 hours of sleep so, note to self: Be in bed for 9 hours and get that little extra bonus kick of REM, yo! Hope you enjoy and here's to crushing the fundamentals and making Today and awe...

Today we're going to take a quick look at THE Ultimate Algorithm for Optimizing. But, first, we drool over Alexandra's RIDICULOUSLY awesome Oura #s. lol. Then we have fun with some wisdom from two Phils: My Coach, Phil Stutz, and NBA great, Phil Jackson. Guess what? They both say the EXACT same thing about how to win the game of life. As Phil Jackson puts it (in The Last Dance ← awesome): "You're...

This morning I worked on the "Prospering" session for our Mastery Series (which is the foundation of our Optimize Coach program). After a 1-2-3 / 1+2+3! Breakfast of Champions (including savoring some *more* SEAL mojo), we move on to a quick overview of how to get your Prospering on—starting with the etymology lesson on the fact that the word "prosper" LITERALLY means "to go forward with hope." Th...

This morning I worked on the "Celebrating" session for our Mastery Series (which is the foundation of our Optimize Coach program). After a 1-2-3 / 1+2+3! Breakfast of Champions (including savoring some SEAL mojo), we move on to a quick overview of how to get your celebration on—starting with acceptance then moving on to gratitude and finishing with you winning (or learning!) all day every day as y...

This morning I thought it would be fun to share how I start my day. Jocko Willink has his 4:00 AM Timex watch. Awesome. I'm thinking I'll share my Oura data every day and how I quickly use that data to get a little better via a three-step process we teach our Optimizers and Optimize Coaches: 1. What's working? 2. What needs work? 3. What will I do differently? BOOM! Repeat. Aggregate and compound...

After filming Eating, Moving, Sleeping, Breathing, and Focusing over the last 5 days (YES!), I took a step back and did some messy creative work on Celebrating. Today I'm excited to share some thoughts on how I plan to approach that Mastery Series class along with some powerful wisdom from Abraham Maslow. Hope you enjoy and here's to Radical Acceptance, Profound Gratitude and Ceaseless Celebration...

In our last +1, we got an inspiring ( Hoosiers -inspired) pep talk from Admiral McRaven right before engaging in our next most important mission.   I mentioned the fact that I had a chat with an Olympic swim coach shortly after reading that passage from McRaven. He and I chatted about that wisdom in the context of measuring the length of the pool, the number of inches the starting block is off the...

This morning I prepared for my film session on Focusing for our Mastery Series that is the core part of our 300-day Optimize Coach program. Here's a super-quick look at some core ideas from that class. Hope you find it helpful!!! Here's to having an awesome day, one FOCUSED (!) moment at a time!! Remember: Soul Force = T x (E x F x W.I.N.)^C

This morning I prepared for my film session on Breathing for our Mastery Series that is the core part of our 300-day Optimize Coach program. Here's a super-quick look at some core ideas from that class. Hope you find it helpful!!! Here's to having an awesome day, one Optimized breath at a time!!  Remember: 1. Nose. 2. Belly. 3. Exhale!!

This morning I was preparing to film a Mastery Series session for our Optimize Coach certification program. We have 7 core fundies: Eating, Moving, Sleeping, Breathing, Focusing, Celebrating and Prospering. Today I was prepping for Sleep. So… Here's a video with a super-quick overview of the wisdom we'll be sharing with an emphasis on one of the key practices we want to engage in if we want to Opt...

A couple +1s ago we spent some time pulling some weeds together as we created some new habits.   How?    By STARTING SMALL and MAKING IT EASY!   (Am I repeating myself AND yelling?! Lol. Yes and Yes. )   Today I want to spend a little more time on our new property. We're going to talk about my new weed whacker and the little running Trail Emerson and I created.    First, a confession.    I'd never...

Today we're going to revisit BJ Fogg's Behavior Design Lab at Stanford.    We've already talked about his equation: B = MAP . (Recall: " Behavior happens when Motivation & Ability & Prompt converge at the same moment." )   Professor Fogg also has some ABCs to help us master the process of Optimizing our behavior: A nchor + B ehavior + C elebration .   Here's how he describes the anatomy of Tiny Ha...

Admiral William H. McRaven is a Retired U.S. Navy SEAL who served for thirty-seven years and commanded at every level.   As a Four-Star Admiral, his final assignment was as Commander of all U.S. Special Operations Forces. (During this time, he oversaw the covert mission that killed Osama bin Laden.)   In 2014, he gave the commencement address to the graduates of the University of Texas at Austin....

Today we're going to go back to Jim Kwik and his great book Limitless one more time.   One of the key themes of the book is that we all have a unique blend of background and passions and skills.   He echoes the wisdom we talked about in a +1 back in the day featuring wisdom from Ken Robinson in which Ken tells us that the right question isn't "Are you intelligent?" but… "HOW are you intelligent ?...

In our last +1, we talked about the fact that, if we could figure out how to take 30 EXPONENTIAL steps, we'd be able to hop in a rocket and go around the Earth two DOZEN times.   Rather than get 90 feet down the street, we'd get a few BILLION steps further in our joyful jaunt around the Earth.   That's crazy.   And, well, that's the power of aggregating and compounding seemingly small changes that...

Continuing our brief foray through Jim Qwik's brain and book , let's talk about the power of getting into Flow.   Jim tells us that being able to flip the switch and drop into a powerful Flow state is one of the keys to tapping into our ( Limitless !!) superpowers.   He quotes Steven Kotler in The Rise of Superman to make his point.   Here's how Steven puts it : "To put it another way: flow is the...

In our last +1, we had some fun playing with Cal Newport's Deep Work equation. We modified it from:  High Quality Work Produced = Time Spent x Intensity of Focus to: High Quality Work Produced = Time Spent x Quality of Energy x Intensity of Focus The basic idea: You can get a TON of high quality work produced when you Focus your best Energy.   Today I want to add one more variable to our equation...

Continuing our brief tour through Kate Hefferon's textbook on Positive Psychology and the Body , let's flip open to the chapter on "Positive Nutrition."   Hmmmm…   I wonder what science has to say about the impact of our diets on our wellbeing…   Guess where Kate starts her discussion?    With sugar.   She tells us: "Sugar has been a component within western diets since the sixteenth century. Whil...

In the last couple +1s, we talked about The Shattered Vase (and the power of taking those pieces and making a beautiful new mosaic) then we practiced The Art of Precious Scars (as we chatted about "golden repairs").   Let's imagine that art sitting on a desk in our dojo-studio.    We've got the mosaic and that golden-seamed vase.   And…   Right next to those pieces of art, let's put a snow globe ....

Have you ever heard of "hedonic treadmills"?   We talked about them briefly a few years ago in the context of this +1 on the science of hedonic adaptation .    Basic idea: We adapt to all the "things" we get in our lives. That shiny new car isn't so shiny a few months after we get it. Same thing with the new phone or TV or whatever.   Sonja Lyubomirksy is one of the world's leading researchers on...

In our last +1, we tapped into some wisdom from Brené Brown's Braving the Wilderness as we wrote ourselves a permission slip and then hopped on the bus.   Today we're going to spend some more time with Brené. And, we'll invite Pema Chodrön to the party.   Brené tells us: "I love Pema Chodrön's 'Lousy World' teaching on this topic. In it, Chodrön uses the lessons of the Indian Buddhist monk Shantid...

In our last +1, we blew up some belly balloons with our kids.    We breathed in through our noses, down into our bellies (can you make that balloon pop?!) then we breathed back out through our noses (slightly longer than the inhale).    Ah…   Repeat.   ESPECIALLY when things start to get a little out of control!!!   Which leads us to another little practice we've been playing around with at the Jo...

A little over seven and half years ago, Emerson was born at home.   We had an amazing midwife (named Mary Jackson ) for both Emerson and Eleanor's births.   I'll never forget the very first moments of Emerson's life.   I had the blessed honor of being the first to officially welcome him into the world.    RIGHT after he was born (literally a couple seconds after), he looked at me and our eyes met....