You Are Heroic with Brian Johnson

In one of our very first Notes, we took a quick look at Brendan Brazier's The Thrive Diet .    I read the book when it came out nearly a dozen years ago. Loved it. Then Brendan and I met at an event, became friends, etc.   If you're looking for ideas on how to be a high-performance plant-based athlete/human, I think you'll enjoy Brenden  and his work. He's a former professional endurance athlete a...

Today is, of course, October 2nd, 2019.    Let's hop in a time machine.    Destination: 150 years ago: 1869.    Cars don't exist yet. Neither do phones. (Let alone a smartphone.)    So…    Imagine me sending this to you via telegram as we appreciate all the marvels of modern life.   150 years ago Today a great soul was born: Mohandas Gandhi.   Let's celebrate by taking a moment to reflect on his i...

In our last couple +1s, we've been hanging out in our guts. (Good times! )   Surprisingly, that's where we discovered 90% (!) of our serotonin and 70-80% (!!) of our immune systems.   Crazy, eh?   Today we're going to spend another moment on the subject.   Get this: Although modern medicine pretty much ignores the gut as its standard of care focuses on alleviating symptoms rather than Optimizing s...

Dr. Steven Gundry is Tony Robbins' doctor. He's a former world-class heart surgeon. These days he focuses on longevity.   His new book is called The Longevity Paradox . Sub-title: "How to Die Young at a Ripe Old Age."    It's fantastic. I highly recommend it.    The main theme of the book is that our longevity, paradoxically, is driven by the most ancient parts of us—the bacteria and other "foreig...

This morning I was doing my normal thing. In the process, I came up with a little insight I'm excited to share.    First, the quick recap of what led to the insight.   Of course, my day started yesterday when I shutdown early the day before (4:00 PM; right after my every-Monday coaching call) , hung out with the fam then went to bed super early (7:30 PM) and deliberately spent 10 hours in bed (get...

In our last +1, we talked about the Fundies and how (ahem) fundamental they are to our Optimizing and Actualizing.    Eat! Move! Sleep! Breathe! Be Present! Prosper!   As I said, if I could whisper one thing in my younger self's ear, I think it would be to MASTER those guys as I'm firmly convinced that when we get our PHYSIOLOGY properly Optimized, the rest tends to follow pretty smoothly via the...

In our last +1, we talked about lint on the projector's lens and the fact that, as per Byron Katie, " every perceived problem appearing 'out there' is really nothing more than a misperception within your own thinking."    As I imagined us all busting out a nice little cloth to clean up our own lens rather than trying to change things "out there," I thought of another great spiritual teacher.   He...

Continuing our series on how to build a bonFIRE,  today we're going to chat about The Big 3 of creating Financial Independence (and Interdependence) as we win the ultimate game of life, Realizing Eudaimonia.   Let's flip open our copies of The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins for this wisdom-love.   As we briefly discussed in our last +1, JL is a tough-love, lovable Uncle kinda guy. He original...

At this stage, most people have heard of Dale Carnegie's uber-bestselling book How to Win Friends and Influence People . It was originally published in 1936 and has sold 15 million copies.    It helped kicked off the whole self-development movement and is one of the bestselling self-help book of all time. (It was #19 on Time magazines list of all-time most influential books.)   Having said that, I...

In our last couple +1s, we talked about Seneca's wisdom on the importance of "fortifying our pertinacity" until our will to do the right thing becomes a disposition to doing the right thing.   That's basically EXACTLY what we talked about a little bit ago when we explored the Algorithms Module we recently went through in the Mastery portion of our Optimize Coach program .   As you may recall (bonu...

Skipping the longer philosophical chat about the ethics of being a conqueror, Today we're going to chat about Alexander the Great.   More specifically, we're going to talk about him and a knot.   The Gordion Knot .   You know the story?   Wikipedia tells us that legend has it that, once upon a time, the ancient people known as the Phrygians (who lived in what is now modern Turkey) didn't have a ki...

We're kinda on a roll with the whole envy-squishing theme, so why not one more?   In our last +1,  we talked about the fact that if we're going to compare ourselves to others (please don't! lol) we might as well do it right—recognizing the fact that EVERYONE experiences ups and downs en route to their particular flavor of awesome.   That wisdom reminds me of some parallel wisdom from Alan Stein's...

In our last +1, we reflected on the idea that little (and big) oopses provide us with opportunities to appreciate that we're still alive as we practice gratitude that something much worse didn't happen.    " At least THAT didn't happen! "   For me, when I broke my arm, I was grateful I didn't break my neck. When I tripped and nearly fell the other day, I was grateful I had an abdominal strain and...

This morning on the Trail I was thinking about Mister Rogers and his challenges creating (recall our "tortures of the damned" !) along with Dr. Seuss and all his creative challenges .   Then I was thinking about all the challenges I (and we all) face as I (and we all) strive to do my (and our) life's work. (And… I was thinking about that gap that pretty much *always* exists between what we see in...

Continuing our trip through Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky's brilliant brains and equally brilliant book Make Time , Today we're going to have fun with a little history lesson combined with a super-simple way to start chipping away at all those twitchy smartphone touches.   (I still can't believe the average person touches their phones 2,617 times per day!!! )   Jake and JZ give us a ton of great ta...

A couple +1s ago, we hung out with Mister Rogers in his barrelful of songs.    Today I want to hop in the pool with him and then do something extra special.   First, some more wisdom from The World According to Mister Rogers .   Fred tells us: "I like to swim, but there are some days I just don't feel much like doing it—but I do it anyway! I know it's good for me and I like to keep my promises. Th...

In our last +1, we talked about being the change we want to see in the world.   I asked: What change DO you want to see?   (Well… What is it?! And… Are you being it?!)   That makes me think of another 20th century icon: Mister Fred Rogers.   In his great little book The World According to Mister Rogers , we get to immerse ourselves in a collection of wisdom-gems from the great man.   Including thi...

Today I'd like to let you know that I officially have a new job. It's one I'm quite excited about.   First, a little context.   You know that Ferrari pit crew guy I've been obsessing about ? You know, the one we watched in this little video .    (I'm literally getting that picture framed so I can put it up in my office, btw.)   As you may recall, his sole job is to yank off the right-front tire wh...

In our last +1, we talked about Twyla Tharp's thoughts on reading and thinking.   Recall her comment that: "If I stopped reading, I'd stop thinking. It's that simple."   (Amen!)   Today I'd like to talk about HOW she reads.   I really like her perspective because it's pretty much EXACTLY how I read.    And, well, people are always asking me how I read a book so let's go with this wisdom as a perfe...

Have you ever read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho?   It's amazing. I've read it a bunch of times.    Guess how many copies the book has sold since Paulo wrote it over 30 years ago…   65 MILLION! (!!!)   It's been translated into 80 (!!) languages ( which takes the prize for the most translated book by any living author) and is widely considered one of the ten best books of the twentieth century.  ...

In our last couple +1s, we've had fun (at least I have! ) briefly chatting about the first two steps Paul Napper and Anthony Rao encourage us to take in pursuit of cultivating our Agency such that life's challenges are just nutritious treats fueling our hero's journeys.   Step 1: Control Stimuli. Step 2: Selectively Associate.    Today we're going to talk about Step 3: Move .   Here's how Paul and...

In our last little flurry of +1s, we had some fun with Mel Robbins's 5 Second Rule.   Have you tried it out yet?   5… 4… 3… 2… 1… - GO!!!   That might be THE most elegantly efficient Tool we've discussed to help close the gap between who we're CAPABLE of being and who we're ACTUALLY being. (Operationalizing Areté for the win!)    Now, one of the key themes of Mel's book and reasons why that tool i...

In our last +1, we talked about our new Optimus launch code: "5… 4… 3… 2… 1… Now what needs to be done?"    Although I didn't make the second part of the little launch mantra explicit, we connected Mel Robbins's brilliant 5 Second Rule with David Reynold's Constructive Living Rule.   It's always awesome to see teachers from such different backgrounds say basically exactly the same thing.   As you...

A couple +1s ago, we hung out with a world-class Ferrari pit stop crew and took a moment to celebrate all the people in OUR pit stop crews while committing to stepping up our pit crew games for those we're blessed to serve.   Today I want to talk about WD-40.   I've actually been meaning to talk about it for awhile and Today seems like a good day.    Of course, I have no idea if pit stop crews use...

Way back in the early days of our +1 Optimizing together, we talked about the fact that our limbic systems evolved to deal with a single lion roaring at us at a time.    As we said in that little chat on Lions vs. Jungles , that lion's roar triggers a fight or flight response. We fight or we flee. And, hopefully, we live to talk about the tale later.    But, the important thing to note is that the...