OPTIMIZE with Brian Johnson | More Wisdom in Less Time

In our last +1, we talked about bliss, artifice and me standing on one leg while reading. (Laughing.) I promised to talk about kamiwaza today and, as Emerson and I chatted about on our drive to Whole Foods the other day, it’s important to honor our commitments and do what we say we’ll do. So, let’s.

The other day I was reading Seth Godin’s brilliant manifesto-book The Icarus Deception. btw, for curious souls: I was actually standing on one leg while reading. Laughing. Yep. That’s like me.

As we discuss in Movement 101, it’s really easy to be “active” and yet still “sedentary” if we drive to the gym, bang out a workout and then sit all day. As such, it’s important to find “opportunities to move” throughout the day.

We’ve been talking a lot about “athletes” lately—from traditional athletes going for the gold to cognitive athletes kicking their digital puffing addiction. Well, I think it’s time we open up our dictionary and look up the word athlete. I’m curious about the ancient etymology of the word. What does the word “athlete” literally mean?

We’ve been talking a lot about how champions maximize minutes—giving everything they’ve got into being the best versions of themselves. Thank you, John Wooden, Vince Lombardi, and Dan Millman for your wisdom. Today we’e going to invite Gandhi to the party to establish the fact that this isn’t a SPORTS idea, it’s a SPIRITUAL ideal.

In our last couple +1s, we’ve talked about Optimizing your FOMO by unplugging from the incessant consumption of the inessential. Today I’d like to look at the same basic idea from a slightly different angle.

In our last +1, we talked about Ryan Holiday’s pro tip on how to reclaim lost time, energy and pure brainpower. (Have you practiced your “I don’t know” or “I don’t care” yet?) Today we’re going to talk about one of the reasons it’s so hard to unplug and step outside of the echo chamber of the inessential: FOMO. That dreaded fear of missing out. But, what, exactly, are we so afraid of missing out on?

As we’ve discussed, Ryan Holiday is a modern Stoic. I think of him several times a day when I take his "Memento Mori" coin out of my pocket and flip it as I do my warm-up hike on my Trail every morning and when I’m out walking during the day—by myself or with the kids.

In our last +1, we talked about our ego vis-a-vis our id and superego. I made the case for why having a STRONG ego that can effectively manage our impulses and our conditioning is the ticket to the Divine. I wrapped that up by saying that getting ourselves strong enough to allow the Divine to flow through us more and more consistently is, from my vantage point, the essence of our work together.

In our last +1, we continued our chat about the fact that your perfection is already there. It’s just waiting for you to follow Rule #1 and quit doing yourself harm. I said that that just requires a little more discipline from you. (And me.) Which makes me think about the connection between our ego and the divine within. This is part of a much longer discussion. But here’s the quick take.