OPTIMIZE with Brian Johnson | More Wisdom in Less Time

The other day as I was driving to the mountain for my sunrise Trail work, I passed an ambulance in front of a house and saw two paramedics draping a gurney. It was obvious they were getting the gurney ready and that, very shortly, someone would be on that gurney and then in the ambulance. For whatever reason, I immediately thought of John Donne’s “for whom the bell tolls” line.

The other (Mon)day, my Yoda and I were having our normal 3:00pm session. We were chatting about growing Optimize and some exciting stuff that’s been bubbling up. Then Phil compared our growth opportunities to the inherent dynamics of the Universe. (Always fun to go there. lol)

In our last +1, we talked about my Yoda schooling me on how to apply dark energy to my life by aligning with that Force that’s driving the expansion of the Universe at a mind-exploding velocity. Today we’re going to talk about another facet of that chat—which is really the essence of all of Phil’s work with The Tools and Coming Alive.

In our last +1, we talked about the fact that batting .300 over the course of your Major League Baseball career gets you in the Hall of Fame. Today we’re going to continue the baseball metaphor. Pop quiz for baseball fans: You know how many perfect games have EVER been thrown?!

I don’t know about you, but I’m still kind of attached to the idea that I should never make a mistake. I mean, I get it intellectually. We’ve gotta remember to have a growth mindset, that you can’t do anything great without some setbacks, no movie was ever shot in one perfect sequence of scenes—there are always “mis-takes,” etc. yada yada etc.

While we’re talking about Alex Lickerman and his ideas on how to create an indestructible self while turning poison into medicine and all that goodness, let’s talk about your purpose in life. Specifically, your MISSION in life.

Continuing our “let’s create an indestructible self” theme (!), here’s another way Alex Lickerman encourages us to think about it in his great book The Undefeated Mind.

In our last +1, we talked about inviting the Conquering Hero to your mind-wandering party and escorting out the Suffering (Whiney) Martyr. Today, let’s continue that chat by talking about how to construct an Indestructible Mind.

In our last +1, we talked about the science of daydreaming. Quick recap: Stay out of the “poor attention control” and “guilty-dysphoric” realms and in the “positive-constructive” mode.

Did you know there’s actually a science of daydreaming? It’s true. Thank you, awesome researchers. Technically, they describe it as either daydreaming or “mind-wandering” but it’s important stuff.