OPTIMIZE with Brian Johnson | More Wisdom in Less Time

George Leonard was an aikido master who wrote a great little book called Mastery. It’s a tiny little book packed with a ton of wisdom. I highly recommend it.

Paulo Coelho says: “To avoid falling into treacherous traps, it is best to consider that you have covered half your journey only when you have walked ninety percent of the road.” That’s some solid wisdom. Think you’re 90% done?

Have you ever heard of “forest bathing”? In Move Your DNA, Katy Bowman tells us just how great it is for our energetic hygiene.

Viktor Frankl was a remarkable human being. He was a leading psychotherapist before suffering the horrors of Nazi concentration camps. He alchemized those experiences into an even deeper understanding of human behavior that he shared in the form of the therapeutic approach he developed called Logotherapy. Frankl captured the essence of that philosophy in his must-read book Man’s Search for Meaning.

Today we hit another special milestone. 451. “Why is 451 a special milestone?” Well, recall our lessons on activation energy.  At 211° you have very hot water. But, it’s not until 212° that our water boils and creates the steam that can power a locomotive. That last degree mattered. A lot. Then we have fire.

In our last +1, we talked about Rule #1 of Nutrition. You remember what it was? Basic idea: It’s not what you start eating that has the most positive impact. It’s what you STOP eating. There aren’t any Fountains of Youth in nature; there ARE poisons. And, you can’t eat enough broccoli to make up for all that pizza.

In our last +1, we talked about the fact that your taste buds are all shiny new every two weeks—which is good news if you’re addicted to overly-sugary stuff and worried about food tasting bland as you make a transition to Optimizing what you eat. Today, we have another pop quiz.

Pop quiz today! Question: Do you know how long it takes for you to grow new taste buds? Whaddya think?

Russ Harris is one of the world’s leading practitioners of “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy” (“ACT” for short)—which is basically a cool hybrid of cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness training.

Have you ever heard of “The Law of Psychological Reactance”? I hadn’t heard of the phrase until I read Instant Influence by Michael Pantalon but, as the father of a 5-year-old, I’d definitely experienced it. (Hah.)