OPTIMIZE with Brian Johnson | More Wisdom in Less Time

Nathaniel Branden was a fascinating guy. As a teenager he wrote a fan letter to Ayn Rand—which she ignored. Then he wrote another letter a little later which led to an intimate relationship and collaboration.

A couple +1s ago we talked about the two Goddesses of wealth. Deepak Chopra’s advice? Focus on the Goddess of Knowledge and the Goddess of Wealth will chase you.

We talk a lot about the idea that the good life is one endlessly evolving process, with us spiraling up into the next-best version of ourselves. Here’s another take on that theme.

As I was writing that last +1 about our two Goddesses, some sort of truck starting beeping down the street. I immediately reached over and put on my super simple sound proofing ear muffs. And, I thought of a little study.

In Creating Affluence, Deepak Chopra tells a great story about two Goddesses involved in creating abundance in our lives. Now, I’m a one-Goddess kinda guy (and her name is Alexandra) and I’m sensitive to the gender bias in this story, but I love the basic essence of this story so let’s have some fun with it.

We’ve talked about how exercise is kinda like taking a little bit of Ritalin and a little bit of Prozac, but somehow we’ve gotten this far into our +1 series without talking about the fact that exercise is as effective as Zoloft in reducing depression.

Pema Chödrön tells us that being mad at someone and holding a grudge is kinda like eating rat poison and thinking the rat will die. Last time I checked, that’s not very smart.

Once upon a time, an extraordinary teacher gave a little Sermon on the Mount. Among other things, he told us: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” But, alas, what did Jesus REALLY mean when he said that?!

In our last +1, we talked about my new railroad spike. (You get your own yet? And, most importantly: Have you hammered away at your #1 most wildly important goal yet today?) Did you know that Stephen King liked spikes as well? Yep.

In Self-Image 101, we talked about how to create the most heroically awesome version of yourself by integrating the “Optimus” you and the “en*theos” you into the “Hērōs” you. We also talked about Other Image 101—aka: How do you see OTHERS?