OPTIMIZE with Brian Johnson | More Wisdom in Less Time

In our last +1, we talked about Phil Stutz’s idea on Unilaterality. Recall: To act unilaterally is to take action independent of anyone else doing anything. Apply it to your relationship by doing what you know is the right thing and we have unilaterality.

The other day Phil Stutz and I were having another great coaching session. Side note: My stack of notes from our chats is getting so thick that I’m starting to think I need to write a book called “Mondays with Phil.” (Hah. Seriously.)

In The Science of Getting Rich (best title ever?), Wallace D. Wattles (definitely best name ever) tells us that, if we want to enjoy the process of creating abundance in every facet of our lives, we need to make sure we focus on CREATING not COMPETING.

How to Feel Empowered Around Food and Fuel Your Awesomely Authentic Life

Do you know where the whole “go the second mile” concept comes from?

Many of you probably know that it’s from the Bible where Jesus tells us to rock that second mile, but do you know WHY he said that? It’s kinda fascinating.

Here's another little gem from Dan Pink’s To Sell Is Human. (The man is a brilliant writer and a treasure-trove of goodness.) He tells us that, according to research from McKinsey: “the typical American hears or reads more than one hundred thousand words every day.” Think about that for a moment. 100,000 words. EVERY DAY. When I think about that, I immediately think of a few things: A Lion, a King, and a Monk.

In To Sell Is Human, Dan Pink tells us about research Adam Grant has done on which personality types make the best salespeople. What’s your guess? Do you think EXTROVERTS are, on average, better salespeople? Or INTROVERTS? Hmmm… Whaddya say? Well, my friend. That’s another trick question. As it turns out, AMBIVERTS make the best salespeople. Ambiverts? Yah. Ambiverts. Part extrovert. Part introvert.

Today we’re going to have some fun mapping out how to use micro-moments of frustration to catalyze the next-best version of you, antifragile style. We’re going to call the whole process “antifragile affirmactions.” We’ll start by identifying some little thing that might currently annoy you. So… What’s one situation in which you find yourself getting a little annoyed? Doesn’t need to be a big deal, but let’s take a moment and find one little thing. Got it? Awesome.

Do you know what the Tibetan word for “guilty” is? Trick question! There ISN’T a word for “guilty” in Tibetan. According to Geshe Michael Roach in his great book The Diamond Cutter: “There’s no word in Tibetan for ‘guilty.’ The closest thing is ‘intelligent regret that decides to do things differently.’” I like that.

Alan Cohen has a couple great ways to help us get our minds right. He tells us to imagine having bouncers in our heads. And lawyers. He puts it so brilliantly, we’re going to let him take over Today’s +1.