OPTIMIZE with Brian Johnson | More Wisdom in Less Time

One of the themes we come back to again and again is the basic idea of loving what is — whether that’s via Byron Katie’s wisdom or the Stoics or the Serenity Prayer. Here’s another take on it that I’ve found super helpful.

Steven Pressfield wrote one of my favorite books: The War of Art. Actually, he wrote three of them: The War of Art, Do the Work and Turning Pro. If you’re committed to creating great things, I think that trilogy is pretty much a must read. Short, punchy, change-your-life wisdom on how to move through the inevitable Resistance we all face as we do what we’re here to do.

Not too long ago, we chatted about the importance of not “shoulding” on yourself. (You may recall Tony Robbins’ wisdom that it’s wise to to stop doing that. We also talked about musterbation in that +1. It was quite a tour de (punny) force.) Today, we’re going to check in and make sure you’re not a should-head.

A couple +1s ago we had some fun with Nietzsche. We left his company all too quickly. Today we’ll take a quick look at another one of my all-time favorite aphorisms.

In our last +1, we talked about the power of self-mastery. We took a quick look at Nietzsche’s admonition that one who cannot command should obey.

In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche tells us: “He who cannot command himself should obey. And many can command themselves, but much is still lacking before they can obey themselves.” How epic is that?!

​​Byron Katie wrote a great book called Loving What Is. We talked about her before in the context of making sure you stay in YOUR business rather than God’s business or someone else’s business. (How’s that going for you?)

Once upon a time (so the myth goes), a woman went with her little boy to see Gandhi. She and her son had to travel across most of India. It was a really long trip. Then she and her son had to wait in line all day. It was a really long line.

As we’ve discussed, years ago I did 1-on-1 coaching with one of my favorite authors, Steve Chandler. It was awesome.  One day, Steve and I were talking about something that was stressing me out at the time (funny how you can’t remember the details when a little time elapses, eh?) and he told me to imagine going to the gym. Then he asked me, “Would you go there and pick up styrofoam weights?”

In our last +1, we talked about the often-dreaded U that represents “The Lag” between your effort and your desired outcome. (Of course, that U-Lag is such an inevitable part of every hero’s journey that we’d be wise to embrace it, eh?) Today we’re going to flip that U upside down and talk about The Inverted U.