OPTIMIZE with Brian Johnson | More Wisdom in Less Time

Michael Beckwith coined one of my favorite words: blissipline. ​​Two parts: Bliss + Discipline.

This is our final idea in our second +1 series on Cancer. We’re going to cultivate more hope.  But… First, let me step back up on the science soapbox… ​​PLEASE NOTE: This hope we’re cultivating is NOT a false hope. It is a hope grounded in rigorous science. It is a functional hope and optimism — one that embraces the harsh facts of our reality while stepping back far enough from our pain and fear and overwhelm to see the levers we can wisely pull in pursuit of an optimal outcome.

In our last +1, we talked about our 80/20 180 phase in which we implemented a number of high-leverage lifestyle changes. After that stabilization and Optimizing process, we went deep into what research shows to be a REALLY powerful targeted therapy for cancer: a ketogenic diet.

Today we have an Optimize +11. (Hah.) Although this one’s longer than the normal installment, I hope you find it helpful! As we discussed in Conquering Cancer 101 and our prior +1s on cancer, one of the first things I did after my brother’s diagnosis was reach out to my dear friend Pilar Gerasimo.

We’ve had a lot of people ask for a class on Public Speaking. It tends to freak a lot of people out which is why Idea #1 features Jerry Seinfeld’s quip that most people are so afraid of public speaking that they’d prefer to *receive* a eulogy than give one. (Hah.) Alas, if you have any fears over speaking in public, you’re not alone.

For Today’s +1, please dust off your high school biology class textbooks and open to the page on cells. Recall that a cell has two primary components: A nucleus (where all the genetic info is stored) and a cytoplasm (where all the energy metabolism occurs). Got it?

Remember that study done with kids adopted at birth? What’d we learn? Another quick recap: We learned that whether or not the kids’ biological parents (with whom they never lived) got cancer before 50 had no effect whereas whether or not the adoptive parents (with whom they shared no genes but did “inherit” lifestyle habits) made a huge impact on the likelihood of the kids also getting cancer.

Otto Warburg was a really smart guy. He won the Nobel Prize in 1931 for his discovery of the fact that cancer cells create energy in a weird way. (And, he was nominated for a couple other Nobel Prizes as well — which is a hard thing to achieve.) I’ll quote our UPS driver, Wes, for the short story on Warburg’s discovery: “Cancer loves sugar.” You might have heard about that before, eh?

So, on one hand, as per our last +1, science shows that genes play a surprisingly small role in the cause of cancer. Yet… Guess where nearly all of that $100 billion of research money has has been spent? Yep.

Today we have another Pop Quiz. And, we actually already had this pop quiz but it’s a question we want to make sure we get right as a lot hinges on it.