OPTIMIZE with Brian Johnson | More Wisdom in Less Time

Today we’re going to talk about ink blobs and emptiness. First: Have you ever heard of Rorschach tests? Basically, psychologists can sneak a peek into their patients’ consciousness by asking them to describe what they see when they look at a picture of an ink blob.

Quick pop quiz: Are you afraid of something these days? Pause for a moment and identify one thing that’s kinda (or really) stressing you out. Might be work, relationships, finances. Whatever.

Ray Dalio shares a ton of wisdom in his epic book Principles. Here’s an idea I come back to often in my coaching sessions and in my own strategic thinking.

Susan Peirce Thompson wrote a great book called Bright Line Eating. She has a Ph.D. in neuroscience and is one of the world’s leading experts on the psychology of eating.

In our last +1, we talked about Maxwell Maltz’s Psycho-Cybernetics. We took a quick look at servo-mechanisms (like missiles) that have a target and then constantly adjust course until they hit the target.

Matthew Kelly has written a number of great books. We have Notes on three of them: Perfectly Yourself, The Rhythm of Life and Off Balance. In Off Balance, Mathew tells us that if we want to change the trajectory of our lives (and/or careers), we need to change the period of time we think about.

In our last +1, we talked about a word Aristotle coined to capture that Life Force within each of us (and everything) that pushes us (and everything else) from potentiality to actualization. He called it “entelechy.”

As we’ve discussed, if I had to summarize my entire philosophy in one sentence, one of Abraham Maslow’s gems would probably do the trick. He tells us: “What one can be, one must be.”

Continuing our abundance theme, let’s talk about WHY we may be trying to make money and create wealth. There’s only one reason. It’s the ultimate currency. We want to be (and think money will help us be) happy. Therefore, 10 out of 10 ancient philosophers and modern scientists agree: It’s wise to step back and make sure we’re approaching the whole money thing with that ultimate currency in mind and not making trade-offs we later regret.