OPTIMIZE with Brian Johnson | More Wisdom in Less Time

In our last +1, we spent some time with Tim Ferriss, setting some unusually large goals and thinking about the fact that those jumbo goals can often be, paradoxically, easier to reach than the “realistic” goals that everyone else is going after.

In our last +1, we spent some time with Isaiah Hankel in his Black Hole of Focus and talked about “How Intelligent People Can Create a Powerful Purpose for Their Lives.”

In our last couple +1s, we did some gardening with Kennedy, fixed our roofs together and we got ready to land on the moon. Now… To find that moonshot wisdom, I did a quick search of the 596 PhilosophersNotes I have on my Mac. “Kennedy moon.”

In our last +1, we planted some trees with John F. Kennedy. Recall that he told us: “I am reminded of the story of the great French Marshal Lyautey, who once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow-growing and would not reach maturity for a hundred years. The Marshal replied, ‘In that case, there is no time to lose, plant it this afternoon.’” (You plant a little tree yesterday?)

The other day I was chatting with our Head Coach Michael Balchan and he mentioned Kennedy’s quote about a tree taking decades to reach maturity; therefore, we should plant it NOW!

In our last few +1s, we’ve been learning how to operationalize antifragile confidence so we can make disaster virtue’s opportunity.

In our last +1, we spent some more time with our beloved Roman Stoic Seneca. As you may recall, first he told us that “Disaster is virtue’s opportunity.” Then he told us: “Make progress, and, before all else, try hard to be consistent with yourself.”

In our last +1, we hung out with Tom Morris and Seneca. As you may recall, Seneca reminded us that it’s in overcoming the challenges in our lives that we develop the deepest sense of (antifragile!) confidence.

If you haven’t noticed, I can’t quite get enough of Stoic wisdom. In fact, I can’t quite get enough of ancient (Stoic) wisdom AND modern science—which is why I’ve been on a little streak of reading one positive psychology book then a Stoic book then another science of flourishing book then back to the Stoics.

As we’ve discussed many times, Habit #1 of Stephen Covey’s Highly Effective People is…