OPTIMIZE with Brian Johnson | More Wisdom in Less Time

David Brooks wrote a great book called The Road to Character. In it, among other things, we learned about “Résumé Virtues” vs. “Eulogy Virtues.” So, when Alexandra told me she got his newest book called The Second Mountain, I immediately snatched it and started reading it. It’s awesome.

Continuing our exploration of Stoic practices that help us step in between stimulus and response so we can choose our optimal response, let’s hear how Marcus Aurelius approached it.

In our last +1, we left Zeno the leopard gecko in his terrarium and hung out with Zeno the founder of Stoicism. As we discussed, Zeno was a wealthy merchant who arrived in Athens via shipwreck, discovered philosophy and then told his students that “he had come to value wisdom more than wealth or reputation.”

In our last +1, we hung out with a couple of Zenos—Emerson’s leopard gecko and the founder of Stoicism. Side note: Every single time I look at our gecko I feel like I’m looking backwards in time.

The Alter Ego Effect. This is one of the most fun and compelling and inspiring books I’ve read in awhile. I REALLY (!!!) enjoyed reading it, had a ton of fun constructing and playing with some potential Alter Egos and highly recommend it.

In our last +1, we spent some time with Emerson in his epic, striped PJs and practiced our new exploding fist bumps of love.

This morning I was wrapping up yet another AM1 Deep Work session when I heard the tap-tap-tap little knock on the office door.

In our last +1, we hung out with Ellen Langer, Stephen Covey and Dave Ramsey, having fun with some 1 + 1 math.

Not too long ago, we talked about the fact that 1 + 1 doesn’t always equal 2. In fact, as Ellen Langer tells us, the answer to the question “What’s 1 + 1?” is “It depends.” Add the Arabic numeral “1” to another and Arabic numeral “1” and we get 2.

This morning I was reading John Maxwell’s new book on leadership called Leadershift. He was talking about the importance of humility and quoted pastor and author Rick Warren who tells us: “Humility is not denying your strengths. Humility is being honest about your weaknesses.”