OPTIMIZE with Brian Johnson | More Wisdom in Less Time

In our last +1 (#1,000!!), we celebrated our gritty Optimizers who have hammered all 1,000 +1s. One more time: Go you. Welcome to the Optimize Hall of Fame. So… This is Optimize +1 #1,001.

This is Optimize +1 #1,000. I don’t really know how to best start this one other than by saying: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Seriously. I am so honored to be a part of your life—whether that’s occasionally or every day. And I’m deeply grateful to have your support so I can do what I do. Thank you.

The other day I was chatting with one of my favorite people on the planet: Joan Vernikos. Joan was at NASA when we landed a man on the moon. She was part of a small group of health scientists responsible for running research studies on the effects of being in OUTER SPACE! (While, of course, making sure our astronauts came back safely!

In our last +1, we chatted about eudaimonology—the study of a good soul. Recall that the ancient Greek philosophers thought that a sense of flourishing and fully expressing the best within ourselves was the summum bonum of life—the highest good.

Somehow we’re approaching Optimize +1 #1,000 and we have yet to discuss one of my favorite Ideas and the very first thing we teach our Optimize Coaches and Mastery Optimizers.

A couple +1s ago, we hung out with my two favorite Joes: Joseph Campbell and Joe De Sena. At the end of that +1, I shared a bunch of wisdom gems from Grandpa Joe.

In our last +1, we hung out with my two favorite Joes: Scholar of the Hero’s Journey (and Grandpa in my spiritual family tree) Joseph Campbell, and gritty heroic exemplar (and soul brother), Joe De Sena.

I started writing this at 5:22 on September 29th, 2019. I was in the Squaw Valley Resort (room 316) in Northern Lake Tahoe for the Spartan World Championships that we talked about not too long ago.

In our last +1, we talked about some William James wisdom from Ryan Holiday’s new book Stillness Is the Key. Recall: According to Professor James: “There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation.”

Ryan Holiday has written a bunch of great books. The Obstacle Is the Way. Ego Is the Enemy. The Daily Stoic. His latest? Stillness Is the Key. It’s fantastic.