OPTIMIZE with Brian Johnson | More Wisdom in Less Time

In our last +1, we talked about a few of my favorite “Pro” tips to Prosper as we looked forward at our 5-Year view (Prospectus!), moved forward with hope (Prosper!) and made some progress (Profit!).

The other day we wrapped up the Fundamentals module of the Mastery Series phase of our Optimize Coach program. (That was a mouthful, wasn’t it?) (Hah.)

Geoff Colvin’s Talent Is Overrated is a great book. It falls into the “Effort Counts Twice” / Deliberate Practice bucket of how to reach our Peak via Grit, etc. It’s packed with great stories about, as per the sub-title of the book: “What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else.”

In our last +1, we explored the (brilliant) five-word philosophy of Georges Hébert: “Be fit to be useful.” Today we’re going to revisit the same theme from another angle. So…

A couple +1s ago, we hung out with Christopher McDougall and his Natural Born Heroes. For those who may not know, McDougall is also the author of Born to Run. He’s a brilliant story teller.

In our last +1, we reminded ourselves of the fact that the ancient Greek word for hero didn’t mean “tough guy” or “killer of bad guys.” It meant “protector.”

The other day I found myself re-reading our Notes on Christopher McDougall’s great book Natural Born Heroes. Although we’ve talked (many times) about the fact that the ancient word for hero literally meant “protector,” I realized that (somehow!) I’ve never shared McDougall’s brilliant wisdom that catalyzed my emphasis on the whole idea of all of us becoming modern heroes.

This morning I hit the Trail for a super easy recovery day walk-hike. As I was cruising along enjoying the astonishingly perfect blue skies set behind the equally perfect brown-green landscape, I saw a lizard.

In our last +1, we put on our Optimizing nerd glasses and explored the etymological (and psychological) opposites: prosper and despair. We reminded ourselves that prosper literally means “to go forward with hope” while despair literally means “without hope.”

Not too long ago, we talked about the etymology of the word prosper. As you may recall (and I hope you do!), prosper literally means “to go forward with hope.” As such, prosperity isn’t so much the current status of your bank balance (or cash flow statements) as it is your attitude toward life.