OPTIMIZE with Brian Johnson | More Wisdom in Less Time

In our last couple +1s, we talked about the art and science of lining up our dominoes in one neat and shiny staircase to moon-heaven.  It all sounds so nice and easy when it’s mapped out like that, eh? (Hah.) But… Alas, there are a few important asterisks to that little story.

While taking a quick gander at other definitions and examples of force multipliers, I stumbled upon a brilliant blog post about some wisdom from retired four-star general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Not too long ago, we talked about William B. Irvine’s Guide to the Good Life in which he shares some practical tools to master “The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy.”

A couple +1s ago, we pondered Frederick Buechner’s wisdom on callings. Recall that he once wrote: “The kind of work God usually calls you to do is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done. . . . The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

In our last couple +1s, we’ve been soaking our souls in some wisdom from Stephen Cope’s The Great Work of Your Life. Today we’re going to talk about prayer.

In our last +1, we talked about Stephen Cope’s take on dharma.  Recall his belief that “every single human being has a unique vocation” AND that “every human being’s duty is to utterly, fully, and completely embody his own idiosyncratic dharma.”

In our last couple +1s, we’ve had fun exploring some wisdom gems from my recent PhilosophersNotes binge-athon. Today we’re going to talk about another great Idea from another great Note. This one’s on Stephen Cope’s The Great Work of Your Life.

In our last +1, we talked about The Happiness Diet as we did some napkin math on the odds of getting depression based on whether you eat a SAD diet or a Happy Diet.

In our last +1, we talked about my recent PhilosophersNotes-athon. 25 PN’s in 2.5 days for the win!! One of the Notes I REALLY enjoyed was on The Happiness Diet by Tyler Graham and Drew Ramsey, MD. The whole book/Note is fantastic. As you may have guessed by the title, it’s all about how a MUCH larger percentage of our happiness is driven by our DIET than we may have suspected.

As I approach my 45th birthday, I’ve been having fun looking back on the last 10+ years of PhilosophersNotes as I look forward to the next 5-10 years of helping you Optimize and actualize so we can be the change and change the world together.