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. 

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.

In our last +1, we talked about some wisdom from Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness’s great book The Passion Paradox. Recall: We can have either a healthy “Harmonious Passion” in which we seek mastery and experience the joys of mindfully embracing our passion or… We can have a less-than-healthy “Obsessive Passion” in which our lives go off the rails in pursuit of outcome goals that become toxic. 

Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness have written a couple great books together. First, they gave us Peak Performance. Then The Passion Paradox.

Back in the day, we had a +1 on “The Optimizer in the Arena” in which we reflected on Teddy Roosevelt’s epic “Citizenship in a Republic” speech that became known as “The Man in the Arena” speech.

Continuing our brief trip through Marie Forleo’s brilliant brain and equally wise book Everything Is Figureoutable, let’s redefine one more f-word. We started with Can’t vs. Won’t. Then we moved on to upgrading fear to FEAR by “Facing Everything And Rising.”

Continuing our exploration of Marie Forleo’s four-letter wisdom, let’s take another moment to mine some gems from her astonishingly good book Everything Is Figureoutable. In our last +1, we crossed out the “I can’t”s in our lives and replaced them with a more honest “I won’t.”

Over the last handful of +1s, we’ve had some fun with Marie Forleo’s wisdom from her GREAT (!) book Everything Is Figureoutable. (Seriously. Highly recommend it.)