OPTIMIZE with Brian Johnson | More Wisdom in Less Time - Video

Are you looking for a way to “defeat procrastination, people-pleasing, self-doubt, over- commitment, broken promises and chaos.” Then this books for you. In the Note, we’ll have some fun checking out how to become a time warrior. Big Ideas include learning how to end overwhelm by doing one thing at a time, the power of taking decisive action and how to focus like a sci-fi laser beam! :)

Sleep. It’s the secret sauce to optimal living. In this class, explore my Top 10 favorite Big Ideas on how to create consistent, great night’s of sleep to optimize your energy, mood and mojo. We’ll start with why, unpack the kryptonites that get in the way, set some curfews and get you sleeping like a champ.

All ancient wisdom teachers tell us that if we want to live with a deep, abiding sense of true happiness, we need to live with virtue. Modern science, of course, confirms this ancient wisdom. In fact, the entire field of Positive Psychology was founded on the idea that we need to live in integrity with the core virtues taught by all major wisdom traditions: Courage, Self-Mastery, Integrity, Wisdom, Love, and Transcendence.

Men’s Health says that Dean Karnazes is one of the 100 Fittest Men of ALL Time. He’s done crazy things—like running 350 miles at once. Plus running a marathon to the South Pole in negative 40 degrees. Then there was the time he ran 50 marathons in all 50 US states in 50 days—finishing with the NYC Marathon which he banged out in 3 hours flat. (Nice!)

David Reynolds tells us that feelings follow behavior. You do something and then you feel great—not the other way around. He also tells us that negative feelings will fade if we simply quit thinking about them. Ruminating about what’s wrong and keeping that negative emotion alive is kinda like a scab you keep picking. Just give it some time. Leave it alone. Let it heal itself.

Tim Sanders is awesome. He was the Chief Solutions Officer for Yahoo! back in the day and wrote the uber-cool book Love Is the Killer App—which was one of the books that planted the seed for these PhilosophersNotes. In this great book, Tim shares the wisdom of his beloved Grandma, Billye, who taught him the power of total confidence. The key? As Tim says: “The secret to renewal and true confidence is simple: Get back to the basics.”

Patrick McKeown is one of the world’s leading teachers of the Buteyko Breathing Method which was created in the 1950s by a Russian doctor named Dr. Konstantin Buteyko. McKeown suffered from asthma for decades until he found the Buteyko Method. At which point, he reversed his asthma symptoms and then dedicated his life to helping others optimize their breathing. In this book, he extends the Buteyko Method into an approach he calls the Oxygen Advantage.

Most of us wonder how we can have more willpower in those moments of temptation. But Roy Baumeister—the world’s leading expert on willpower, and one of the most cited social psychologists on the planet—tells us that the people who use their willpower the most wisely don’t actually use it to deal with that many temptations. When we chatted, Roy told me that willpower exemplars play OFFENSE with their willpower not defense.

A lot of people ask me to share more examples of how I personally apply these +1s to my life. Here’s a fun one. So, these days my mornings are pretty simple. Go to bed super early. Get up super early. Meditate, few minutes of movement, Deep Work, hit the Trail Work(out) around sunrise. Then I often like to do a little work capturing ideas from my time on the trail before I head home.

Gay Hendricks tells us that we need to make a big leap into our Genius Zone. He tells us that we can play in one of four domains. Draw a little box with four squares to see it visually. In the bottom right, drop in “Incompetence.” This is for stuff that you just aren't good at. And you probably don't like.

In our last +1 we chatted about the difference between FALLING in love and STANDING in love. It’s easy to fall in love. It’s considerably more challenging to stand in love—whether we’re talking about an intimate relationship with a significant other, a child or a dear friend.

It’s pretty easy to FALL in love. It’s considerably harder to STAND in love. And, simply seeing that distinction is a pretty big deal. Otherwise you might fall into the trap I used to fall into—thinking that any little hiccup in a relationship was a sign that something was wrong with the relationship.

In our last +1 we talked about Byron Katie’s idea that you can be in one of three businesses: someone else’s business, God’s business or YOUR business. Quick recap: We want to stay out of other people’s business and we want to stay out of God’s business as we remain exclusively (!) in our business—remembering that, ultimately, the ONLY things we have control over are our own thoughts and behaviors. Of course, all great wisdom traditions remind us of the same truth.

Pema Chödrön is a Buddhist teacher and prolific author with an incredibly strong, yet compassionate and grounded perspective. This book is all about facing challenging times with courage as we lean into our fears and grow. We'll explore a bunch of Big Ideas on everything from why we should meditate to how long the process of actualizing takes (roughly the rest of our lives :)!

Byron Katie tells us that there are three different businesses we can be in: Our own business, someone else’s business, or God’s business. She tells us that if we want to reduce our suffering, we’d be VERY wise to focus exclusively on OUR business. You may have noticed that it’s I M P O S S I B L E to control someone else—no matter how hard you try, you simply aren’t going to be able to flip a switch and change someone. Period. Therefore, get out of their business and quit trying.