You Are Heroic with Brian Johnson

Latest Episodes:

Optimizing Algorithms 101 (Intro) Aug 26, 2018

Show notes

+1: #505 Solvitur Ambulando Aug 23, 2018

Show notes

Today we're going to talk about walking. Walking is awesome. In fact, it's so old-school epically awesome in helping thinkers think that our ancient friends even had a Latin phrase to capture its power: Solvitur ambulando. <- "It is solved by walking." Nietzsche would agree. He said: "All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking." Kierkegaard would agree. He put it this way: "I have walked myself into my best thoughts." Then we have Immanuel Kant. He was so consistent with his daily walks that his neighbors could set their clocks to the time he passed their houses. (They even named a street after him called "Philosopher's Walk.") Then we have Charles Darwin. For nearly FORTY years he followed his schedule with "clockwork" precision. And, you know what made it on the schedule every day? His walk. He was so committed to it that he actually leased his neighbor's land just so he could do a complete loop on what became known as Sandwalk (although he preferred to call it his "thinking path"). Then there's Aristotle. He and his followers walked so much as they thought and taught and philosophized that they were known as the "peripatetics"—which literally means "walking up and down." Of course, modern scientists have proven just how powerful walking is for creativity. (Especially in nature!) So, yah. Ancient and modern philosophers agree: Walking is pretty powerful. But, pop quiz! You know what NONE of those philosophers had on their deep-thinking walks? SMARTPHONES. Of course, none of them lived in a world with such a nonstop tsunami of digital distractions but I can assure you that no self-respecting, deep-thinking lover of wisdom would bring a device that would subject them to OTHER people's thoughts on a walk intended to tap into THEIR own thoughts. … How about you? Today's +1. Go for a walk. (Ideally somewhere easy to get to yet beautiful.) And leave your smartphone at home. (Or in the car/whatever.) Say hello to your deep thoughts for me.

+1: #500 Thrown a Perfect Game Lately? Aug 18, 2018

Show notes

In our last +1, we talked about the fact that batting .300 over the course of your Major League Baseball career gets you in the Hall of Fame. Today we're going to continue the baseball metaphor. Pop quiz for baseball fans: You know how many perfect games have EVER been thrown?! (For those who may not know, a perfect game is defined by Major League Baseball (via Wikipedia) as "a game in which a pitcher (or combination of pitchers) pitches for a victory [in a game] that lasts a minimum of nine innings in which no opposing player reaches base.") So… Get this: According to Wikipedia, Major League Baseball has been around for 140 years. Over 210,000 (!) games have been played. And only 23 (!) perfect games have ever been pitched. And… No player has ever thrown more than one perfect game. 140 years. 210,000 (!) games. Only 23 perfect games. And NO pitcher has ever done it twice. Yet you and I want to have perfect lives. (Hahahahahhaha!) I'm also reminded of John Wooden. He was all about GOING for perfection but only doing so KNOWING we'll never actually get it! Here's how he puts it: "Perfection is what you are striving for, but perfection is an impossibility. However, striving for perfection is not an impossibility. Do the best you can under the conditions that exist. That is what counts." (Sounds a lot like our Guiding Stars and Distant Shores, eh?) You know what else Wooden said? This: "When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. When you improve conditioning a little each day, eventually you have a big improvement in conditioning. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made. Don't look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That's the only way it happens—and when it happens, it lasts." (Sounds a lot like our Optimize +1s, eh?) And, one more Wooden gem (all of these are from his book called Wooden, btw): "Did I win? Did I lose? Those are the wrong questions. The correct question is: Did I make my best effort? That's what matters. The rest of it just gets in the way." Today's +1. Let's make our best effort. Let's "seek the small improvement one day at a time. That's the only way it happens—and when it happens, it lasts." +1. +1. +1.

+1: #495 Conquering Hero vs. Suffering Martyr Aug 13, 2018

Show notes

In our last +1, we talked about the science of daydreaming. Quick recap: Stay out of the "poor attention control" and "guilty-dysphoric" realms and in the "positive-constructive" mode. Here's another way to think about it. (Thanks again to Manoush Zomorodi!) When your mind is wandering and you're kinda randomly thinking about your life, do you imagine yourself as the CONQUERING HERO of your own story (positive-constructive!) or the SUFFERING MARTYR (guilty-dysphoric) of the story? It's a big distinction. We want to get REALLY (!) good at noticing when we're falling into the "woe is me" helpless Victim orientation and SHIFT it into the "Let's do this!!" Creator orientation. How? Well, again, what do you think we're doing with all these +1s? I'm basically trying to give you a super-stocked toolshed/armory of tools and weapons and tips and tricks and hacks you can use THE MOMENT you find yourself losing your connection from the best version of yourself. It all starts with mastering our fundamentals: eat! move! sleep! (Ever notice how the martyr shows up a LOT more when you're TIRED? Me, too. That's why Vince Lombardi says that "Fatigue makes cowards of us all.") Let's actually keep things simple and focus there today. Do you know your #1 Self-Care Habit? Is it eating well? Exercising? Sleeping? Meditating? Doing deep work? Helping others? …? …? What's the thing that, if you DON'T do it, pretty much guarantees a sub-optimal day? (For me it is, unquestionably, getting a good night of sleep.) You? This is my #1 Self-Care Habit: ______________. This is the #1 thing I can do to Optimize it Today: ________________. That is all. Here's to doing the things that help the Conquering Hero show up more and more consistently. And, here's to stepping back and looking at the fundamentals whenever we get a little Whiney-Martyr wobbly! +1. +1. +1.

+1: #485 The Rules of Breathing Aug 03, 2018

Show notes

In our last couple +1s, we've talked about your breathing. If you haven't checked out the full Optimal Breathing 101 master class yet, you might dig it. For now, how about a quick look at the THREE simple rules of optimal breathing? Here they are:

Breathe through your nose
Into your belly
And exhale slightly longer than you inhaled

1 + 2 + 3 = Magic. How about a quick inventory then a closer look? First, the quick inventory:

You breathing through your nose? (Most people don't. Go look around and/or in the mirror. Do you see a mouth gaping open?)
Do you breathe deeply (yet calmly) into your belly? (Most people don't—especially if you breathe through your mouth!)
And, is your exhale slightly longer than your inhale? (This is the fastest way to relax!)

Now, for the closer look: Rule #1. Breathe Through Your Nose (EXCLUSIVELY!) When? All day. Every day. (Including while sleeping and training.) Why? Well, check out the class for a full description (and/or the Notes on The Oxygen Advantage, etc.) but here's the basic idea.

First: Your nose filters, humidifies and conditions air in ways your mouth simply can't.
Second: Know that we NEVER used to breathe through our mouths except for the most extreme instances of physical exertion. (Think: Lion chasing you.)
Third: When you breathe through your mouth, you tend to "overbreathe" via short, shallow, fast breaths that disrupt the oxygen to carbon dioxide levels in your body. Although it might sound weird, it's the CARBON DIOXIDE that actually gets the oxygen out of your red blood cells and into your tissues and organs and you need to slow down your breathing (via your nose!) to get the CO2 right and, as a result, the O2 where you want it.

Rule #2. Breathe into Your Belly Fill up the lower part of your lungs. Flex your most underappreciated and underutilized muscle in your body. Get your diaphragm rocking!! Note: Don't take "big" breaths via your mouth into your chest. Take nice, mellow, quiet, DEEP breaths into your belly. Repeat. All day. Every day. Rule #3. Exhale Slightly Longer than You Inhale. This is the fastest way to flip the flip the vagal switch and turn on your parasympathetic nervous system and R E L A X. Whenever you think about it: Exhale longer than you inhale. (Finish strong as we like to say at the Johnson house!) Squeeze your diaphragm. Get all that air out. Why? Well, did you know that breathing is responsible for 70% (!!!) of your body's detoxification? Elimination and sweat only take care of 30%. (Kinda surprising, eh?) But, guess what? If you're not breathing right, you're not detoxifying fully. And, of course, you're not fueling your cells properly. Enter: Compromised vitality and increased potential of getting all the things you don't want. Therefore: Nose. Belly. Exhale. Practice. Practice. Practice. Today's +1. How about a nice, deep, calm breath. In through your nose… Down into your belly… Out through your nose with a nice, long exhale. Ah… Here's to your Optimal Breathing!

Conquering Digital Addiction 101 (Intro) Jul 29, 2018

Show notes

Technology is, obviously, awesome. We've been using "tech" tools for 2.5 million years since our protohuman ancestors first picked up a stone and used it as a tool. 1.8 million years ago, "we" figured out how to make an acheulean hand axe which was a pretty epic innovation at the time. So, with the advent of smartphones in what's known as the "Input Age," I'm not suggesting we should all become tech-smashing Luddites. But… (And this is a big but!), I also don't think we should underestimate just how much we play the role of addicted users caught up in the mix of a $7 TRILLION attention economics (/mind-hacking!) industry. The solution: Become Optimizites—use technology wisely to become the BEST you rather than mindlessly let your 1 million-year-old prefrontal cortex get hacked all day every day. In the class, we walk through the costs of addiction, then talk about how to conquer it so we can sculpt our ideal lives.

+1: #480 Put Your Name on a Sheet Jul 29, 2018

Show notes

Since our time with George Leonard exploring his ideas on Mastery, I've been thinking about him a lot. I realized that I forgot to share another one of my favorite Ideas from his great little book that has most changed my life. It's super simple but equally powerful. First, the context. In a section on getting energy for mastery, George tells us: "A human being is the kind of machine that wears out from lack of use. There are limits, of course, and we do need healthful rest and relaxation, but for the most part we gain energy by using energy... It might well be that all of us possess enormous stores of potential energy, more than we could ever hope to use." Of course, as we discuss often, we need to remember to oscillate and train our recovery, etc. but we've also gotta know that human beings GAIN energy by USING energy. We're the kind of machine that wears out from LACK of use. Which reminds me of super-energized Leonardo da Vinci's wisdom: "Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind. So we must stretch ourselves to the very limits of human possibility. Anything less is a sin against both God and man." (Cue choir of angels on this one: "So we must stretch ourselves to the very limits of human possibility. Anything less is a sin against both God and man.") So… George offers a few tips on how to Optimize our energy for mastery. One of them is to set priorities and make decisions. He tells us: "Indecision leads to inaction, which leads to low energy, depression, despair." Another tip is to get on the path of mastery and STAY ON IT. He says: "Much of the world's depression and discontent... can ultimately be traced to our unused energy, our untapped potential." All of which leads us to two questions and then the point of Today's +1. Question #1: Got any decisions you need to make? Question #2: Are you using your potential?! And, now to the main event: As an Aikido master, George tells us: "It's instructive to watch the immediate surge of clarity and energy during training that comes from the simplest act of writing one's name on a notice." I don't know about you, but after I've put my "name on a notice" (aka signed up for a Spartan Trifecta for the year including a 13+ mile race up and down ski slopes at elevation with bonus energy points for racing with the elite age group guys), my energy and clarity and intensity of (and consistency of!) training IMMEDIATELY shifts. How about YOU? Has that ever happened to you in the past? And, most importantly: Got any sign-up forms waiting for you? Yah? What makes you smile (and maybe makes your heart skip a beat) just imagining doing it? A 5k? A triathlon? A Spartan Race? Getting your black belt? What'll it be? That's Today's +1. If you're feeling so inspired, go put your name on a notice. Watch the immediate surge of clarity and energy during your training.

Optimal Breathing 101 (Intro) Jul 27, 2018

Show notes

Breathing. It's easy to take for granted but when you stop to think about it, it quickly becomes obvious just how powerful it is. Get this: You can live for weeks without food and days without water but, of course, only minutes without oxygen. Plus: Your brain uses 20% of the oxygen you consume while breathing is responsible for 70% (!) of your body's detoxification. Yet… If you're like most people, you're probably doing this simple, should-be-easy fundamental wrong. In this class, we'll look at why CO2 is (somewhat paradoxically!) actually the variable we want to be Optimizing if we want to get the O2 out of our hemoglobin and into our cells. Then we'll look at the Three Rules for breathing perfectly as we Optimize your breathing for calm, focused energy.

+1: #475 Want Recognition? Jul 24, 2018

Show notes

Continuing our good times with Confucius, here's one of the gems from his Analects that has tattooed itself on my brain since I read it a decade ago. "The Master said, He does not mind not being in office; all he minds about is whether he has qualities that entitle him to office. He does not mind failing to get recognition; he is too busy doing the things that entitle him to recognition." How great is THAT? Would you like a little more recognition than you're getting? OK. That's fine. Now take a deep breath and get back to work doing whatever it is you think will EARN you that recognition. Repeat that process whenever the desire for (more) recognition arises. That's Today's +1. Well, that and this passage from James Allen's As a Man Thinketh—which is also tattooed to my brain along with big chunks of that entire essay. Imagine working tirelessly and then, one day, things just shift. Here's how Allen poetically puts it: "And you, too, youthful reader, will realize the Vision (not the idle wish) of your heart, be it base or beautiful, or a mixture of both, for you will always gravitate toward that which you secretly most love. Into your hands will be placed the exact results of your own thoughts; you will receive that which you earn; no more, no less. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain, or rise with your thoughts, your Vision, your Ideal. You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration: in the beautiful words of Stanton Kirkham Davis, 'You may be keeping accounts, and presently you shall walk out of the door that for so long has seemed to you the barrier of your ideals, and shall find yourself before an audience - the pen still behind your ear, the ink stains on your fingers - and then and there shall pour out the torrent of your inspiration. You may be driving sheep, and you shall wander to the city - bucolic and open mouthed; shall wander under the intrepid guidance of the spirit into the studio of the master, and after a time he shall say, 'I have nothing more to teach you.' And now you have become the master, who did so recently dream of great things while driving sheep. You shall lay down the saw and the plane to take upon yourself the regeneration of the world.'" Here's to the ink stains on your fingers when the curtains rise and the world applauds and you say, "Did I win?"

+1: #470 How to Win the Olympic Games Jul 19, 2018

Show notes

I can't resist. One more +1 on Aristotle. So… The Olympic Games started in Olympia (not too far outside of Athens) in 776 BC. A few centuries later, Aristotle told us that you can't just SHOW UP at the Olympics and look like a great athlete, you have to actually COMPETE. Here's how he puts it: "Just as at the Olympic Games it is not the best-looking or the strongest men present that are crowned with wreaths, but the competitors (because it is from them that the winners come), so it is those who act that rightly win the honours and rewards in life." To recap his point: You can't just KNOW how to live virtuously. You need to actually LIVE with virtue. I repeat: Theory is rudimentary philosophy. Practice is the advanced work. And, I'm reminded of Donald Robertson's genius wisdom on the difference between being a warrior of the mind and a mere librarian of the mind. As we've discussed, in The Philosophy of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy he tells us: "The ancients conceived of the ideal philosopher as a veritable warrior of the mind, a spiritual hero akin to Hercules himself, but since the demise of the Hellenistic schools, the philosopher has become something more bookish, not a warrior, but a mere librarian of the mind." Today's +1. Is there a "theory" you need to make a "practice"? Yah? Which one? And how will you bring it to life today?! Here's to leaving the library and heading into the Olympic arena that is our lives.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

You Are Heroic with Brian Johnson

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected