You Are Heroic with Brian Johnson

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+1: Feeling Fear? (#1318) Oct 30, 2022

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Take JUST ONE STEP Forward Today In our last +1, we spent some time with one of my heroes, Admiral William H. McRaven as we soaked our souls in wisdom from his newest book: The Hero Code. As you may recall, McRaven's Hero Code has ten core virtues: Courage. Humility. Sacrifice. Integrity. Compassion. Perseverance. Duty. Hope. Humor. Forgiveness. Today I want to talk about the #1 virtue: COURAGE. Let's talk about one of THE most powerful ways to operationalize that virtue. Here's how Admiral McRaven puts it: "None of us are immune from life's pain and disappointment. But if you doubt for even a second that you have the courage necessary to confront the evil in the world or that weakness that resides deep inside all of us—you're wrong. ... We all have our lines in the sand, those fears that keep us from being courageous. But all you have to do to overcome those fears, those obstacles, those challenges in your life is to take one step forward. Just one. Take one step forward and get on the helicopter. Take one step forward and fight injustice. Take one step forward and challenge the bullies. Take one step forward and face your inner demons. And if you take that one step forward you will find the courage you seek, the courage necessary to overcome your fears and be the hero you long to be." As we've discussed many times, the word courage comes from the same root as heart. Just as the heart pumps blood to your arms and legs and vital organs, courage is the virtue that vitalizes all the other virtues. The best way to cultivate our courage? Science agrees with McRaven's approach. As we discuss in our Notes on The Courage Quotient by Robert Biswas-Diener, we need to be willing to act in the presence of fear. And, as we discuss in various places we need to APPROACH our challenges rather than AVOID them. And… As McRaven puts it: "all you have to do to overcome those fears, those obstacles, those challenges in your life is to take one step forward." Now… One of the (many!) reasons I love creating these +1s and the Notes is that I get to go back through my favorite passages and, as I type each word out, really *feel* the intention and the nuance of the author's wisdom. As I typed that passage out, I was struck by the way McRaven emphasized "Just one." "We all have our lines in the sand, those fears that keep us from being courageous. But all you have to do to overcome those fears, those obstacles, those challenges in your life is to take one step forward. Just one." When we face the inevitable obstacles and challenges of life and feel the inevitable fears that arise in those situations, all we need to do is take JUST ONE step forward. JUST ONE step forward in that moment when you tend to freeze or to freak out. JUST ONE step forward—approaching your challenges rather than avoiding them. JUST ONE step forward—saying "Bring it on!" rather than "Make it go away!" That is the essence of courage. A willingness to act in the presence of fear, to APPROACH rather than avoid our challenges—not once in a while or when you feel like it but more and more consistently all day every day ESPECIALLY when you don't feel like it—knowing that your infinite, HEROIC potential exists just on the other side of your comfort zone as you cultivate the strength for two and give us all you've got. Let's take JUST ONE step forward today, my beloved Hero. Just one step forward. TOGETHER. (!!!) Today. +1. +1. +1.

+1: The Hero Code (#1317) Oct 29, 2022

Show notes

McRaven's Ten Core Virtues Admiral William H. McRaven is one of my very few living American heroes. We've created Notes on three of his great books. We started with Make Your Bed—a short, brilliant, inspiring manual all about "Little Things That Can Change Your Life... And Maybe the World" that was inspired by the commencement address he gave at the University of Texas at Austin that went viral. Then we featured his autobiography, Sea Stories, which is all about the wisdom he gained from his nearly four decades in special operations. So… When I saw the title to his newest book, I KNEW I had to read it and I KNEW I'd love it. The book? It's called The Hero Code. It's a super-quick reading, incredibly inspiring look at "Lessons Learned from Lives Well Lived" in which Admiral McRaven walks us through the lives of everyday heroes who showed up and gave us all they had. I highly recommend it. (Get a copy here.) McRaven tells us: "I came to realize that there is a hero in all of us. There is an innate code that has been there since the birth of mankind. It is written in our DNA. It is what drove the great expansion of humanity out of Africa. It summoned the explorers to cross the deserts and the seas. It helped create the great faiths. It emboldened the early scientists and philosophers. It nurtured the ill and infirm. It spoke truth to masses. It brought order to chaos and hope to the desperate. This code is not a cipher, or a cryptograph, or a puzzle to be solved. It is a moral code, an internal code of conduct that drives the human race to explore, to nurture, to comfort, to inspire, and to laugh so that societies can flourish." The Hero Code. Admiral McRaven tells us that it is a moral code and, in the book, walks us through ten of the core virtues that make up the code as he shares the story of an everyday hero who embodied that particular virtue. Each virtue has its own commitment. Here they are. "I will always strive to be COURAGEOUS; to take one step forward as I confront my fears. I will work to be HUMBLE; to recognize the limits of my intellect, my understanding, and my power. I will learn to SACRIFICE by giving a little of my time, my talent, and my treasure to those in need. I will be a person of INTEGRITY; every decision I make and every action I take will be moral, legal, and ethical. I will be kind and COMPASSIONATE to at least one person every single day and expect nothing in return. I will never give up on matters that are important to me, my family, my country, my faith. I will PERSEVERE. Whatever job I am given, whatever DUTY I am bound by, I will do it to the best of my ability. I will use my unique talents to inspire others and give them HOPE that tomorrow will be a better day. I will use HUMOR to comfort others, and never be afraid to laugh at myself. No matter how great or small the offense against me, I will FORGIVE. I will be the victor, not the victim." To repeat. The Hero Code has ten core virtues: Courage. Humility. Sacrifice. Integrity. Compassion. Perseverance. Duty. Hope. Humor. Forgiveness. How are YOU doing with each? Anything jump out that might be working really well for you? How about anything that might need a little (or a lot!) of work from you? Here's to living in integrity with our highest values, Hero. Not someday. But, as always, TODAY. +1. +2. +3. +4. +5. +6. +7. +8. +9. +10.

+1: How to Flip the Switch and GO! (#1316) Oct 28, 2022

Show notes

Red Lights? GREEN LIGHTS! We've been having some fun exploring Brian Cain's wisdom on mental performance mastery. As you know if you've been following along, we started by checking in to see if you've been punched in the face lately (), then we broke some arrows with our neck to dominate the Ability + Strategy + GOYA = Results equation, then we did some 1% math (remember: 1% is 14 minutes and 24 seconds of your day and, if you get 1% better every day, you'll be 998,822,690,009,590 times better in a decade! ) then we questioned why we'd want to be average, then we raised the basement, and, most recently, we focused our telescopes AND our microscopes on our top goals so we can dominate the day AND the decade. Schew. We've been busy! +1% +1% +1% for the win! Today I want to wrap up the tour through Brian's brain with one more Big Idea from 10 Pillars. This one's on how to flip the switch and go from red lights to green lights. Here's Brian and the characters from his little fable to bring the wisdom home… "I felt as if I understood the difference between a red-light and green-light state. I wanted to learn how to get into a green-light state and stay there. 'You recognize that if you are in a red-light state or a yellow-light state, you must have a release routine to get you back to green and back in control of yourself. That release routine follows a three-step process,' Coach Kenny said. 'You need to have (#1) a physical action that you make with an association that serves as a trigger for releasing the past and moving on to the next play or the next part of your day. You then (#2) take a deep releasing breath that you take while looking at a fixed point we call a focal point to oxygenate your brain and get back in control of yourself. And then you (#3) have a verbal trigger you say that cuts off the past and cements your commitment to the present.' Coach Kenny then stood up, clapped his hands, took a deep breath, wiped his chest down with his hands as if he were wiping dirt off himself and said, "GOOD. What's important now?'" That's from a chapter on Pillar #4: Self-Control and Discipline. It's kinda like our "Flip the Switch" protocol in our Mastery Series. Here's the quick take… Feeling disconnected from your best self? PERFECT. Awareness is *always* the first, most important step. Now, flip the switch and go from red lights to green lights as you invite the best, most Heroic version of yourself back to the party. Here's one way to approach it: #1. Stand up strong. Chest up, chin down. Smile. #2. Take a deep breath. In through the nose. Down into your belly. Back out through your nose. Exhale slightly longer than your inhale. Ahhhh… #3. Say to yourself: "Close the Gap. Arete = Heroic." (Or... "What do I want? What's important now? LET'S GO!" Or... "Calm Confidence. I've got this!" Or… Whatever fires YOU up!) Today's +1? The VERY NEXT TIME you feel a little wobbly today, how about you flip the switch and go from red to green lights and have fun seeing just how fast you can do it? #1. Stand up strong—chest up, chin down. Smile. #2. Take a deep breath. #3. Say to yourself: "Arete = Heroic. What's important now? LET'S GO!" Red lights? GREEN LIGHTS! LET'S GO! + + + P.S. Want to see some of Brian's elite athletes putting this wisdom in PRACTICE to create moments of peak performance? Awesome. Check out these clips!!

+1: Goals: Telescopes + Microscopes (#1315) Oct 27, 2022

Show notes

And Heroic Apps to Dominate the Day and Decade Not too long ago, we spent some time with Brian Cain and some of his wisdom from a couple of his little fables: One Percent Better and The 10 Pillars of Mental Performance Mastery. I want to revisit some of his wisdom. Let's talk about your goals. We'll invite Cainer back to the party to help us check them out from a couple different perspectives. In 10 Pillars, he tells us: "Setting big goals is great, but they have to be the right goals or they become traps. Financial goals must be secondary to family goals or you won't have any family to set goals with. You also need to have telescope and microscope goals. Telescope goals that you can see off into the future, and then you must reverse engineer a process back to your microscope and execute on your microscopic daily goals. Telescope goals are 1, 3, 5+ years into the future and the microscope goals are what you will do in the next 24 hours to move towards your telescope goals. Remember, inch by inch, goal setting is a cinch and yard by yard, it's hard." That's from a chapter on Pillar #2 of Mental Performance Mastery—which is all about our Motivation and Commitment. Brian tells us (and all great peak performance teachers affirm) that one of the most important things we can do to get (and sustain!) elite levels of motivation is to set clear goals. And... I just LOVE the way he helps us do that. So… Let's bust out our Telescopes AND our Microscopes then the Heroic app and do some work. First, the Telescope. What are your most inspiring 1, 3, and 5+ year goals? (Seriously. What are they?) If you feel so inspired, let's do a quick inventory of your, let's say, 5-year goals in your Big 3: Energy + Work + Love. Remember: If we don't prioritize our Love alongside our Work we may not have the opportunity to set and celebrate the achievement of our Work goals with the people in our lives who matter most. And... If our Energy isn't where it needs to be, there's no way we'll show up powerfully in either our Work or our Love so... Big 3 for the win! This is my #1 5-Year ENERGY Goal: ___________________________________ This is my #1 5-Year WORK Goal: ___________________________________ This is my #1 5-Year LOVE Goal: ___________________________________ (Nice work! ) Now, it's time to bust out the Microscope. I'm biased but... I think one of the easiest ways to get clarity on what you should DO TODAY to be in integrity with the best version of yourself that's capable of ACHIEVING those goals is simple... Do some Target Practice on the Heroic app as we move from Theory to Practice to Mastery Together TODAY. Step 0. Set up your Big 3 protocol by getting clarity on who you are at your best in your Energy + Work + Love, the virtues that version of you embodies and what, SPECIFICALLY, you will actually DO TODAY to be in integrity with that best version of yourself. Step 1. Commit to being that best version of yourself and doing those things TODAY. Note: As we like to say (and I promise to repeat myself!)… New Year's Resolutions are nice and warm and fuzzy. New DAY's Resolutions are where it's at if you actually want to consistently perform at the highest possible levels. Step 2. Hit your targets. ALL DAY. EVERY DAY. ESPECIALLY TODAY! And even more importantly… commit and hit them on those days when you don't (insert whiney voice) *feel* like it. Step 3. Repeat. Forever. See your moonshot goals with your Telescope. See the next steps in your Microscope. Dominate the day with your Heroic app. And give us all you've got, Hero. TODAY.

+1: Singer's Stoicism (#1314) Oct 26, 2022

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"True Surrender" = "The Art of Acquiescence" In our last couple +1s, we talked about Michael Singer and his practical wisdom. As we discussed, he has quickly become one of my favorite new teachers. He clearly practices his philosophy and his philosophy is a good one. As I was reading his latest book, I was struck by the parallels of his wisdom and Stoicism. Although they take different approaches to get there and describe the process in slightly different terms (as is typically the case with universal truths echoed across different cultures and times), they arrive at the same destination. Check this out, for example. Here's Michael Singer from Living Untethered: "One of the most amazing things you will ever realize is that the moment in front of you is not bothering you—you are bothering yourself about the moment in front of you." And… Here's Marcus Aurelius from his Meditations: "If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment." The wisest among us learn to have the wisdom and the humility to see the bigger picture and to ACCEPT REALITY. That is what Singer would call "true surrender." Byron Katie calls it "loving what is ." Phil Stutz calls it "radical acceptance." The Stoics called it "the art of acquiescence" and their ENTIRE philosophy is basically predicated on EXACTLY what Singer is describing. Whatever you want to call it, let's PRACTICE IT. Today. +1. +1. +1. LET'S GO!

+1: Low-Hanging Fruit (#1313) Oct 25, 2022

Show notes

Opportunities to Practice In our last +1, we talked about using the WEATHER as a prompt to practice our philosophy. I shared my new favorite temperature which, as you may recall, is WHATEVER THE TEMPERATURE IS RIGHT NOW! (Hah.) (Seriously though! ) I promised we'd chat more about Michael Singer and his idea of practicing "surrendering" to reality by picking some low-hanging fruit. Here's some of his wisdom on the subject from his great (!) book Living Untethered. He tells us: "The best way to let go of stored pockets of pain is to practice. Just as you practice the scales to learn the piano or practice a sport to get good at it, you practice letting go to learn how to do it. You start with simple things. We call these low-hanging fruit. There are many situations each day when you create inner disturbance for absolutely no good reason. Bothering yourself about the car in front of you does no good at all. It only makes you tense and uptight. The cost-benefit analysis is one-hundred-percent cost and zero benefit. Letting go of that tendency should be easy, but it's not. You will find that you're in the habit of insisting and demanding that things should be the way you want, even if it's irrational. Things are the way they are because of the influences that made them that way. You are not going to change the weather by complaining about it. If you are wise, you will start to change your reactions to reality instead of fighting with reality. By doing so, you will change your relationship with yourself and with everything else." And, he says: "Start with the small things to prove to yourself that you are capable of doing this. Working with yourself at this level is practicing letting go." Let's emphasize three aspects of that passage. First, we'll talk about the importance of PRACTICE in general. Second, we'll talk about the fact that wasting our energy on trivial things that are out of our control is a 100% cost 0% benefit outcome. And, third, we'll talk about the importance of finding little things to use as part of your idiosyncratic practice in particular. Regarding practice in general… Just this morning, as I was exploring some of the quotes in the Heroic app as I committed to practicing (!) the virtue of Self-Mastery, I read a brilliant gem from Alex Korb's great book The Upward Spiral—which is all about "Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time." He tells us: "Ultimately it comes down to the most cliched but scientifically true maxim: practice, practice, practice. To create new, good habits, you have to repeat them over and over again until your brain rewires itself." And… As I was rowing after my AM1 Deep Work block, I thought of the fact that I needed to connect all this wisdom about practice to Daniel Coyle and his wisdom in his great book The Little Book of Talent. He tells us: "Repetition has a bad reputation. We tend to think of it as dull and uninspiring. But this perception is titanically wrong. Repetition is the single most powerful lever we have to improve skills, because it uses the built-in mechanism for making the wires of our brains faster and more accurate." PRACTICE. PRACTICE! PRACTICE!! It's super important. Now let's shine a spotlight on the fact that, arguing with reality is a 100% LOSING proposition. As Byron Katie says, we lose when we argue with reality. But only EVERY TIME. The cost includes not only our tension and uptightness but the LOST OPPORTUNITY to have alchemized that same trigger into an opportunity to grow. We missed the chance to turn that -1 into a +1 and then aggregate and compound all those tiny little gains into some MASSIVE change. Add up all those missed opportunities and… That gets expensive FAST! Now let's shine a spotlight on YOU and your idiosyncratic opportunities to practice. What little things bother YOU? Seriously. Think of something that a) you have no control over that b) you know you're wasting your energy getting all worked up about that c) you could use as a new prompt to practice your philosophy. What is it? Got it? Awesome. Let's stop letting ourselves get annoyed by arguing with reality over insanely trivial things that are OBVIOUSLY totally (!) out of our control. The next time that thing happens, let's NOTICE how we're getting all tense and uptight. And RELAX. Take a nice, deep breath. Then go on with your day. You just plucked some low-hanging fruit. Let's use that fruit as fuel to strengthen our ability to step in between a stimulus and our old response to choose the most empowered response as we get stronger in preparation for the inevitable bigger challenges life will give us. -1 to +1. -1 to +1. -1 to +1. All day every day. Especially TODAY.

+1: My All-Time Favorite Temperature (#1312) Oct 24, 2022

Show notes

What's Yours? Emerson just walked into my office zipping up his camo winter jacket to go with his camo pants. He told me: "It's COLD! It's 52 degrees out this morning!" Fall arrived in a hurry out here in Austin and we went from the 100's to the 90's to, for former Californians, chilly quickly! Now… Emerson and I have a new joke—which is why I replied by saying, "Oh!! 52 degrees—that's my all-time favorite temperature!" To which he laughed and said, "Dadddddddyyyyy. EVERY temperature is your favorite temperature." That's true. My favorite temperature? It's always EXACTLY what the temperature is at that moment. Which gets us a little closer to the point of Today's +1. Let's step back for a moment and set some context. Michael Singer has become one of my absolute favorite teachers. Although I very much enjoyed The Untethered Soul (check out those Notes), it wasn't until my friend Joe Okleberry sent me a picture of him and Michael that I picked up this book. Now, I didn't have to go far to pick it up as Alexandra had been raving about him for months. The book was literally on our kitchen table. With the two of them extolling his awesomeness, I decided to join the party. And, I'm very glad I did. We'll talk more about his wisdom soon. For now, as you know if you've read his stuff, THE central Big Idea to ALL of his work is, essentially, to QUIT ARGUING WITH REALITY. As he says: "Suffering is caused by the contrast between what you mentally decided you want and the reality unfolding in front of you. To whatever degree they don't match, you suffer." In our next +1, we'll talk about something he calls "low-hanging fruit" that will help us PRACTICE reducing our suffering by "surrendering" to reality. For now… One of my favorite prompts to practice? The weather. Arguing with the WEATHER is one of the most ridiculous things we can do—which is why Emerson and I have that new joke. Here's the origin story… Emerson was telling me how much he loved the 80-degree-ish fall temperature here in Austin. He asked me what my favorite temperature is. I told him: "The temperature RIGHT NOW is ALWAYS my ABSOLUTE favorite." 102 degrees and Austin humid? Perfect. My all-time favorite temperature. Free sauna. 51 degree cold plunge? Perfect. My all-time favorite temperature. Rebooting the nervous system. As the Gita beautifully says: "Reshape yourself through the power of your will... Those who have conquered themselves... live in peace, alike in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, praise and blame... To such people a clod of dirt, a stone, and gold are the same... Because they are impartial, they rise to great heights." Who knew the weather could be such a powerful tool for our armamentarium? So… What's YOUR favorite temperature? Let's quit arguing with reality and use EVERY opportunity we can to playfully practice our philosophies. +102degrees. +52degrees. And God bless those of you who live in -Xdegrees and REALLY get to practice!

+1: Two Kids on a Trail (#1311) Oct 23, 2022

Show notes

Stoic Negative Visualization Part Deux Not too long ago, we talked about Happy our Rooster. He wasn't doing so well then and, I'm sorry to say, he didn't make it. We talked about Happy and his crowing in the context of remembering to practice alchemizing things that might (at least on occasion!) annoy us into reminders of just how precious the little things in life are. As you may recall, I connected that wisdom to the master class I created for Emerson on Conquering Toilet Paper 101. Today I want to continue the conversation and shine a brighter light on the ancient Stoic practice that the modern Stoic William B. Irvine describes as "negative visualization." Then I'll tell you how I practiced that when we couldn't find the kids for a few minutes yesterday. First… The Stoics. As we discussed in +1 #851, Stoic philosopher William B. Irvine wrote a great book called A Guide to the Good Life. He tells us that the Stoics "recommended that we spend time imagining that we have lost the things we value—that our wife has left us, our car was stolen, or we lost our job. Doing this, the Stoics thought, will make us value our wife, our car, and our job more than we otherwise would. This technique—let us refer to it as negative visualization—was employed by the Stoics at least as far back as Chrysippus. It is, I think, the single most valuable technique in the Stoics' psychological tool kit." Now… I pay attention when a guy I respect as much as I respect Professor Irvine tells me that something is THE SINGLE MOST VALUABLE TECHNIQUE practiced in my preferred philosophical tool kit. Which is why I have practiced "negative visualization" since I learned of the technique years ago. And… It's why I practiced it yesterday. Which leads us to the two Johnson kids. So… As we've discussed, we live out in the country outside of Austin. We have a little bit of land and one of the first things we did when we moved in was carve out a little half-mile walking trail. I absolutely love it and I target swipe hitting the Trail 2-3+ times a day. Now… Yesterday afternoon Alexandra came into my office and said she didn't know where the kids were. They had been jumping around on the trampoline when she came inside for a few minutes and now she didn't know where they were. She had looked in the tiny house where her mom lives and they weren't there. She called for them using our secret loud call and they didn't respond. She was more than a little nervous. So… We split up to see if we could find them. I walked one way on our trail and she took a different path to see if we could find them. As I walked in my direction, I took a deep breath and deliberately allowed myself to imagine the worst possible outcomes to feel the pain of losing our kids. What if they had somehow fallen into our little pond and BOTH of them somehow couldn't get out? What if someone somehow came onto our property and abducted them or something terrible happened we couldn't imagine? That was my internal dialogue for about 15-30 seconds. Then I took another deep breath as I told myself that, however unlikely, those WERE possibilities. And that any number of other tragic things could happen at ANY time to them. Then I reminded myself that I would be wise to keep that wisdom in mind much more often as I shifted from catastrophizing to staying calm and grounded and GRATEFUL to have two beautiful, healthy, happy kids as I turned the corner on our trail. Then who did I see? Two beautiful kids walking toward me—one with his headphones on listening to an audiobook which explained why he didn't respond to his mom's call. Safe and sound—oblivious to any potential issues. They knew they had to get some exercise in so they decided to go for a walk. And now they know to let us know when they go on a walk and not to walk with headphones on so they can hear a call. And, well… That's Today's +1. If you feel so inspired, consider adding a "negative visualization" practice to YOUR Heroic toolkit. Let's remember to not take all those gifts in our lives for granted but AS GRANTED . Not someday. But Today. -1 to +1. Day 1. Let's go!

+1: Stay Plugged In (#1310) Oct 22, 2022

Show notes

And Notice When You're Not This morning I was on the trail, listening to my 33-minute playlist of 11 of my favorite songs by my favorite band The Score while getting in my 30 minutes of movement and 15 minutes of MAF work. I had just hammered out 10 pull-ups and 100 burpees and 1,000 meters of rowing. I pulled out my bat phone, which I use to hit Heroic targets when I'm training and in Deep Work mode. Target swipe. Target swipe. Target swipe. That's like me to have 51 targets hit by the time I come online en route to 101 targets for the day!! (101 Heroic Targets a day truly do keep the daimon in play, folks! ) And… As I was putting the ol' bat phone back into the ol' pocket… I missed. The phone fell to the ground and my old-school, corded headphones got disconnected. And… The music stopped. And… That's when I knew I needed to create this +1. Want to hear the music of life? Awesome. Stay plugged in. Period. Want to more and more consistently show up as your best self? Awesome. Stay plugged in. Period. And, perhaps most importantly to achieve that… Notice when you're NOT plugged in and what you did to get disconnected. Then do whatever you need to do to get plugged back in. All day every day. Especially… TODAY. +1. +1. +1. P.S. Desmond Tutu and Richard Rohr would agree. As they say: "We are only the light bulbs, and our job is just to remain screwed in!'" P.P.S. Here's the playlist I've listened to hundreds and hundreds of times.

+1: Raise the Basement (#1309) Oct 21, 2022

Show notes

You Don't Rise to the Occasion, You Sink to… Continuing our tour through Brian Cain's mental toughness fables, let's talk about another Big Idea from The 10 Pillars of Mental Performance Mastery. Remember: Brian has coached an INCREDIBLE number of SUPER-ELITE athletes and coaches. Eight UFC Champions. Four Cy Young Winners. MVPs. Olympians, etc, etc., etc. One of the things he teaches them? The fact that, as he puts it: "You don't rise to the occasion, you sink to your levels of training and habits." Here's how his guide Coach Kenny puts it in the fable. He tells us: "'The key is to make your habits so strong and your training so good that when you sink to your worst day, you sink to a level higher than anyone else on their best day,' Coach Kenny said. 'It's easy to say, hard to do, and only possible if you follow the 10 pillars of mental performance mastery.'" Then he says: "'Everyone talks about raising the roof. In reality, it's about raising your basement so that you have good bad days and are better on your bad days than most people are on their good days—because you can focus better and have better habits and a more elite mindset. It's really about being the best version of you that you have ever been. It's also about not comparing yourself to anyone else but to where you were yesterday. If you can see progress—be better today than you were yesterday and better tomorrow than you are today—and just keep going baby step by baby step, you will get where you want to be.'" That's from a great chapter called "You Don't Rise to the Occasion; You Sink to Your Training and Habits." There's a LOT of wisdom in there that we could talk about for an entire weekend workshop. For now, let's focus on a few highlights and some parallel wisdom from other brilliant teachers. First, I think of this +1 on Good Bad Days in which we talk about some wisdom from Jim Afremow's The Champion's Mind. Big Idea? Golfers like Jack Nicklaus and Rory McIlroy know it's all about "playing poorly well." You can only do that when you have an elite mind. Then I think of Lanny Bassham and his son Troy who wrote With Winning in Mind and Attainment. In this +1 on Average vs. Elite, we talk about the fact that AVERAGE performers practice something until they can get it right. ELITE performers, on the other hand, practice until they CAN'T GET IT WRONG. Then there's Josh Waitzkin, the chess prodigy turned martial artist champion. In The Art of Learning, he tells us that we need to make our prior best our new baseline. What happens when we do all that? We raise the basement. Our highs are higher AND (!) our LOWS are HIGHER. On our worst days, we're often better than we used to be on our best days. And that's an incredibly powerful thing. Here's to raising our basement as we DOMINATE THE DAY and give the world all we've got, Hero. Day 1. All in. Let's go! P.S. Lest you think this is just a bunch of peak performance mumbo jumbo, let's remind ourselves of the ancient wisdom from one of the wisest of them all as we make sure we are building our lives on a solid foundation.

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