You Are Heroic with Brian Johnson

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+1: Why Be Average? (#1308) Oct 20, 2022

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The Best of the Worst and Worst of the Best In our last several +1s, we've been having fun hanging out with world-class mental toughness and peak performance coach, Brian Cain. And, trust me. Any time spent with Cainer is going to be fun. He is EASILY one of the most inspiring human beings on the planet. You can't help but feel energized just being in his presence. So… Today we're going to talk about one of the lines in his little fable on The 10 Pillars of Mental Performance Mastery that jumped out at me and tattooed itself on my consciousness. It's about being average. Coach Kenny is the guide in the fable. He's coaching a burned-out executive. He tells him: "'You are like most people,' Coach Kenny said. 'And we call that average. Like I have said, I hate the word average. It means you are the best of the worst and the worst of the best. It's a terrible place to live.'" Me: Oh, snap! Average. It's the best of the worst. And the worst of the best. Stuck right there in the middle of the rugged mountain we call mediocrity. Not where we want to hang out. Brian has Coach Kenny say: "You are giving the world your B or C game and you don't even know it because you have never been trained on how to give your A game." And: "The world needs you at your best. You can't be normal, you must be elite." And: "If you don't have a plan, how are you getting better? The problem is when you stop getting better, you start getting bitter, and nobody likes being around people who are bitter all the time." Lest you think that wisdom is just some rah-rah, pom-pom waving goodness from an overly ambitious peak performance coach, how about this parallel wisdom from one of the twentieth century's great spiritual teachers, Eric Butterworth? As we've discussed, Butterworth was Maya Angelou's spiritual teacher. And, apparently, Oprah considers Discover the Power Within You one of her all-time favorite books. So… Here's how Butterworth puts it in one of MY all-time favorite books, Spiritual Economics. He tells us: "Why be an average person? All the great achievements of history have been made by strong individuals who refused to consult statistics or to listen to those who could prove convincingly that what they wanted to do, and in fact ultimately did do, was completely impossible." Average. It's the best of the worst and the worst of the best. As Sylvester Stallone tells us his son in Rocky IV (check out this inspiring scene!): "THAT'S NOT YOU! YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!!" Let's commit to getting just a little bit better today in service to something bigger than ourselves as we remind ourselves that the process of becoming the best, most Heroic version of ourselves is SUPPOSED to be challenging and that the only antidote to mediocrity is excellence. Remember: The MOMENT we live with Areté we ARE Heroic. Let's do that. Today.

+1: The +1% Math (#1307) Oct 19, 2022

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Want to Get 998,822,690,009,590 Times Better? In our last +1, we talked about Brian Cain's wisdom on The 1% Intention. Let's review the math. There are 24 hours in a day. 60 minutes per hour. That's 1,440 minutes per day. 1% of that? 14 minutes and 24 seconds. 1% of your day. Here's the question: What's the #1 thing you KNOW you could be doing that, if you spent just 1% of your day doing it, would have THE most positive impact in your life? Seriously. What is it? How can YOU invest just 1% of your day into getting 1% better Today? Think about it. And… As you do, let's think about some James Clear wisdom on the subject to bring the point home—because the math is CRAZY. Actually… Before we go there… I have to say that I want your potential investment of 1% of your day into HEROIC to be (goosebumps) at least considered as one of the highest-leverage things you could do to improve your life 1%. 14 minutes and 24 seconds. Choose your own adventure with how you want to split that up in the app. Of course, you can get "more wisdom in less time" (Theory!) via these +1s, the PhilosophersNotes, 101s, Basic Training and Mastery Series to make sure you have the right strategies. And, if you feel so inspired, I think you'd be wise to consider a few minutes invested into the Target PRACTICE side of things as this will, in my opinion, always be THE HIGHEST LEVERAGE thing you can do as committing to being our best selves then actually doing the things that help us close the gap between who we're capable of being and who we're actually being is how we'll move from Theory to PRACTICE to Mastery Together TODAY. Again, early research shows that spending just a few minutes a day using the Heroic app to hit just 3+ Heroic Targets in your Big 3 protocol can help you boost your Energy by 40%, your Productivity by 20% and your connection by 15%. So… LET'S GO, HERO!!! Now… Back to the math… Here's how James puts it in his brilliant book Atomic Habits. He tells us: "It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis. Too often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action. Whether it is losing weight, building a business, writing a book, winning a championship, or achieving any other goal, we put pressure on ourselves to make some earth-shattering improvement that everyone will talk about. Meanwhile, improving 1 percent isn't particularly notable—sometimes it isn't even noticeable—but it can be far more meaningful, especially in the long run. The difference a tiny improvement can make over time is astounding. Here's how the math works out: if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you'll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you're done. Conversely, if you get 1 percent worse each day for one year, you'll decline nearly down to zero. What starts as a small win or a minor setback accumulates into something much more. Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them. They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous. It is only when looking back two, five, or perhaps ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent." 1% gains aggregated and compounded for a year equals an astonishing 37x improvement. And... As I say in our Notes on Atomic Habits, create a spreadsheet (like this) and run that 1% daily improvement out for another year. Guess what? After two years, you're not 74 times better. You're now 1,400 (!!) times better. Why stop there? Run it out another year. After the third year of aggregating and compounding those 1% gains, you're now 53,405 times better. Four years? You're 2,017,828 times better. Five years? You're 76,240,507 times better. Shall we run it 10 years out? OK. Let's. Result: Well, on day 3,472 we hit our last normal number. We're 998,822,690,009,590 times better. (That's nearly a quadrillion times better by the way.) Then we break our Google Spreadsheet by day 3,650 when we're at 5.87074E+15. I don't even know what that means but I assume it's even more zeroes. (Hah. ) All that to say: Little things matter. A lot. Especially when we compound them over time. Let's use 1% of our day to +1%. TODAY.

+1: One Percent Better (#1306) Oct 18, 2022

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Close the Gap TODAY In our last couple +1s, we spent some time hanging out with world-class mental toughness coach Brian Cain. We broke some arrows, ate some fire and got an invitation to a big UFC event where one of his fighters made Epictetus proud by smiling as he got punched in the face. Today we're going to spend some more time with Cainer. We're going to talk about getting 1% better. Let's head back to his little fable (appropriately called "One Percent Better") where his characters Sunny and Mr. Big are having a little chat. "'Good morning, Mr. Big! It's time to get juiced. Either we are going to dominate the day or the day will dominate us. Are you ready?' Sunny asked this with the excitement of a kid on Christmas Day. As we began walking the halls to the scent of bacon and breakfast, Sunny started asking me about math. 'Mr. Big, there are 24 hours in a day and 60 minutes in each hour. How many minutes are there in a day?' I quickly took out my phone and asked, 'Hey, Siri. How many minutes in a day?' 'There are 1,440 minutes in a day,' Siri chimed back. Then she asked, 'What's 1% of 1,440?' This is where I was stumped. I wasn't sure how to do the math. After all, I wasn't a math teacher. 'No idea,' I replied. '1% of a day is 14 minutes and 24 seconds,' she said emphatically. 'Everyone wants to get 1% better but they fail to intentionally invest 1% of their day because they don't even know that it's a strategy for success.'" Now… Mr. Big is a burned-out teacher. Sunny is his mentor. She works in the cafeteria and "brings the juice!" all day every day. Her #1 lesson and the focal point of the entire book? As Brian tells us: "The best place to start is to intentionally invest 1% of your day into yourself and become a better version of you today than you were yesterday. Then wake up tomorrow and do the same thing. Rinse and repeat. It's actually quite simple." Now, let's review the math. There are 24 hours in a day. 60 minutes per hour. That's 1,440 minutes per day. 1% of that? 14 minutes and 24 seconds. 1% of your day. Here's the question: What's the #1 thing you KNOW you could be doing that, if you spent just 1% of your day doing it, would have THE most positive impact in your life? Seriously. What is it? 1% of your day meditating is 14 minutes and 24 seconds of meditation. Would that change your life? How about 1% of your day training? Or 1% of your day with ZERO technology spent 101% focused on being present with your significant other and/or kids? Would that change your life? Or 1% of your day reflecting on your life purpose. Or LIVING more on purpose—doing the things you KNOW you could be doing for just 14 minutes and 24 seconds TODAY? Would that change your life? +1%. +1%. +1% Tiny investments that lead to tiny gains. That add up. Fast. Here's to using 1% of our days to get 1% better. TODAY. btw: Early research shows that spending WAY LESS than 1% of your day using the Heroic app to dominate your Big 3 protocol can help you boost your Energy by 40%, your Productivity by 20% and your connection by 15%. Just 3+ Heroic Targets a day keeps the daimon in play. LET'S GO!!!

+1: A + S + GOYA = R (#1305) Oct 17, 2022

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Break Arrows with Your Neck Lately? In our last +1, we talked about the fact that Brian Cain recently visited me and the Johnson fam out here in the country outside of Austin. I casually mentioned that the kids and wifey and I had fun learning how to eat fire and break an arrow with our necks and do other fun things we didn't think we could do. Today I'd like to talk more about those broken arrows. First, a little more context. As we discussed, Brian is one of the world's leading mental toughness coaches. He's also a long-time student of mine and easily tied for first as one of the most inspiring, energized human beings I know. His client list includes four Major League Baseball Cy Young Award winners, eight UFC world champion mixed martial artists, World Series and Super Bowl Champions and MVPs, Olympic medalists, and countless other elite athletes and coaches. When he visited, he left a couple books with me as gifts: The 10 Pillars of Mental Performance Mastery and One Percent Better. They're both super-quick reading, inspiring fables packed with a ton of wisdom. I read both of them in the same weekend. (That's like me! ) Think: If Paulo Coelho wrote about mental toughness. And kinda like Robin Sharma's The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari or Dan Millman's Way of the Peaceful Warrior. 10 Pillars is all about the foundation of Brian's mental performance mastery program while One Percent Better is all about, as per the sub-title, "How to Close the Gap from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be." How? By getting ONE PERCENT BETTER. When? TODAY, Hero. Now… In One Percent Better, Brian shares a little formula with us that will be the basis of Today's +1. Here it is: A + S + GOYA = R. As the character in his book puts it: that acronym means "Ability + Strategy + Get Off Your Anatomy and do the work = Results." Then she says: "Ability is not something you are lacking to be the optimal version of yourself. You are simply blocking it. How we unblock our ability is by giving you the right strategy. … When you do that, you will see better results.'" So… Want to become Heroic and tap into your ultimate potential? You're not necessarily lacking the Ability. The real issue might be that you don't have the right STRATEGY. This was a lesson that Brian made vividly real for me and the kids when he visited recently. How he'd do it? He showed us how to break an arrow with our neck and eat fire. What's breaking arrows with your neck and eating fire have to do with this idea? Everything. Here's the short story. Brian took a wooden arrow and placed one end against the wall and the other end against his neck. Then he took a deep breath, stepped forward and SNAPPED THE ARROW in half. Then he invited us to do it. To which we were all tempted to say: "Nope! We're good!" (Hah.) Then he told us, "You don't lack the ABILITY to break the arrow with your neck. You just lack the STRATEGY on how to easily do it safely." Then he taught us how to do it. Then I did it. BOOM! Same thing with eating fire. There's a STRATEGY on how to do it. Once you know it, it's EASY. And, well, same thing with pretty much E V E R Y T H I N G in our lives. BJ Fogg echoes this wisdom in Tiny Habits. He tells us: "We are not the problem. Our approach to change is. It's a design flaw—not a personal flaw." Again, it's a STRATEGY issue not an ABILITY issue. Which brings us back to the equation A + S + GOYA = R. Ability + Strategy + Get Off Your Anatomy and DO THE WORK if you want the results!! You can't just know what to do. You have to DO IT. Which is why the #1 thing we are most committed to with Heroic is helping you move from Theory to Practice to Mastery. We need to know the right strategy then we need to actually DO the things we know we could be doing. Not someday. TODAY. So… GOYA and, as Brian Cain likes to say: Go Dominate the Day, Hero!!

+1: Punched in the Face Lately? (#1304) Oct 16, 2022

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What to Do the Next Time That Happens Brian Cain is one of the world's greatest mental toughness coaches. His client list includes four Major League Baseball Cy-Young Award winners, eight UFC world champion mixed martial artists, World Series and Super Bowl Champions and MVPs, Olympic medalists, and countless other elite athletes and coaches. He's also a friend and longtime student of mine who has his clients read PhilosophersNotes to go to the next level. (Cainer: !!!) We're going to be talking about him and his wisdom more in the weeks and months ahead—check out the PhilosophersNotes on his books The 10 Pillars of Mental Performance Mastery and One Percent Better. Today I want to chat about one of his clients. Quick context. Brian recently visited me and the Johnson fam out here in the country outside of Austin. The kids and wifey and I had fun learning how to eat fire and break an arrow with our necks and do other fun things we didn't think we could do. Now… There was a big UFC pay-per-view event a few weekends after his visit. Brian happened to be coaching one of the fighters in ALL THREE of the top three fights (two for championship belts). He invited me to go to the event but, me being me, I told him thank you but (laughing), I'm going to be in bed hours before the championship fights so… Although I didn't go to watch the fights, I DID do a little research on his fighters. I read an article on one of the guys fighting for a title. His prior competitors talked about how much he freaked them out because he seemed to LOVE getting hit in the face. The harder they hit him the more he smiled as he asked them if that was all they had. Them: !!! I share that story because, in my AM Heroic meditation, right after Epictetus tells me to practice my philosophy and to remember the Choice of Hercules, he often reminds me to remember that particular fighter—telling me that if HE can smile when he LITERALLY gets punched in the face, I can smile when *I* inevitably get metaphorically punched in the face. And, well, that's Today's +1. I understand the fact that the whole "martial art" metaphor thing might not be your thing but it's been a handy philosophical teaching tool for thousands of years so… If you feel so inspired, the next time you get metaphorically punched in the face (note: NOT "if" but WHEN!), I encourage you to remember Epictetus and his boxers and Cainer and his mixed martial artists and see if you can have fun flipping the switch and SMILING as you ask the Heroic gods if THAT is all they've got. That very next challenge you're going to face sooner than you may like? That's PRECISELY what we train for. Day 1. All in. Let's give life all we've got. TODAY.

+1: THIS Is What We've Trained For (#1303) Oct 15, 2022

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Stay in the Ring and Let's Go! In our last +1, we spent some time riding appropriately big waves and reminded ourselves that, when we're wisely surfing the beautiful oceans of life, we remember to ENJOY the waves. Today we're going to bring my all-time favorite teacher (Epictetus!) back to the party to hear his take on the subject. But… Before we go there… Let's pause for a moment and think about the great big-wave surfer, Laird Hamilton. The guy is obsessed about finding THE BIGGEST POSSIBLE WAVES HE CAN FIND! Why? Because that's how he knows he can see what he's made of and HAVE THE MOST FUN!! Crazy? Of course. And that's how he is fulfilling his idiosyncratic, Heroic destiny and inspiring all of us to do the same in our own unique ways as well. Side note: Have you seen Finding Joe yet? Laird tells his story in it. Along with Tony Hawk. They talk about all the FEAR they felt pursuing their big, hairy, audacious dreams. Watch the trailer here. Full movie for free here. Now… Let's talk about the ancient Stoic philosopher, Epictetus. Epictetus was a former slave who taught the guys who taught Marcus Aurelius. Every morning, I invite his presence into my consciousness during my AM Heroic meditation. Every morning, he tells me pretty much the same thing: "Practice your philosophy and remember the choice of Hercules!" As we've discussed, Hercules was one of the ancient Greek and Stoic philosophers' favorite heroes. They liked to tell the story about Hercules BEFORE he was Hercules. We talk about it in our Notes on How to Think Like a Roman Emperor and this +1 on The Choice of Hercules. The quick recap. Young pre-Heroic Hercules is walking in a forest. He comes to a fork in the road, at which point two goddesses approach him. One goddess rushes ahead of the other. She's overly made up and preening a bit as she tells him that, if he follows her, his life will be easy and awesome. She says her name is "Happiness" but she's lying. Her name is really "Vice." The second goddess waits patiently then steps forward. She has a stern yet beautiful countenance and tells Hercules that if follows HER, his life will be full of pain and challenges AND… as he strives to overcome those challenges in service to something bigger than himself, he will earn the respect and admiration of the gods. Her name? Areté. Hercules, of course, chose wisely. Epictetus reminds me (EVERY MORNING!) that I need to make that Choice of Hercules EVERY DAY—especially TODAY. A noble life worthy of the respect and admiration of the gods (and ourselves!) is NOT SUPPOSED TO BE EASY. Those challenges we face? Those are the waves that give us a chance to flourish. Epictetus often reminds me of another thing. He tells me that, if I complain about the inevitable challenges of life, then I'm kinda like the boxer who enters the ring only to walk out the moment he gets punched in the face. That, of course, would make NO SENSE. What did the boxer expect? To do yin yoga with his opponent? Let's quote the ancient Stoic sage directly here because it's so good. He tells us: "But what is philosophy? Doesn't it simply mean preparing ourselves for what may come? Don't you understand that really amounts to saying that if I would so prepare myself to endure, then let anything happen that will? Otherwise, it would be like the boxer exiting the ring because he took some punches. Actually, you can leave the ring without consequence, but what advantage would come from abandoning the pursuit of wisdom? So, what should each of us say to every trial we face? This is what I've trained for, for this my discipline!" I repeat: IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE CHALLENGING. And… Yet… I repeat: When we approach our inevitable challenges with the right mindset and consistent practices, life eventually becomes a LOT "easier" and those waves and punches become a joyful part of the Heroic, eudaimonic, noble, well-lived life. Let's remember that Today as we paddle out to our waves and step into the arena that is our lives. Love ya. Let's go!!! P.S. Speaking of stepping into the arena, check out this +1 on The Optimizer in the Arena for some old-school Teddy Roosevelt wisdom! +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1

+1: Big Wave Riding (#1302) Oct 14, 2022

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With Yoda and Laird In our last +1, we revisited our thinking on our Targeted Thinking practice. As you may recall, we added a Step 0 to the protocol that involved accepting our reality COMPLETELY before we shift to figuring out how we'd like to create a better reality and what, specifically, we will do RIGHT NOW to create it. Today I want to chat more about acceptance. We'll bring my Yoda, Phil Stutz, back to the party to tap into more of his near-infinite wisdom. Btw. Phil and I have been working together for nearly six years now. It's remarkable to me just how deep we can go these days as I have fun truly practicing my and our philosophy at deeper and deeper levels. Btw2. The reason I'm able to practice even more deeply is because I have taken on bigger and bigger challenges—as Phil says, I'm dealing with "real bullets" now. And, as another dear friend and mentor (Matt McCall!) puts it: I'm officially working out in "the big boy gym." (Lifting Real Weights vs. Styrofoam Weights for the win, folks!!) Now… Phil doesn't tell us to just *accept* reality. He tells us that we need to RADICALLY accept reality. One of the metaphors he likes to use is to imagine that you're a surfer. When you're surfing, you have ZERO control of when and how the waves show up. (Right?) But… You have pretty much COMPLETE control over how you choose to respond to any given wave. (Right?) That's Part 1 of this +1. The wise, eudaimonic surfer embraces that fact. How? By not complaining about the waves. They are what they are. And, the wise life-surfer knows that the waves, when viewed properly, are what make the whole experience FUN!! No waves, no fun. Now for Part 2. Question time… Two parts to the question. First, if you're REALLY committed to becoming a REALLY great (!!!) surfer, do you go to the beaches with the tiniest waves? Or… Do you find the beaches with the right-sized big waves to have the most fun challenging yourself with your current level of skill? Note: Finding the right-size waves is an important distinction that's part of a longer chat. We want to make sure we find our flow channel—not too little or too much stress or we'll be bored or anxious! (Superyou for the win!) Second, when you arrive at the beach and swim out to start catching the right-sized (appropriately big!) waves, do you COMPLAIN when a big wave approaches or do you smile and get after it, seeing just how well you can ride it while—very importantly—ENJOYING the thrill of the experience?? Of course, unless you're crazy, you ENJOY those (appropriately) big waves. That's the whole reason you showed up at the beach in the first place, right?! And THAT is how we want to approach our lives and all the inherent "waves"/challenges that show up on our heroic quests. Friendly reminder: THIS IS WHAT WE'VE TRAINED FOR, HERO!! So… Got any waves in your life right now? Awesome. Surf's up. Let's go get it as we enjoy the ride!!! +1 +1 +1

+1: Target Practice in 3 (+0 +1) Steps (#1301) Oct 13, 2022

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An Update on Our Targeted Thinking Protocol In our last +1, we continued our discussion about what to do when you're going 0 for 12 in life and discussed the importance of doing that ONE thing that is most important RIGHT NOW. Then, because I can't go longer than a few +1s without referencing my tattoo that serves as the one-word summation of my entire philosophy, we brought my right forearm into the discussion and celebrated the ancient word ARETE. (Cue Maui from Moana's "You're welcome!" for the incessant repetition. ) Today I want to chat about YET ANOTHER way to win that ultimate game of life—closing the gap between who you're CAPABLE of being and who you're ACTUALLY being RIGHT.THIS.SECOND! It's time to chat about Targeted Thinking. (Again.) Since our last chat, I've refined my thinking on it. Here's how I currently practice and teach it. (See Basic Training Objective 2, Lesson 5 for more!) Actually… First… Here's how I framed it in that +1 from a couple of years ago . Step 1 of Targeted Thinking is to step out of Victimland and take a step into Heroicland by asking ourselves a simple question: WHAT DO I WANT? Note: Victims complain about what's not working in their lives. Creators create what they want in their lives by asking THAT question. (See Power of TED* for more.) Then, once you've gotten even an inkling of clarity on what you want in any given moment, the follow-up question is simple: NOW WHAT NEEDS TO GET DONE? In prior +1s, we brought that wisdom to life with discussions about its efficacy in dealing with chicken poop and flat tires. Today I want to hone our practice by adding a few more steps to the Targeted Thinking protocol. Yes, knowing what you want is ESSENTIAL to the process of living Heroically and creating a better life. And, of course, taking action in pursuit of creating that ideal, is also essential. And… Before we even get to asking ourselves what we want, I think we need to step back an inch or three and ACCEPT REALITY EXACTLY AS IT IS. This is what Byron Katie describes as "Loving What Is." Which, as we've discussed, is just a modern take on the ancient Stoic practice known as "The Art of Acquiescence." (See the +1 on Suffering = Pain x Resistance and the +1 on Deo Volente + Thy Will Be Done for more.) So… Step 0 with our updated Targeted Thinking protocol is simple: Acceptance—complete and utter acceptance of EXACTLY what is happening right now. Period. That, of course, is much easier said than done but the wisest among us get the power of this practice. Then… Once we've stopped arguing with reality (reminding ourselves that we will ALWAYS lose when we argue with reality!) we are ready for the first step in our protocol. Step 1. Asking ourselves: WHAT DO I WANT? Feeling energetically sluggish? Unproductive or lacking purpose at work? Disconnected from yourself and/or your loved ones? Perfect. Accept that. Now… What do you want? To feel Heroically Energized? Heroically (and Purposefully) Productive? Heroically Connected? Awesome. Spend THREE SECONDS (!) getting a little more clarity on that. Note: We're not talking about a 3 months worth of 30-minute journaling sessions to get clarity. SPEND THREE SECONDS RIGHT IN THE MOMENT YOU FEEL WOBBLY THINKING ABOUT WHAT YOU WANT. Got it? Awesome. That's Step 1. Step 2. Ask yourself: What can I do RIGHT NOW that would take me one step closer to getting more of what I want? AGAIN: We don't need a 101-page polished strategic plan you're going to submit to some higher authority for a grade here. SPEND THREE SECONDS RIGHT IN THE MOMENT YOU FEEL WOBBLY THINKING ABOUT WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW TO GET MORE OF WHAT YOU JUST DECIDED YOU WANT. Got it? Awesome. That's Step 2. Now we're ready for Step 3. This is, unquestionably, the most important of all the steps but it's useless unless you do the first ones. Here it is… Step 3. TAKE ACTION. SPEND THREE SECONDS GETTING INTO ACTION DOING THE THING YOU DECIDED YOU NEED TO DO TO GET MORE OF WHAT YOU JUST DECIDED YOU WANT. (Yes, that's a lot of ALL CAPS. ) To recap. Step 0. Accept your current reality. Step 1. Create a Target of what you want. Step 2. Decide what you can do RIGHT NOW to move in the direction of your desired outcome. Step 3. Take action. Final step? +1. REPEAT that process. All day. Every day. ESPECIALLY TODAY, Hero. Day 1. All in. Let's go! +0. +1. +2. +3. +1.

+1: The Most Powerful Practice (#1300) Oct 12, 2022

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To Get What You REALLY Want Not too long ago, we chatted about MLB All-Star Sean Casey (The Mayor!) going 0 for 12 one season when he was batting nearly .400. As you may recall, his coach told him that he didn't care about those numbers. What his coach cared about was whether or not he was dominating his protocol. In that context, I asked you if YOU were going through a rough patch—perhaps feeling like you were going 0 for 12 in your Energy or your Work or your Love. Then I gave you a couple of hugs as I playfully told you that I love ya () and… I don't ultimately care about the current state of those things. Then I said that what I DO care about is whether or not you are working your protocol. I asked: Do you know who you are at your best in your Energy, your Work and your Love? Are you recommitting to being that best version of yourself every morning? Do you know what virtues that best version of you embodies? Are you recommitting to showing up with those virtues every morning? Do you know what specific things you DO when you're most on fire? Are you recommitting to those things every morning and then ACTUALLY DOING those things every day? Now… All that's nice and hopefully helpful even if it's not all that warm and fuzzy (!) but… Let's simplify it even more. ULTIMATELY, although it's VERY helpful to know who you are and how you show up when you're at your best in your Energy, Work and Love (which, of course, is why we architected the Heroic app to help you do exactly that!), we can simplify the game of life even more. Let's invite some more great thinkers to the party to tell us what they think… First, the great spiritual teacher Byron Katie tells us that there's always (!) only (!) ONE THING we need to do. If it's doing the dishes, do the dishes. If it's doing the laundry, do the laundry. If it's taking a deep breath or going on a walk or sending that email or making that phone call or apologizing to that loved one or turning the electronics off to get a good night of sleep or … FILL-IN-THE-BLANK with whatever might be the next thing, do that FILL-IN-THE-BLANK next most important thing—however mundane or scary you may think it is. Repeat. Over and over and over again. Ideally, with a smile… Loving What Is as you show up as your best self. Then we have David Reynolds. He's a Zen therapist who wrote the great little book Constructive Living. What's he tell us? The SAME THING. The question he gives us is as powerful as it is simple. Here it is: "Now what needs to be done?" Life feel overwhelming? Perfect. "Now what needs to be done?" Still feel a little wobbly? Perfect. "Now what needs to be done?" Navy SEAL sage Mark Divine echoes this wisdom. The metaphor he uses comes from the battlefield of war. When chaos shines its dark light on our world, he tells us that we need to SIMPLIFY THE BATTLEFIELD and create FRONT-SIGHT FOCUS. In other words, what's THE next most important thing you need to do? DO THAT. Repeat. Over and over and over again. Peak performance coaches say the same thing. They tell us that elite performers maintain a "task focus" in the midst of extreme pressure. They don't think about everything that could go wrong (or right), they think about… WHAT NEEDS TO GET DONE RIGHT NOW. Over and over and over again. So, yah. Even without thinking about who you are your best in your Energy, Work and Love, you can always win the ultimate game of life by doing one simple thing: Whatever that moment demands of you. btw: We can simplify ALL THAT wisdom even further. How about we distill ALL THE GREAT WISDOM across ALL THE GREAT WISDOM TRADITIONS into one simple word? I tattooed it on my right arm. ARETE. Close the gap between who you're capable of being and who you're actually being. Not someday. TODAY. Not some moment. RIGHT NOW. +1. +1. +1. All day. Every day. Especially TODAY. Bonus points: Do it with a smile! + + +

+1: The Toilet Paper Roll (#1299) Oct 11, 2022

Show notes

"Why Is It on the Ground Again?!" In our last +1, we talked about our rooster, Happy. He's still hanging in there. Today I want to continue the theme we explored in that +1 and see if we can get better at using the things that currently trigger us to feel annoyed, to instead, trigger us to feel grateful. Here's an example from the Johnson house to help you think of things YOU might want to reframe in YOUR house. So… My son Emerson is a high-energy kid. Note: I was going to say my "little guy" Emerson but he's almost 10 as I type this and he's NO LONGER little. It's shocking to see the speed with which he's growing! As we've joked before, when he wakes up, he kinda runs out of the room like Kramer from Seinfeld—all energy all the time. It's FANTASTIC. Except, of course, when it's not. (Hah.) So… Mundane example. For some strange reason, when Emerson uses the toilet paper in the bathroom, he often rips it off the little horizontal bar it rests on and the roll of toilet paper winds up unraveled and strewn across the bathroom floor. L O L. Now… I'm a parent AND a teacher so, of course, we've had some Conquering Toilet Paper 101 classes on how to gently roll the toilet paper and gently rip the amount you need from the roll while ensuring it stays in place at the end of the job. (10 Big Ideas, folks! ) And… That lesson just hasn't stuck. L O L. So… After Emerson's done his thing, that toilet paper roll often winds up strewn across the bathroom floor. And… I can choose to use that toilet paper everywhere (again!) as either a trigger for my annoyance (and yet another lecture on the mechanics of toilet paper)…. OR… I can use that same trigger as an opportunity to appreciate the fact that, one day WAY too soon, that toilet paper roll is going to be perfectly and permanently affixed to its resting place—never to see the floor again. And… I just got tears in my eyes typing that. I'm not ready for that day yet. I want to fully enjoy the incredible enthusiasm of my not-so-little-boy who is becoming a wonderfully enthusiastic young man for as long as I can—knowing that, like all the other wonderful things in my life, will not last forever. That's Today's +1. Got a trigger? Seriously. Pause. Think of at least one little thing a loved one does that, if we ACTUALLY practiced our philosophy with a little more rigor, could EASILY be alchemized from annoying to charming… Go it? Awesome. Let's remember the fact that life is preciously short. And… Let's use everything we can as a reminder of just how precious it is. -1 to +1. All day. Every day. ESPECIALLY Today.

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