You Are Heroic with Brian Johnson

Latest Episodes:

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.

+1: #465 Virtuous Activity of the Soul Jul 14, 2018

Show notes

In our last +1, we talked about Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and the fact that his word for "happiness" was VERY different than our word. Eudaimonia, as we discussed, literally means "good soul" and implies a powerful sense of actualizing our potential—succeeding in expressing the best within ourselves. Today we're going to focus on HOW Aristotle teaches us to create THAT type of "happiness." Pop quiz: Can you guess? … Pop answer: In a word: Virtue. In a Greek word: Areté. Aristotle tells us that the ONLY way to have a "good soul" and experience the deepest sense of well-being and happiness is to, essentially, express the best version of yourself moment to moment to moment. To live with virtue. Here's how he puts it: "But what is happiness? If we consider what the function of man is, we find that happiness is a virtuous activity of the soul."

"Virtuous activity of the soul."

Wow. Isn't that BEAUTIFUL.

"Virtuous activity of the soul."

Just for a moment… Imagine a culture in which our sense of happiness was grounded in a commitment to "virtuous activity of the soul." Then imagine YOUR life in which your happiness was connected to the virtuous activity of your soul. What's that mean? We'll talk more about how to hit that target via Aristotle's Doctrine of the Mean tomorrow. For now: At a choice point today, just ask yourself, "What would my soul like me to do right now? What would 'virtuous activity' of the best within me look like?'" Then, of course, have fun high-fiving your inner soul as you rock it.

+1: #460 Delete THAT App Jul 09, 2018

Show notes

In our last +1, we talked about the fact that 25 minutes every day = 2 YEARS of your life. Did you figure out how you're wasting time and make some progress eliminating that time wasting activity? If so, high fives. If not, here's a tip. In Bored and Brilliant, Manoush Zomorodi gives people a 7-Day Challenge to invite more boredom and more brilliance into their lives. Challenge #4 is pretty epic. It's the fastest way to add two years back to our lives. Here's how she puts it: "Your instructions for today: Delete it. Delete *that* app. ... You know which one is your albatross. The one you use too much. The one you use to escape—too often, at the expense of other things (including sleep). The one that makes you feel bad about yourself. Delete said time-wasting, bad-habit app. Uninstall it." Yep. THAT app. Which one is it? Want two years of your life back? Delete it. Now. I know it's going to hurt but so is you looking back on your life from your deathbed and wondering why you squandered so much precious time and didn't go ALL IN on living your greatest life so… Jim Rohn's wisdom comes to mind: "We will all experience one pain or the other—the pain of discipline or the pain of regret—but the difference is that the pain of discipline weighs only ounces while the pain of regret weighs tons." Let's pay in ounces. Delete THAT app. (NOW! Seriously. You're the Boss, but let's do this!!)

+1: #455 The Master Jul 04, 2018

Show notes

George Leonard was an aikido master who wrote a great little book called Mastery. It's a tiny little book packed with a ton of wisdom. I highly recommend it. There's one particular passage that's been tattooed on my mind since I read it over a decade ago. We're going to talk about that tomorrow. Today, we're going to take a quick look at how Leonard describes mastery and the other paths that can trip us up. First, pop quiz! When you think of the path of Mastery and the Master who walks that path, what vision comes to mind? How would YOU describe it? Take a moment and noodle that. Alright. Here's how Leonard describes mastery. He tells us that "We fail to realize that mastery is not about perfection. It's about a process, a journey. The master is the one who stays on the path day after day, year after year. The master is the one who is willing to try, and fail, and try again, for as long as he or she lives." That's mastery. It's a PROCESS. When we commit to the path of mastery we stay on that path day in and day out. YEAR after YEAR. (Reminds me of Steven Pressfield's wisdom about Turning Pro—and how your life changes the day you truly flip the switch and go from amateur to Professional.) The alternatives to Mastery? Well, Leonard tells us we can be what he calls a "Dabbler" or a "Hacker" or an "Obsessive." Here's the quick look. The Dabbler: Gets really into something for awhile and loves the quick results but the moment the newness fades, he or she's off to the next new thing—rationalizing that it just wasn't a good fit. Hence, no mastery. The Obsessive: A bottom-line type of person who wants to get the tennis stroke right on the first lesson and, when results start to slow, pushes even harder to make it work, ignoring the fact that plateaus are part of the path of mastery—pushing and pushing mercilessly to create a continuing upward curve. Then? Injury/burnout/etc. Followed by a sharp, sharp decline. Hence, no mastery. The Hacker: After sort of getting the hang of something, the hacker is content to stay at a plateau—never really improving his skills beyond the first basic level. Hacking, hacking, hacking. Hence, no mastery. The Master. The Dabbler. The Obsessive. The Hacker. And YOU. How are you showing up these days? Now… I was going to ask you how you think you can bring a little more mastery to your life but then I realized I should probably give you Leonard's #1 tip first. Here it is: "How do you best move toward mastery? To put it simply, you practice diligently, but you practice primarily for the sake of the practice itself." Aha! Practice. Again. So… Today's +1. What's the most important thing in your life right now? And… What's your DAILY (!) PRACTICE to Optimize that thing or the Big 3 things? For me?

Energy = AM Trail (I never miss a day = my commitment to the practice/mastery)
Work = AM Deep Work (Again, I (literally) never miss a day = my commitment to the practice/mastery)
Love = AM Kid Time (I too often miss a day here! lol. Although my shut-down complete is pretty legit this still needs work and is being reinstalled!)

You?

Energy = __________________
Work = __________________
Love = __________________

Here's to your Mastery and the simple practices that keep us on the path!

+1: #450 Food Poisons Part 2 Jun 29, 2018

Show notes

In our last +1, we talked about Rule #1 of Nutrition. You remember what it was? Basic idea: It's not what you start eating that has the most positive impact. It's what you STOP eating. There aren't any Fountains of Youth in nature; there ARE poisons. And, you can't eat enough broccoli to make up for all that pizza. (So, what did you eliminate?) Although I did share his high-level perspective, I didn't share John Durant's perspective on what he thinks we should remove as I wanted to make his general advice apply whether you're Paleo or Vegan or Pegan or whatever. Today we're going to look at his top recs at what qualifies as "poison" and should, therefore, be removed. *** Note: I share this with a respectful tip 'o the hat to the Grain Lovers out there. *** John tells us (and, of course, many others who share his perspective echo this): "Top on this list [of poisons] are industrial foods (sugar, vegetable oils) as well as the seed-based crops they're made out of (cereal grains, legumes). Think of these as slow-acting poisons when consumed in large quantities." Very few people are going to argue that sugar is good for us. (And certainly not in the quantities in which we consume it today: 150+ lbs per person per year. The fact that we can consume more sugar in one meal than our ancestors would consume in an entire year = not good.) Then we have veggie oils. We've talked about it before, but they're not good for inflammation. (Although, when I was in the hospital waiting room while my brother had his surgery, for some odd reason Dr. Oz dedicated his show to trying to convince us that corn oil is awesome. Hah. We'll save that for another chat.) Then we have grains and legumes. If you fall into the Paleo-esque camp, you won't have a tough time agreeing with the statement that we can "Think of these as slow-acting poisons when consumed in large quantities." If you enjoy grains and legumes and your digestion and health are perfect then congrats! If you enjoy those foods and your health and digestion can use some Optimizing, you might want to experiment with a little elimination! As per the Hartwigs in It Starts with Food (their Whole360 program was super-helpful years ago after my decade-long low-fat-vegan stint): "The marketing from big cereal companies would have you think that cereal grains are highly nutritious—and that if you don't eat them, you'll miss out on all sorts of vitamins, minerals, and fiber that you can get only from grains. That's simply not true. Grains are not (we repeat, not) nutrient-dense when compared with vegetables and fruit." Plus: "Another way that a diet high in grains leads to suboptimal nutrition is in terms of opportunity cost: If there are more whole grains on your plate, then there's probably less of some other food—like vegetables—on your plate. And that lowers the overall micronutrient density in your diet too. In summary: There is not a single health-promoting substance present in grains that you can't also get from vegetables and fruit." I laugh as I type this given the near-religious fervor with which people approach their nutrition. Again, YOU're the Boss. Given your nutritional philosophy, are there any foods that you think you might to eliminate? Have fun. That is all!

+1: #445 Sentence Completions Jun 24, 2018

Show notes

Nathaniel Branden was a fascinating guy. As a teenager he wrote a fan letter to Ayn Rand—which she ignored. Then he wrote another letter a little later which led to an intimate relationship and collaboration. We'll save the details of that relationship for another discussion. For now, let's look at some wisdom from The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem where Nathaniel tells us about a little self-awareness exercise called "sentence completion." Here's how he puts it: "Sentence-completion work is a deceptively simple yet uniquely powerful tool for raising self-understanding, self-esteem, and personal effectiveness. It rests on the premise that all of us have more knowledge than we normally are aware of—more wisdom than we use, more potentials than typically show up in our behavior. Sentence completion is a tool for accessing and activating these 'hidden resources.'" How's it work? Like this. Take a sentence stem (like: "Living consciously to me means...") and create 6-10 completions of that sentence. Only rule is that each ending needs to create a grammatical sentence. Write quickly, don't stop to "think" and, as Nathaniel says: "Any ending is fine, just keep going." Let's try it out on this sentence stem: If I bring 5 percent more awareness to my activities today… That's Today's +1. Here's to tapping into the wisdom that's always right there waiting for us!

+1: #440 Exercise vs. Zoloft Jun 19, 2018

Show notes

We've talked about how exercise is kinda like taking a little bit of Ritalin and a little bit of Prozac, but somehow we've gotten this far into our +1 series without talking about the fact that exercise is as effective as Zoloft in reducing depression. Get this. In The How of Happiness, Sonja Lyubomirksy walks us through a little experiment. Bring clinically depressed individuals into a lab. Split them into three groups. The first group is assigned to four months of aerobic exercise while the second group gets an antidepressant medication (in this case Zoloft) and the third group gets both. The exercise group does three, forty-five minute sessions per week of cycling or walking/jogging at a moderate to high intensity. Fast-forward four months. As Sonja says: "Remarkably, by the end of the four-month intervention period, all three groups had experienced their depressions lift and reported fewer dysfunctional attitudes and increased happiness and self-esteem. Aerobic exercise was just as effective at treating depression as was Zoloft, or as a combination of exercise and Zoloft. Yet exercise is a lot less expensive, usually with no side effects apart from soreness. Perhaps even more remarkably, six months later, participants who had 'remitted' (recovered) from their depressions were less likely to relapse if they had been in the exercise group (six months ago!) than if they had been in the medication group." She continues by saying: "No one in our society needs to be told that exercise is good for us. Whether you are overweight or have a chronic illness or are a slim couch potato, you've probably heard or read this dictum countless times throughout your life. But has anyone told you— indeed, guaranteed you—that regular physical activity will make you happier? I swear by it." Any time one of the leading, conservative scientists in the field guarantees (!) ANYTHING I sit up straight and pay attention. And, in this case, I put on my shoes and hit the trail.

+1: #435 Other Image 101 Jun 14, 2018

Show notes

In Self-Image 101, we talked about how to create the most heroically awesome version of yourself by integrating the "Optimus" you and the "en*theos" you into the "Hērōs" you. We also talked about Other Image 101—aka: How do you see OTHERS? Walt Whitman helped us out with this idea. He once said: "In the faces of men and women, I see God." Which begs the question: When you look in the faces of men and women, what do YOU see? That's actually Today's +1. When you're out and about today (and, perhaps even more importantly: when you're in and hanging out with your family today!), take a moment to step back and SEE the absolute best, most divinely awesome essence of the people with whom you're interacting. And, remember: It's hard to see in others what we're not seeing in ourselves. Therefore… Let's make sure the first person in whom we see God this morning is that person looking back at us in the mirror. Here's to bowing to the divine within yourself and to the divine within all those you meet today! +1. +1. +1.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

You Are Heroic with Brian Johnson

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected