You Are Heroic with Brian Johnson

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+1 #190: Approach vs. Avoidance Dec 29, 2017

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PNTV: The Philosophy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy by Donald Robertson Dec 27, 2017

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Got problems with your soul? These days, you'd see a psychotherapist. But, back in the day, it was the philosopher who'd help you optimize—they were the preferred physician of the soul. This book is about the philosophical roots of modern psychotherapy. Specifically, it outlines the connection between cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and Stoicism. Big Ideas we explore include being a warrior of the mind vs. a librarian of the mind, your highest human purpose, getting on good terms with your inner daimon, practicing the reserve clause and modeling your ideal sage.

+1 #185: The Angel's Advocate Dec 27, 2017

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+1 #180: Thinking vs. Doing Dec 25, 2017

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In one of my coaching sessions with Phil Stutz he told me to write something down. (He often does that. 😃) He said, "Draw a horizontal line. Above that line, put 'Thinking Space.' Below the line, put 'Work Space.'" Then he asked me, "You know what the 'Thinking Space' is good for?" I didn't have a very good answer. He said, "NOTHING. Nothing happens in the Thinking Space." Hah. Obviously, stepping back and thinking about things is a vital skill but the fact is, nothing actually HAPPENS until we take action, use the tools and get to work on and in our lives. (And, as we've discussed numerous times, most of us don't actually THINK, we ruminate—which, we know, is not good. At all.(https://www.optimize.me/plus-one/rumination/) Phil says we all tend to live in the Thinking Space. He says we need to force ourselves DOWN—out of (over)thinking and into the Work Space. How? Use one of our +1 tools, get to work, do ANYTHING but overthink (or indulge in our Kryptonites). He tells us that it's kinda like a beach ball in water. You press it down and what does it want to do? Pop back up. Well, we want to get REALLY good at keeping that ball down. Today's +1: Do you (like me and most people on the planet), have a default tendency to spend too much time thinking about things and not enough time actually DOING things? Remember the beach ball. Push it down every time it pops back up.

+1 #175: How Caffeine Really Works Dec 24, 2017

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Do you know how caffeine actually works? Most of us think that caffeine gives us energy. But what it actually does is mask our fatigue—making us feel more energized than we actually are. Here's the quick story on what's going on behind the scenes. One of the by-products of being awake and having your neurons fire is a neurotransmitter called adenosine. As adenosine accumulates in your brain, you get tired—cueing you to go to sleep to recover. Caffeine is structurally very similar to adenosine. So similar, in fact, that it can actually sneak into those little adenosine receptors and block the adenosine from doing its job of letting us know we're tired. And voila! You feel energized. Obviously, that's pretty cool. (Hah.) Today's +1: Two things we want to consider as we optimize our caffeine intake. 1. We want to know that when we use caffeine we're "borrowing" energy. Therefore, we'd be wise to use caffeine strategically rather than habitually. If we need caffeine to get going in the morning, what we really need is more rest, not more caffeine. 2. We also want to know that caffeine has a half-life of 5-8 hours—which means that if you have a coffee with 200 mg of caffeine at 2 pm, half of that (or 100 mg) is still in your system as late as 10 pm. (That's a lot!) Bottom line: If you're going to use caffeine, do it strategically and do it earlier in the day. Have a "caffeine curfew" to make sure you get a good night of sleep. Experts say no later than 2 pm and earlier if you're really serious about allowing your body to recover. So… How's YOUR caffeine intake? How can you +1 it?

PNTV: The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster by Darren Hardy Dec 22, 2017

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Darren Hardy is the publisher of SUCCESS magazine. His message is clear: We are living in the era of greatest opportunity in human history. There's never been a better time to be an entrepreneur. NOW IS THE TIME to hop on the entrepreneur roller coaster. Big Ideas we explore include the importance of getting super freaky, practicing getting up after getting knocked down, setting the pace as an effective leader and remember it's the fear of fear we fear.

+1 #170: Eating Sugar in an fMRI Machine Dec 22, 2017

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In our last couple +1s, we've been hanging out in an fMRI scanning our brains and seeing some fascinating stuff. Let's stay in there for one more study on how your brain lights up in different ways depending on the food you eat. First, a little background: David Ludwig is a professor and researcher at both Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. He has both an M.D. and a Ph.D. and is one of the world's leading researchers on the science of optimal nutrition. He's overseen dozens of diet studies and authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles. In his great book Always Hungry?, he tells us about some powerful research. Get this: You can bring people into a lab and have them drink a milkshake that's identical in every way but one. One shake has "fast-acting" carbs and the other has "slow-acting" carbs. You have the people in the study drink their shakes and then, a few hours later, you scan their brains. Guess what. Well, before we even get into that fMRI machine, we see that the individuals who consumed the fast-acting carbs are reporting more hunger and their blood glucose levels have dropped more than the ones who consumed the slow-acting carbs. And… When we look at their brains, we see something amazing. The people who consumed the "fast-acting" carbs have a little part of their brain lit up that's called the "nucleus accumbens." The nucleus accumbens is the primary reward center of our brains. It's the part of our brains tied to addiction—addiction to stuff like alcohol, tobacco and cocaine. It's what drives you to compulsively consume more of something. And, it LIGHTS up when you eat fast-acting carbs!!! So, right as your blood sugar drops and your hunger increases, you have your nucleus accumbens screaming at you to have more of the sugary stuff. Not a winning combination. The solution? First, make the connection between your food choices right now and your future self x minutes and hours from now as per our last +1. And… Reduce or eliminate those fast-acting carbs. What qualifies as fast-acting carbs? Well, the obvious stuff like sugar (in all its forms!) needs to go. The less obvious stuff like bread and pastas also need to go. Let's cool off that nucleus accumbens as we Optimize our nutrition one bite at a time. +1. +1. +1.

PNTV: Unsubscribe by Jocelyn K. Glei Dec 20, 2017

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This is a quick-reading, smart, practical guide on how to, as the sub-title suggests, "Kill Email Anxiety, Avoid Distractions, and Get Real Work Done. My kind of book. I *highly* recommend it. Big Ideas we explore include rats + rewards (real vs. random), progress hacks to conquer the progress paradox, saying "YES!!!" en route to saying "No" plus the physics of emails and 21st century superpowers.

+1 #165: Flow Dec 20, 2017

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Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is one of the world's leading researchers studying the science of well-being. He co-founded the Positive Psychology movement with Martin Seligman and has written landmark books on Creativity and Flow. After surveying thousands of people, Mihaly was able to shine some light on that elusive state in which we're at our best. In fact, he's the one who coined the word "Flow." Here's the basic idea: Imagine drawing two lines. On the x axis we have our Skill level. On the y axis we have our Challenge level. If the Challenge is high but your Skill is low, what will you experience? ANXIETY. On the other hand, if your Skill is high, but the Challenge is low, what will you experience? BOREDOM. Now, what if your Skill level matches the Challenge? Enter: FLOW. So, Today's +1: A quick inventory. Are you feeling Bored? Increase the level of Challenge. (For example, if you're doing a mundane, repetitive task, see how flawlessly you can do it or how quickly or both!) Feeling Anxious? Decrease the Challenge a bit and/or increase your Skill. Want to feel more Flow? Bring more awareness to the whole process, set a goal that focuses your attention (that is ALWAYS the first step, btw!!), eliminate distractions (Go Deep!!), and allow yourself to be fully immersed in the experience. Repeat. FLOW!!! +1. +1. +1.

+1 #160: Presence Dec 19, 2017

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In our last +1, we talked about the fact that the word courage comes from the Latin word for "heart." Just as our heart pumps blood to the rest of our body, our COURAGE pumps energy to our other virtues. Here's one of the simplest, easiest and most powerful ways to build your courage in any given moment. Strike a pose. A courageous, power pose. As we've discussed so many times, the relationship between our feelings and our behaviors is what researchers describe as "bidirectional." It goes both ways. Science says that feelings FOLLOW behavior at least as much as the other way around. In other words, by simply taking certain actions, we can influence how we feel. Amy Cuddy has demonstrated this in her lab at Harvard. In her great book Presence, she tells us that we all E X P A N D when we feel most powerful. Get this: Even blind athletes, who have never seen anyone else do it, will strike that victorious "V!" pose with arms triumphantly up in the air when they win a race. So, she started her research with this question: "Since we naturally expand our bodies when we feel powerful, do we also naturally feel powerful when we expand our bodies?" Spoiler alert: YES!!! In one study, individuals were split into two groups. One group assumed "low-power" poses in which they, essentially, took up less space (sitting while slouching, with their hands close to their bodies and standing with their legs close together, and their arms close to their bodies and their heads down). The other group assumed "high-power" poses in which they EXPANDED and took up more space (sitting in a relaxed, confident manner with legs out and hands behind head; standing like Wonder Woman or Superman with hands on hips, chin up and feet wide apart). After only TWO minutes of posing, here's what happened: "the high-power posers showed a 19 percent increase in testosterone and a 25 percent decrease in cortisol. Low-power posers showed the opposite pattern—a 10 percent decrease in testosterone and a 17 percent increase in cortisol, the exact pattern we predicted." That pattern is known as the dual hormone hypothesis. High testosterone + low cortisol = HIGH power. Low testosterone + high cortisol = LOW power. Think about that: Two minutes of posing produced those dramatic shifts in biology. Simply moving our bodies in a more expansive way significantly boosts our confidence and power. That's Today's +1. Feel the difference between going through life in a low-power, shrunken state vs. expanding into your most powerful self. Want to feel more confidence and power today? Smile. Strike a power pose. And go rock it.