Optimize With Brian Johnson | More Wisdom In Less Time

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.

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 Vis

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 o

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

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

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

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 gra

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 th

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

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 div

How to Feel Empowered Around Food and Fuel Your Awesomely Authentic Life

Here's another little gem from Dan Pink’s To Sell Is Human. (The man is a brilliant writer and a treasure-trove of goodness.)   He tells us that, according to research from McKinsey: “the typical American hears or reads more than one hundred thousand words every day.”   Think about that for a moment.   100,000 words. EVERY DAY.   When I think about that, I immediately think of a few things: A Lion, a King, and a Monk.    Specifically, I think about Alberto Villoldo’s wisdom that we are now exposed to more stimuli in ONE WEEK than our ancient ancestors were exposed to in their ENTIRE LIFETIMES.    As he says, we evolved to deal with one lion roaring at us at a time. Now, with 24/7/365-global news, it’s as if the entire jungle is roaring at us all day every day. (Which, btw, is one of the reasons why obsessive news and talk show consumption is correlated with anxiety, depression, etc.)   (Another btw: Here’s a crazy stat from Nasha Winters in The Metabolic Approach to Cancer. She tells us:

Emerson is learning how to read and I’m the lucky guy who gets to teach him.   The other day Emerson wrote his first word: “mom.” Then he busted out “dad.” Then he was able to write his name by himself. (I get a little misty just typing that.)   I don’t hang on to much “stuff” but those first, handwritten words are now my most prized possessions.   Philosophically, it’s amazing to see how something that is super hard — like, for example, Emerson writing an “a” — suddenly becomes “easy.”   Of course, I might take more than a moment to celebrate the now awesome “a” and remind Emerson that there was a time when that was really hard.    And, we often quickly roll through the other things that were hard before they became super easy. If you were a fly on the wall of the Johnson house you might here something like this:   “Remember how you used to poop in your pants!” (We both get a kick out of that one.) “And, now it’s super easy to go in the toilet!”   “And, remember how you used to suck

Yesterday we reviewed our Motivation Equation. I hope you took the time to hang out with your #1 Wildly Important Goal and run it through the little magical formula.    And, if not: Pardon the soapbox moment but… Um… Well, hmmmm…    We can’t incrementally crush it together if we’re not actually PRACTICING these ideas on a consistent (read: daily!) basis.    We’ve gotta move from THEORY to PRACTICE and there’s only ONE way to do that…   PRACTICE! PRACTICE!! PRACTICE!!!   Ahem. I am now stepping off the soapbox.   Today we shall review another super powerful not-so-secret weapon: WOOP!   As I mentioned in our last +1, we’re currently working on a big project. As such, I’m employing all the best stuff I know to rock it.    And, it’s now officially I M P O S S I B L E for me to not WOOP something I really care about.   I mean, recall that science shows just how powerful this little practice can be in making our dreams a reality so…   The key? Once again: Start with a vision of your ideal. That’s

One of the themes we come back to again and again is the basic idea of loving what is — whether that’s via Byron Katie’s wisdom or the Stoics or the Serenity Prayer.   Here’s another take on it that I’ve found super helpful.   Vernon Howard tells us: “If your grand purpose in life is to wake up, then whatever happens to you is good, for it can prod you into self-awakening.”   And, he says: “If it takes apparent misfortune to turn us into true philosophers and doers of good to receive good, then apparent misfortune is our greatest fortune.”   Well that’s one way to look at it, eh?   Indeed it is. A very powerful way.   So…   Today’s +1.   What’s your GRAND purpose? The ultimate big ol’ purpose of your existence?   Mine?   In short: To actualize my potential. In service to the world. While enjoying the process.   Now, with THAT goal in mind, I can bring Vernon’s wisdom to mind and alchemize pretty much E V E R Y T H I N G into great fortune. From the mundane issues with the kids or the bi

In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche tells us: “He who cannot command himself should obey. And many can command themselves, but much is still lacking before they can obey themselves.”   How epic is that?!   Let’s slow down and read it again: “He who cannot command himself should obey. And many can command themselves, but much is still lacking before they can obey themselves.”   To translate: Can’t figure out what you should do? No big deal. Just get used to following orders from someone else.   Have a sense of what you should do but can’t follow through? Well, much is still lacking then, my friend. We must be able to command ourselves then obey those commands.   It’s why Leonardo da Vinci said: “One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.”   And… Well, pretty much E V E R Y O N E (! ! !) says that self-mastery is the secret sauce (to being the Boss of your own life).   (It’s also why, if I had to summarize my entire philosophy in one word I’d go with areté.)  

Dan Pink tells us that To Sell Is Human.   Although only 1 in 9 Americans is technically in sales, he says that the other 8 in 9 spend a ton of their time in “non-sales selling.” In fact, the research he commissioned shows that we spend around 40% (!) of our time (or 24 minutes out of every working hour!) trying to move people to do things—whether that’s pitching an idea to colleagues or trying to change someone’s behavior.   (That’s, obviously a lot. And, being good at that is, obviously, important to our professional and personal success.)   Then there’s the personal time we spend “selling”/”moving” others—from selling our kids on a philosophical idea (“mistakes are awesome!”) or your spouse on how to Optimize your nutrition (“sugar isn’t awesome!”).   In that context, he tells us we need some new ABCs of selling. As you may know, the “ABCs” of the old-school, hard-core sales approach are “Always be closing.”    That, to say the least, is not where it’s at. Now? Now, Dan says, it’s

In our last +1, we talked about our 80/20 180 phase in which we implemented a number of high-leverage lifestyle changes.   After that stabilization and Optimizing process, we went deep into what research shows to be a REALLY powerful targeted therapy for cancer: a ketogenic diet.   In fact, we hired the woman who literally wrote the book on it.   That book is called Keto for Cancer. Its author, Miriam Kalamian has been my brother’s day-to-day nutritionist for the last x weeks. She and her book are AMAZING.   If you’re wondering what nutritional approach we’re following, THAT’s it.   I’m laughing as I type this but my brother went from pretty much eating whatever he wanted whenever he wanted in whatever quantity he wanted to following a nutritional plan with the precision of an Olympic athlete such that he knows, in his words, whether or not he can have a couple more walnuts with lunch. (HAH!)   All of which begs a few questions.   First, you may wonder: What’s a ketogenic diet? And, why is it rel

This is an introduction to Public Speaking 101. Get the workbook + watch the full class here: https://www.optimize.me/public-speaking We’ve had a lot of people ask for a class on Public Speaking. It tends to freak a lot of people out which is why Idea #1 features Jerry Seinfeld’s quip that most people are so afraid of public speaking that they’d prefer to *receive* a eulogy than give one. (Hah.) Alas, if you have any fears over speaking in public, you’re not alone. Enter: Common humanity. And, enter my own stories about my fears and my favorite ways to alchemize that energy. (“I’m excited!” + “Bring it on!” + threat vs. challenge, etc.) Other Ideas include Rule #0 (aka, it’s not about you), Rule #1 (aka BE you—amplified!), systematically organize (and overprepare!), plus Optimizing your pre-shot routine before letting it rip!

So, on one hand, as per our last +1, science shows that genes play a surprisingly small role in the cause of cancer.   Yet…   Guess where nearly all of that $100 billion of research money has has been spent?   Yep.   We’ve spent $100 billion dollars on research and we spend $100 billion dollars on cancer medications every year operating under the assumption that cancer is, primarily, a genetic issue.   To put it directly, that appears to be the essence of why we’ve failed to win the war on cancer. We’ve been looking at it from the wrong perspective.    Result: No improvements in the real death rates since the 1950s.   Here’s the short story on the two conflicting theories regarding the origin of cancer:    The dominant theoretical orientation within Western medicine is something called the “somatic mutation theory” (or “SMT”) of cancer.   It basically says that cancer is CAUSED by genetic mutations.    Now, there’s no question that cancer cells are pretty wacky genetically. In fact, the sheer