Optimize With Brian Johnson | More Wisdom In Less Time

Want happiness? Put your virtues in action. Modern-day positive psychologists tell us it's all about using our signature strengths. Here are some ideas on how!

Bernard Roth has been a Professor of Engineering at Stanford for over FIFTY (!!) years. A pioneer in the field of robotics, Bernie is one of the founders of the famed d.school at Stanford. In this great book, he brings the concepts of design thinking to life in the context of our most important design project: designing our optimal lives. Big Ideas we explore include the 5 elements of design thinking, doing vs. trying, ignoring odds, and being the cause.

Emotional peaks and valleys. We want to avoid them if we're committed to optimizing and actualizing. Here are some ideas on how to rock that.

EVERYBODY procrastinates. And this "concise guide" by Timothy Pychl, Ph.D.--one of the world's leading procrastination experts--helps us solve the procrastination puzzle. Big Ideas we explore include IF ... THEN (<-- huge!), Just getting started (vs. Just doing it), the horror of "It will just take a minute," why multitasking is a myth, and why it's best to be nice to yourself when you stumble.

Ready to get your greatness on? Lewis Howes joins us to chat about my favorite Big Ideas from his new book The School of Greatness. Highlights include: the importance of vision (lesson #1!!), creating perfect days, dealing with adversity, and the all-important HUSTLE muscle.

Ready to attend The School of Greatness? Awesome. Lewis Howes shares his lecture notes from 200+ interviews with extraordinary humans for his uber-popular podcast. Lessons include Creating a Vision + Turning Adversity into Advantage, and Flexing Your Hustle Muscle. To greatness!

Time to embrace our mistakes and see them for what they are: mis-takes! (And, totally forgot to give a shout-out to Michael Beckwith who inspired the video with this thought: "A conscious realization of our innate oneness with the Ineffable does not mean that we will never make a mistake again. Even enlightened beings burn their bagels once in a while. It's important to maintain a sense of humor because this is how you will stop being afraid of making a mistake. You'll make some, but so what? That's why they're called mis-takes. Humor relaxes the uptight ego. You get a new cue from your inner Self and simply say, 'I missed my cue, so let's do a second take.' Your willingness to take the risk of making a mistake is actually an expression of courage and a willingness to grow from them. Mistakes are about getting the blessing in the lesson and the lesson in the blessing.")

Every creative project/business/whatever goes thru a U process. Let's embrace the peaks and valleys and summit Mt. Awesome.

A quick look at the why's and how's of getting your inbox to zero.

Ready to 10X your thinking and your action? Fantastic. Grant Cardone is your man. In this high intensity, LET'S DO THIS! chat you'll get fired up to go out and crush it. Big Ideas we explore include the importance of 10x-ing your vision AND your action, how to starve fear, why obsession is a gift not a disease and how Smokey would smoke the tortoise and the hare.

Promises. Do you make a lot of 'em and then drop the ball? We want to make sure we honor our commitments. It's one of the keys to integrity.

Want to rise like superman? Fantastic. Get into flow. How? Challenge yourself 4% beyond your current skill. Day after day. Week after week. Month after month. Year after year. And make the impossible possible.

Want to get Bulletproof? Then Dave Asprey is your man. An uber-successful entrepreneur who weighed 300 lbs before bio-hacking his way to optimal awesome, Dave gives us a guide to upgrading our lives. Big Ideas include the 10 Diet Myths, inflamma, fruitsandvegetables, and making health a means to a much bigger end.

Want more happiness, meaning and mojo? Time to close our integrity gaps. Here are three ways to rock it!

Flexibility. It's a hallmark of healthy people. Are you flexible? Or perhaps a little too rigid or chaotic?!

Rest. You getting enough? If you're like most of us, the answer is No. Leading medical doctor, Matthew Edlund shows up how sleep isn't enough. We need to cultivate "active rest" into our day-to-day lives. In this Note, we'll look at how to integrate active Mental + Physical + Social + Spiritual rest while working out our brain, breathing and optimizing our lives.

Stephen Covey has a handy-dandy 4 quadrant model for time mgmt. It's powerful. Here are some ideas on how to optimize. Where are you spending *your* time?

The Practicing Mind. It's the key to true inner peace and contentment. In a world that conditions us to obsess about goals and outcomes, it's easy to miss the importance of the process. The PRACTICE. Thomas Sterner brilliantly (!) helps us bring discipline and focus into our lives to experience the presence and joy that comes as a result. (Bonus: We also create a frictionless path to our goals as well!)

Who do LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Dwight Howard, James Harden and a ton of other top basketball players go to to get better? Idan Ravin. If you're into sports + self-development + the pursuit of being the best you can possibly be, I think you'll *love* the book. Big Ideas include getting paid to do what you love, greatness, obstacles and exiting the cave.

It's true. Kinda sorta almost making a real commitment to something is *way* harder than really making a 100% commitment. What do you need to make a nonnegotiable, 100% commitment to in your life? Get on that!!!