Heroic with Brian Johnson | Activate Your Best. Every Day.

“Shutdown Complete!” for the Target Swipe Win

Steven Pressfield is one of my all-time favorite writers.

In addition to being a brilliant writer of both fiction and non-fiction, he’s a good human being. You can feel his wisdom and humility and realness with every word he writes.

We’ve featured SIX of his brilliant books on the creative process including: The War of Art, Do the Work, Turning Pro, Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t, The Artist’s Journey and his most recent book: Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be.

Check out all those Notes if you want to learn more about how I approach the creative process. You can also check out Creativity 101 and the collection of Notes on the subject.

As you know if you’re familiar with Pressfield and his style, his books are both inspiring and beautifully pithy.

btw: I just looked that word up. Yep. His books are the very definition of pithy: “concise and forcefully expressive.” I read his latest book in an hour and fifteen minutes.

Now…

Today I want to connect a Big Idea from his latest book to my #3 Work Target: “Shut-down complete.”

As you know if you’ve been following along, “Shut-down complete!” is a Cal Newport-inspired idea.

In Deep Work he tells us: “At the end of the workday, shut down your consideration of work issues until the next morning — no after-dinner e-mail check, no mental replays of conversations, and no scheming about how you’ll handle an upcoming challenge; shut down work thinking completely. If you need more time, then extend your workday, but once you shut down, your mind must be left free.”

And, he says: “When you work, work hard. When you’re done, be done.”

To ritualize this process, as he shuts everything down for the night, he says: “Shut-down complete!”

That’s exactly what I do as I shut down for the day and get my desk in a ready state for the next morning. (Which, btw, is ANOTHER one of my Work Targets: “Desk in Ready State.”)

Pressfield captures the same sentiment in his latest book.

He tells us: “When I finish the day’s work, I turn my mind off. The office is closed. The work has been handed off to the Unconscious, to the Muse. I respect her. I give her the time. If I see family or friends, I never talk about what I’m working on. I politely deflect any queries. But beyond not talking with others, I refuse to talk to myself. I don’t obsess. I don’t worry. I don’t second guess. The office is closed.”

That’s Today’s +1.

When you work, WORK.

When you’re done with work, BE DONE.

The office is closed.

Turn your brain off as you transition from Work to Love and give yourself the best shot at both enjoying your family AND training your recovery so you can show up with Heroic Energy and do it all again at the highest possible levels tomorrow.

Target swipe: “Shut-down complete!”

Target swipe: “Desk in Ready State”

Target swipe: “LET’S GOOOOO, HERO!!!”

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+1: My #1 WIN (Yours?) (#1350) 0

Dec 1, 2022

If All You Did Today Was This…

In our last couple +1s, we talked about my Top 3 Work targets and then we talked about my #1 Target: “Recommitting to my Sacred Vow.”

As you may recall, these are my Top 3 Heroic Work Targets:

I. Recommit to Sacred Vow (101 | 1M | 51 2051)

II. #1 WIN

III. Shut-down Complete

Which begs the question…

What are YOUR Top 3 Work Targets?

I. ______________________

II. _____________________

III. _____________________

Quick check in…

Have you taken a moment or three to reflect on that?

If not, why not?

Seriously…

We’re trying to move from Theory to Practice to Mastery, Hero!!

Let’s GOOO!!!

Now…

Today I want to chat about my #2 Heroic Work Target.

Right after I reread and recommit to my Sacred Vow and BEFORE I allow ANY inputs into my life (no email, no smartphone, no inputs yet!), I decide what THE MOST IMPORTANT THING is that I’m going to do that day and then… I DO IT.

And…

As I like to say, if that was all I did that day but I did that EVERY DAY, I’d still be more effective and more productive than I was before I made this a non-negotiable habit.

Now, of course, if you feel so inspired, we want to combine this AM Work practice with a good “Shut-down complete!” protocol (my #3 Work Target which is the subject of our next +1!) and all the Energy stuff that helps us show up for that WIN feeling ZESTY.

Do that consistently and let’s see if we can astonish yourself (and the world) with both the quantity AND the quality of your creative output.

But…

Don’t just hit that “#1 WIN” Target once during the day.

Discipline yourself to CONSTANTLY focus on WHAT’S IMPORTANT NOW!

All day. Every day.

ESPECIALLY…

Today.

Target swipe: “#1 WIN!”

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+1: Vow > Kinda Sorta Committed (#1349) 0

Nov 30, 2022

The Foundation for Greatness

In our last +1, I shared my Sacred Vow with you.

Then I encouraged YOU to consider creating your own Sacred Vow.

Today I want to continue that discussion.

We’ll invite Daisaku Ikeda to the party. He is the leader of Nichiren Buddhism and one of the most respected Buddhist philosophers alive whose work has inspired millions around the world.

In Buddhism Day by Day he tells us about the importance of making a vow.

Here’s how he puts it: “In any field of endeavor, making a vow is the foundation for achieving something great. If for whatever reason a person gives up halfway or backslides, his or her commitment hasn’t been based on a vow. Halfhearted desire doesn’t amount to a vow.”

Vow.

It means “a solemn promise.”

It’s on the far right side of the spectrum of kinda sorta committed to ABSOLUTELY ALL IN (!) committed.

<———————————— COMMITMENT LEVEL————————————>

(Kinda sorta) (VOW = ALL IN)

A vow.

A solemn promise to ourselves that we will give everything we have for however long it takes to the altruistic goal we have determined is worthy of us—whether that’s actualizing our potential, raising healthy and happy kids, giving our gifts to the world or all of the above.

Let’s do a quick inventory.

What’s most important to you in your life?

Your actualization? Your family? Your creative expression?

(<— All of the above?)

What’s your ideal outcome in those scenarios? And, how committed are you to achieving something great in each of those domains?

Kinda sorta?

Or have you made a solemn promise to yourself to achieve your desired outcome?

We’ll know by how you respond to challenges.

Here’s how Alex Lickerman puts it in The Undefeated Mind: “And when our response to failure is to summon an even greater determination to succeed, vowing to get back up after being knocked down not just once but again and again each day and with every obstacle that rises up to challenge us—attacking them, as Nichiren Daishonin wrote, like a ‘lion king who unleashes the same power whether he traps a tiny ant or attacks a fierce animal’—then we’ll have found a treasure even more valuable than any apparently foolproof plan to reach our goal: the determination necessary to seek a better one when it fails. For in demonstrating to ourselves that we can always summon more of it, our determination becomes to us like a good friend, its steady presence and our faith in its power imbuing us with confidence that no matter how many times we’ve failed, no matter how much we want to quit, victory can still be ours.

‘When your determination changes,’ Daisaku Ikeda, the third president of the Soka Gakki, writes, ‘everything will begin to move in the direction you desire. The moment you resolve to be victorious, every nerve and fiber in your being will immediately orient itself toward your success. On the other hand, if you think, ‘This is never going to work out,’ then at that instant every cell in your being will be deflated and give up the fight. Then everything really will move in the direction of failure.’”

I repeat…

When your determination changes, everything changes.

Let’s resolve to be victorious and use every challenge as fuel to our growth.

#makethevow

P.S. Remember, as Daisaku Ikeda tells us: “Make goals. Whether big or small, work toward realizing them. You must be serious about and dedicated to your goals—you’ll get nowhere if you just treat them like jokes. An earnest, dedicated spirit shines like a diamond and moves people’s hearts. That is because a brilliant flame burns within.”

Plus: “When you devote yourself to achieving your goal, you will not be bothered by shallow criticism. Nothing important can be accomplished if you allow yourself to be swayed by some trifling matter, always looking over your shoulder and wondering what others are saying or thinking. The key to achievement is to move forward along your chosen path with firm determination.”

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+1: The Sacred Vow (#1348) 0

Nov 29, 2022

Here’s Mine… What’s YOURS?

In our last +1, we talked about my Top 3 Work Targets as I encouraged you to get clarity on and then commit to and hit YOUR top 3 targets.

These are my Top 3 Work Targets:

I. Recommit to Sacred Vow (101 | 1M | 51 2051)

II. #1 WIN

III. Shutdown Complete

What are YOUR Top 3 Work Targets?

I. ______________________

II. _____________________

III. _____________________

Today I want to chat a little more about my #1 Work target: Recommitting to my Sacred Vow.

I have done this EVERY DAY for over a year and a half. It has been an incredibly powerful thing for me and I’ve been told by many people that it’s inspired them to create their own Sacred Vow so…

Let’s chat a little more about it.

But…

First, a little more context.

As you know if you’ve been following along, on election night 2020, I founded Heroic Public Benefit Corporation.

A couple days later I learned that the crowdfunding regulations were changing such that startups like ours could go from raising a max of $1M via the existing regulations to raising a max of $5M.

It was one of those moments in my life when I didn’t think we could do it, I KNEW we would be the very first company to ever raise $5M via the new regulations.

Of course, all that’s nice and warm and fuzzy. And… Then we had to actually do it. And, long story a little shorter, we did.

On March 23rd, 2021, with the support of 2,432 Heroic Founding Investors from 75 countries around the world, we made history as the very first company to ever raise $5M via the new crowdfunding regulations.

Now…

Before it all became official, I had to electronically sign some documents.

Before I did that, I went for a walk on our property—reflecting on the magnitude of the commitment I was making to our community.

It felt like I was making a lifetime commitment to our investors that was nearly on par with the commitment I made to Alexandra when we got married.

So…

I decided that I should make a Sacred Vow.

This is what I wrote:

I, Brian Johnson, absolutely and fiercely commit to honoring your investment in me and in Heroic by doing my best to make you proud to be a part of our movement. I hereby make a sacred vow to YOU and to everyone else in our community to honor my fundamentals and to practice my philosophy. Of course, I will not be perfect and I cannot promise any particular outcomes and I will certainly make mistakes. But I promise you that I will show up day in and day out and do everything in my power to fulfill our Mission to change the world, one person at a time, together, starting with you and me, Today. With Love + Wisdom + Self-Mastery + Courage, I say: Heroes unite!

And THAT’s the vow I reread and recommit to every.single.morning.

Again, ultimately this +1 has NOTHING to do with me.

It’s about YOU.

Is there a Sacred Vow that you and your Daimon would like to draft?

Perhaps we can spend a moment or three thinking about that now…

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Target swipe: “ALL IN. LET’S GO!!”

Here’s to our Sacred Vows!

P.S. Want to invest in our latest crowdfunding? Learn more on Wefunder here: https://wefunder.com/heroic

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+1: My Top 3 Work Targets (#1347) 0

Nov 28, 2022

What Are YOURS?

Not too long ago, we talked about my Top 3 Energy Targets.

As you may recall, I said that it’s really hard to have a series of really bad days when I hit my Top 3 Energy Targets.

These are my Top 3 Energy Targets:

I. In Bed for 9-10 Hours

II. AM Meditation (1%)

III. Movement (30 Min)

(What are YOURS?)

Today I want to chat about my Top 3 Work Targets.

Here they are:

I. Recommit to Sacred Vow (101 | 1M | 51 2051)

II. #1 WIN

III. Shutdown Complete

Note: If ALL I did in any given day was hit THOSE three Targets, I’d have a pretty good day. Period.

I repeat: The early research on hitting as few as three Targets on our Heroic app shows that you can boost your Energy by 40%, your Productivity by 20% and your Connection by 15%.

And, I repeat with even more emphasis: The extensive research on “checklists” in general is unequivocal: Checklists work.

Whether we’re talking about pilots or surgeons or athletes or construction managers or aspiring Heroes, checklists help you perform at your highest possible levels. Period.

Now…

Back to my personal checklists while YOU think about the Top 3 Work behaviors that keep YOU plugged in and showing up at your Heroic best.

I. Recommit to Sacred Vow (101 | 1M | 51 2051)

First, I recommit to my Sacred Vow to do my absolute best to serve you so we can fulfill our mission. I commit to getting my Soul Force to 101 so we can help 1M of us do the same so we can help create a world in which 51% of humanity is flourishing by 2051.

II. #1 WIN

Second, I commit to doing what I’ve decided is THE most important thing I can do that day is (my “#1 WIN”) and then I DO IT.

III. Shutdown Complete

Third, I decide when I am going to STOP working then, at the end of my day, I hit that “Shutdown complete” Target so I can transition from Work to Love as I spend time with the family and train my recovery so I can go hit it all again with Heroic Energy tomorrow.

I will repeat yet again…

It’s REALLY (!) hard to have a series of bad days when I hit those three simple targets.

Which is precisely why I use the Heroic app to recommit to those Targets every.single.morning and then strive to hit those Targets every.single.day.

And…

We just talked about me way too much.

Today’s +1 has NOTHING to do with me.

It’s all about YOU.

What are YOUR Top 3 Work Targets?

What are the three simple things you do when you’re at your best Work-wise?

Seriously.

WHAT ARE THEY?!

I. ______________________

II. _____________________

III. _____________________

Fantastic.

Clarity is Step #1.

Now…

Is TODAY a good day to commit to and then hit those targets, Hero?

Awesome. Day 1. All in. Let’s go.

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+1: A Brief History of the Universe (#1346) 0

Nov 27, 2022

13.8 Billion Years Ago to NOW

In our last couple +1s, we talked about the Sun and the next-closest star, appropriately named Proxima Centauri.

We did some quick math and realized that the Universe is insanely vast (yes, that’s the technical description) and that 99.999% of the Universe consists of… ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Imagining the ineffable VASTNESS of our Universe should help us get a little perspective on our lives.

Today I want to chat about just how OLD the Earth and the Sun and our Universe are.

Why?

In addition to being a fascinating intellectual exercise, it is, as Michael Singer points out in Living Untethered, an equally powerful SPIRITUAL exercise.

So…

Do you know how long ago the Universe was created?

Somehow, scientists are able to peg the number at around 13.8 BILLION years ago.

Think about that. Out of nothing came something.

13.8 BILLION YEARS AGO.

My brain just exploded.

Now…

Next question.

Do you know how old the Earth and the Sun are?

The Sun is estimated to be 4.603 billion years old. The Earth is estimated to be about 4.543 billion years old—plus or minus about 50 million years. (Hah.) (God bless whoever did that math!)

Now…

Here’s a follow-up question…

What was happening during that 9 BILLION YEAR lag between the inception of the Universe and the creation of our solar system?

Think about THAT for a moment as well.

My brain just exploded again.

Then, after a BILLION years, the first single-cell organism appeared on Earth about 3.5 BILLION years ago. Then it took another 3.25 BILLION years for dinosaurs to appear around 250 million years ago. Fast forward another quarter of a billion years and, a couple/few hundred thousand years ago depending on whose math you want to believe, early humans showed up.

And…

As Singer says, all of that led to your great-great-great-great grandmother meeting your great-great-great-great grandfather all of which led to EVERY SINGLE THING that had to happen EXACTLY THE WAY IT HAPPENED for the miracle that is YOU to come alive.

And…

Yet…

In spite of the sheer miraculousness of every single moment that had to happen EXACTLY the way it happened for you to be here today…

You complain about what’s happening right now.

As Singer says, that’s so absurd it’s almost funny.

And that’s the starting point of his philosophy.

Quit arguing with reality.

It’s bigger than you and me. It’s been around longer than you and me. It will beat you and me in an argument EVERY SINGLE TIME.

We need to “surrender” to reality. We need to accept it completely.

Not with foolish resentment and/or petty frustration.

We need to RADICALLY accept reality as Phil Stutz would say. We need to LOVE what is, as Byron Katie would put it.

This moment, with all its apparent imperfections, is a sacred gift.

Let’s accept it. Let’s bless it.

Then let’s shake our heads in awe as we smile and go do what needs to get done.

+1. +1. +1.

All day. Every day.

ESPECIALLY…

Today.

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+1: Traveling at the Speed of Light (#1345) 0

Nov 26, 2022

For 4.2 Years Just to Get to the Next Star

In our last +1, we used the Sun as a trigger/prompt/cue to practice our philosophy and put the virtues of gratitude and humility and awe into action.

As you may recall, we reflected on the fact that the Sun is a STAGGERING 93 MILLION (!) miles away.

Somehow, its rays are so powerful that, even after taking 8 minutes and 20 seconds to arrive on planet Earth, you can soak up their warmth and beauty.

I don’t know about you, but I think that’s CRAZY when you think about it.

But here’s what’s even crazier.

I casually mentioned the fact that the next closest star (Proxima Centauri) is 4.2 light years away.

You know how far that is?

Neither did I until I read Michael Singer’s book Living Untethered in which he walks us through the creation of the Universe and some physics lessons to help us get perspective on our lives.

Get this.

Imagine holding a flashlight above the Earth. Turn it on for ONE second.

That light will go around the Earth SEVEN AND A HALF TIMES in a single second.

Soak that in for a moment.

That’s the speed of light.

Now…

If you want to go from the Sun to the next closest star, you’d need to move at THAT speed for 4.2 YEARS.

You know how far that is?

Well…

A light-year is about 6 TRILLION miles, so, if my math is right, the next closest star is about 2.5 QUADRILLION (!) miles away.

My brain:

!!!

And…

You know what exists between the Sun and that next star?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

And…

You know how many stars are in the Universe?

200 BILLION.

You know what exists between the light-years separating EVERY ONE of those 200 BILLION STARS?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

As Singer tells us, 99.999% of the entire, mind-bogglingly big Universe is filled with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BUT DARKNESS.

And…

Yet…

Here we are on planet Earth, failing to appreciate the miracle that is our existence—complaining about the weather on the way to work and the slow internet connection on our Zoom call today and/or whatever other trivial things we’re letting bother us.

That’s Today’s +1.

If you feel so inspired…

The next time you look up at the Sun, look beyond it. Appreciate the vastness of our Universe and the preciousness of our lives.

Then feel your feet on the Earth and say “Thank you!” to whatever power you believe created all this magic as you get back to work being your best, most Heroic self in service to something infinitely bigger than yourself.

All in. Day 1.

Let’s go, Hero!!

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+1: Me, You and The Sun (#1344) 0

Nov 25, 2022

93 Million Miles + 8 Minutes 20 Seconds

This morning I was on the Trail moving for 30 minutes.

I banged out my last couple sets of 11 burpees to hit my 101 for the day. I jumped up to hang from the tree branch that is my pull-up bar to hammer out my 11 pull-ups. I rowed my 1,000 meters to hit that Target.

Target swipe.

I know I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again….

It’s truly amazing to me how good I feel hitting those Heroic targets in our app every.single.day.

“That’s like me!! Forging Antifragile confidence. TODAY.”

But that’s not quite the point of Today’s +1.

This is…

As I was turning the corner on our trail, I was struck by the beauty and warmth of the sunlight peeking through the trees and, at the risk of getting Rumi about it, I felt the Sun gently caressing my mind and body and soul.

It was a beautiful moment.

I was in awe.

Then I looked up at the Sun and thought to myself, “Wow. The Sun is 93 MILLION (!) miles away. It took 8 minutes and 20 seconds for its rays to make it to Earth. That’s astonishing.”

Then I reminded myself of the fact that you could fit over 1 million Earths into the Sun.

Then I thought to myself, “What’s really crazy is the fact that the next closest star (Proxima Centauri) is 4.2 LIGHT YEARS AWAY!!”

Wow.

I’m in even deeper awe.

And…

I am humbled by the vastness of the Universe and the preciousness of this gift that is my life.

Then I thought of Michael Singer.

He’s the one who recently reminded me of just how vast our Universe is in his great book Living Untethered.

Singer’s teaching is all about how to, as per the sub-title of his latest book, move “beyond the human predicament.”

One way to do that? Reflect on JUST HOW VAST our Universe is.

It’s an incredibly powerful way to maintain perspective on our little challenges.

And…

That’s Today’s +1.

If you feel so inspired, the next time you look up at the Sun, consider using it as a trigger/prompt/cue to practice your philosophy and put the virtues of gratitude and humility and awe into practice.

Then take a deep breath, feel your feet on the Earth and get back to work.

Day 1. All in.

Let’s go.

Target swipe: Appreciate someone or something

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+1: Immediate-Gratification (#1343) 0

Nov 24, 2022

From Doing the Right Thing for the Win!

In our last few +1s, we’ve been talking about The Law of Cause and Effect.

We started with Michael Singer’s wisdom. Then we went old school with Jesus and Epictetus.

I promised we’d talk about what modern SCIENCE has to say about applying the basic ideas of The Law of Cause and Effect to the process of optimizing our lives.

That’s what we’ll do Today.

But…

First…

As we journey back from 2,000 years ago to today, let’s pause briefly and see what another one of my favorite teachers had to say about the subject.

In 1841, the great American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote an essay called “Compensation” in which he did his thing by integrating wisdom from the East with our Western perspective.

He tells us: “Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end preexists in the means, the fruit in the seed.”

Yep.

There you go.

The Law of Cause and Effect.

Now…

On to the science!

Here’s the short story.

Research shows that people who can MAKE THE CONNECTION between the things they do and the Energy/Productivity/Connection they feel NOW are MUCH MORE likely to actually DO THE THINGS they say they want to do than people who don’t make that connection.

Michelle Segar calls it having “the right why.”

In her great book, No Sweat, she tells us that people who succeed in consistently engaging in healthy behaviors like eating well, moving their bodies and getting good sleep have CONCRETE goals rather than abstract goals.

When you ask people who ACTUALLY DO the things they know are best for them, they will, essentially, tell you that the reason they do them is TO FEEL GREAT NOW.

Unfortunately, most of us (75% of the people in her research!) have abstract goals like “getting healthier” or “losing weight.”

Those might be good reasons but they’re not EFFECTIVE reasons.

As it turns out, Michelle tells us that: “The vast majority of the participants whose goals were weight loss and better health spent the least amount of time exercising overall—up to 32 percent less than those with other goals.”

Why?

Because the people who ACTUALLY did the things that were good for them made CONCRETE connections between what they did and how they felt.

They exercised to enhance the quality of their daily lives—to create a sense of well-being, a feeling of being energized and centered. They found a way to get *immediate* gratification out of their exercise—which is a LOT more effective than pursuing some future, abstract target.

As Michelle tells us: “Human beings, it turns out, are hardwired to choose immediate gratification over long-term benefits.”

She describes the “lose weight” and “get healthy” goals as too fuzzy and abstract and clinical and calls them the “Wrong Why.” When we lead with those Whys, our exercise becomes a chore— which then leads to a failure. Who does chores with sustained enthusiasm?!

So…

Want to give yourself the best chance at getting more Energized, Productive, and Connected by doing the things that will help you enjoy those fruits of your Heroic behaviors?

Again…

MAKE THE CONNECTION between what you do RIGHT NOW and how you feel RIGHT AFTER.

Then give yourself the gift of Heroic levels of Energy, Productivity, and Connection.

The Law of Cause and Effect.

Let’s use it.

And change our lives.

TODAY.

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+1: Growing Heroic Fruit (#1342) 0

Nov 23, 2022

Horticultural vs. Clock Time Revisited

In our last +1, we continued our conversation about The Law of Cause and Effect by inviting Jesus to the party to share his thoughts.

As you may recall, he told us that we can’t expect to grow grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles.

In other words: If we want a noble, virtuous life, we must do noble, virtuous things.

Now…

It’s not possible for me to think about figs without thinking about another ancient wise man who happens to be my all-time favorite teacher, the great Stoic philosopher Epictetus.

Epictetus was born (into slavery!) in what is now Turkey in the year 50 AD—not too long after or far away from where Jesus taught.

Epictetus reminds us that, even if we’re doing it right and growing figs on a fig tree, we’ve gotta know that IT TAKES TIME for those trees to bear fruit.

As we discussed in an old-school +1 on Horticultural Time vs. Clock Time: When you want to grow something and you plant a seed, do you start your stopwatch and then go into your backyard an hour later to dig it up to see how it’s doing? Or, do you know it takes some time for that seed to germinate and then sprout and then grow and finally to reach its fruit-bearing stage?

Of course, we honor the rules of horticultural time and give that little seed the time it needs to naturally move through its required stages of development.

Which is one of the reasons why Epictetus told us that: “No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.”

Today’s +1?

Remember…

Our Heroic optimizing occurs on HORTICULTURAL time, not clock time.

Let’s sow the seeds of virtue.

Let’s tend them wisely.

And, let’s give them time to blossom, bear fruit, and ripen.

+1. +1. +1.

All day. Every day.

Especially…

TODAY.

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+1: Want Grapes or Figs? (#1341) 0

Nov 22, 2022

Thorn Bushes and Thistles Won’t Do the Trick

In our last 1, we talked about The Law of Karma.

Also known as The Law of Cause and Effect.

Same thing.

All the great teachers have talked about it.

And the entire field of modern science is, of course, grounded in this causal relationship between things.

In short: If THIS then THAT.

Today we’re going to rewind the clock a couple of thousand years and see what another wise teacher has to say on the subject. Then we’ll explore some more related ancient wisdom in our next +1. Then we’ll talk about how modern science tells us we should be thinking about it as it relates to setting goals for our optimization.

So…

Let’s rewind the clock to almost exactly 2,000 years ago.

We’re heading to the ancient land of Israel.

Jesus is giving a sermon on a mount.

In Matthew 7:16, he tells us: “You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”

Of course, in that context, Jesus is talking about how to discern false prophets from true ones, but we’ll use the wisdom from his metaphor at the highest level and see if we can apply it to our lives.

So…

Pop quiz!

Are grapes gathered from thornbushes?

NO.

Are figs gathered from thistles?

NO.

Will the fruits of a good, noble life grow from the branches of less-than-awesome behaviors?

NO.

We need to remember The Law of Cause and Effect.

If THIS then THAT.

If we want to feel more Energized, Productive and Connected, we need to DO THE THINGS that lead to those outcomes.

This is, of course, a very simple truth.

And…

We’d be wise to keep it in mind as we MAKE THE CONNECTION between the things we’re doing and the outcomes we’re experiencing.

When?

TODAY.

Happy harvesting, Hero!

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+1: The Law of Karma (#1340) 0

Nov 21, 2022

How to Apply the Law of Cause and Effect

As we’ve discussed, Michael Singer is one of my favorite spiritual teachers.

After reading The Untethered Soul and Living Untethered, I decided to follow Joseph Campbell’s advice and take a deeper dive into his work. I went to Amazon to see what else he’s written. I found a couple of books he wrote nearly 50 years ago.

One of those books is called Three Essays on Universal Laws. The book has a chapter-essay on each of his three Laws: The Law of Karma, The Law of Will, and The Law of Love.

Today we’re going to chat about his (and my) take on The Law of Karma.

Singer tells us we can also call this the Law of Cause and Effect.

The basic idea is really simple.

He tells us: “For example, when we walk up and touch a hot stove the body gets burned, and thus, we learn ‘a lesson.’ Or if we stay up too long without sleep the body gets sick, and, again, we have been taught ‘a lesson.’ This holds true for staying out in the rain, eating the wrong kinds of food, staying too long underwater, and so on. By means of the Law of Cause and Effect, which will invariably repeat itself given the same conditions, we learn many ‘lessons’ concerning the care of the body. For there are certain activities which are in balance with the use of our bodily tool, while others are not.”

Now…

As I was working on that Idea in the Note I was creating, my 1,000-second timer went off.

As you know if you’ve been following along, that’s the prompt/trigger/cue for me to get up and, if it’s my AM1 Deep Work block (which it was as I typed this), bang out a set of 11 burpees.

So, that’s what I did.

As I hammered out the 11 burpees I thought about WHY I do them.

It’s simple.

I KNOW (with ZERO doubt!) that I feel more Energized when I go to bed early, spend 9-10 hours in bed, meditate, do my burpees, and hit the other 30+ Energy Targets I set up in my Big 3 protocol in the Heroic app.

And, I REALLY like feeling REALLY Energized so I can show up as my best, most Heroic Self in service to YOU and to our Mission so...

It’s easy for me to do the right thing. All day every day.

Except, of course, when I don’t. (Hah!)

Alas, I’m still human and, tragically, I will not be the first perfect human being (

) and there are plenty of times when I’m lazy and the little demon takes over (pushing my Daimon aside!) and I do things that I know aren’t optimal which leads to feeling *less* than Heroically Energized.

Then I step back half an inch, let my Daimon view the situation from what Singer beautifully calls “the soul’s point of view” (aka the “Objective Observer,” aka the “Witness”) and…

I MAKE THE CONNECTION between doing X and experiencing Y.

I shine a spotlight on what needs work, remind myself of what works when I do it and then take a hammer to the construction project that is my life as I strengthen the habits that help me stay plugged in and weaken the habits that don’t.

THAT’s the Law of Cause and Effect in action.

In short: If we do THIS, then we experience THAT.

That’s also one of the THE most important things Alexandra and I are trying to teach our kids.

We want them to have the Wisdom to MAKE THE CONNECTION between eating sugar and getting sick; between not exercising or sleeping well and feeling tired and cranky. And, of course, we want them to FEEL the joy of doing the little things that they KNOW help them feel GREAT.

Call it whatever you want: The Law of Karma.

The Law of Cause and Effect.

It’s real.

We need to MAKE THE CONNECTION between the thoughts and behaviors that help us (and our kids!) create the lives we want and the thoughts and behaviors that do the opposite.

Then we need to cultivate our structural, reactive and expansive disciplines as we use our willpower wisely to install the habits that will run on autopilot via empowering algorithms.

When?

TODAY.

Let’s go, Hero!

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+1: Starve the Ghosts (#1339) 0

Nov 20, 2022

Feed the Good Guys

In our last couple +1s, we hung out with a couple of wise Indian masters and their gurus.

We talked about what to do if we’re afraid of ghosts (approach them!) and how to deal with the bitter process of changing our behaviors (keep chewing!).

Today I want to chat about ghosts for another moment.

This time we’ll go a little further east and visit Vietnam where the great Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh was born and raised.

When I searched my Mac for “ghosts” to find the Yogananda wisdom I was looking for, I saw that Thich Nhat Hanh ALSO talked about ghosts in his great book No Mud, No Lotus.

Here’s the passage.

He tells us: “The Buddha said that nothing can survive without food. This is true, not just for the physical existence of living beings, but also for states of mind. Love needs to be nurtured and fed to survive; and our suffering also survives because we enable and feed it. We ruminate on suffering, regret, and sorrow. We chew on them, swallow them, bring them back up, and eat them again and again. If we’re feeding our suffering while we’re walking, working, eating, or talking, we are making ourselves victims of the ghosts of the past, of the future, or our worries in the present. We’re not living our lives.”

Know this: Nothing (including ghosts!) survives without food.

So…

Want the ghosts to go away?

Then…

QUIT FEEDING THEM.

Eckhart Tolle echoes this wisdom in The Power of Now.

He tells us: “Once you realize that a certain kind of food makes you sick, would you carry on eating that food and keep asserting that it is okay to be sick?”

In The Magic of Thinking Big, David Schwartz uses another metaphor to bring the point home.

He tells us: “Deposit only positive thoughts in your memory bank. Let’s face it squarely: everyone encounters plenty of unpleasant, embarrassing, and discouraging situations. But unsuccessful and successful people deal with these situations in directly opposite ways. Unsuccessful people take them to heart, so to speak. They dwell on the unpleasant situations, thereby giving them a good start in their memory. At night the unpleasant situation is the last thing they think about... Confident, successful people, on the other hand, ‘don’t give it another thought.’ Successful people specialize in putting positive thoughts into their memory bank.”

Let’s starve the bad stuff and feed the good stuff.

TODAY.

btw: We talked about a similar idea in this +1 on Starving Fear of Its Favorite Food.

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+1: From Icky to Awesome (#1338) 0

Nov 19, 2022

Wisdom From Another Indian Sage and His Grandmother

In our last +1, we talked about Yogananda and his guru’s wisdom on what to do with ghosts/aka how to live fearlessly.

As you may recall, the trick is to APPROACH our challenges rather than try to avoid them.

The story is so good, we’ll quickly review it.

Yogananda’s guru tells him: “My mother once tried to frighten me with an appalling story of a ghost in a dark chamber. I went there immediately, and expressed my disappointment at having missed the ghost. Mother never told me another horror tale.”

Hah. Genius.

The moral of the story?

“Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you.”

As I read that moral from an Indian yogi, I thought of another one of my favorite Indian sages, Eknath Easwaran.

In his great book, Your Life Is Your Message, he tells us about a lesson he learned from his Indian guru—who happened to be his grandmother.

The short story?

Young Eknath was complaining about how hard it was to meditate and to change his habits.

He tells us: “I complained about it to my spiritual teacher, my grandmother. She was a very plainspoken teacher, with none of the euphemisms of the intellectual, so she simply led me to a nearby amla tree. The amla is a beautiful tree, a little like the mimosa, with a small fruit. She picked a fruit and said, ‘Here, take a bite.’ I started chewing. It was pretty awful.

I said, ‘I’ve got to spit it out, Granny. It’s sour, bitter, unpleasant.’ She just said, ‘Bear with me. Keep chewing for a while.’ So I went on chewing, and to my surprise the amla fruit began to get sweeter and sweeter.

Similarly, meditation and the allied disciplines require sustained enthusiasm every day—even when it seems icky. Especially when it seems icky! If you keep at it, you will find those same disciplines becoming sweeter and sweeter. When meditation time comes around you will find yourself hungering for the inner peace and calm it brings. The time will even come when you want a double helping.”

Approaching our fears?

Rewiring our brains as we create new, virtuous habits that help us flourish while eliminating the old, vicious ones that don’t?

Of course…

The process isn’t always pleasant.

It’s often painful.

It tastes “icky.”

Until…

We have the Wisdom to see that approaching our fears and embracing the inevitable challenges of the journey and doing the hard work to win the ultimate game that brings us the sweet reward of tapping into our infinite potential.

Let’s do that.

TODAY.

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+1: Afraid of Ghosts (#1337) 0

Nov 18, 2022

Here’s What to Do…

Not too long ago, we talked about how I read a book.

I made the point that the most important part of how I read a book is how I decide what book I will read.

I also talked about the fact that, as I followed Joseph Campbell’s wisdom to immerse myself in the wisdom of an author who “grabs me” by reading everything that author has written AND everything by the authors who inspired them, I found myself going deep into Michael Singer’s wisdom AND deep into the wisdom of one of his biggest influences, Yogananda.

In fact, I read five of Yogananda’s little books/booklets in very short order.

They are PACKED with wisdom.

I was blown away by Yogananda’s PRACTICAL spirituality and I could see why Steve Jobs was such a big fan that he reread his Autobiography of a Yogi once a year and why he gifted that book to his friends as THE last thing they got on their way out of his memorial service.

(Think about the significance of that for a moment.)

So…

We’ll be talking more about Yogananda in the future as we bring his wisdom from the East to our modern lives in… I was going to say “the West” then I realized we have Heroic members from basically EVERY country in the world so we’ll make it …. wherever we are in the world!

Now…

Here’s a fun idea from a little booklet called Living Fearlessly.

Yogananda shares a story of him asking his guru to tell him some stories from his childhood. Here’s the exchange between a Master and his fiercely ambitious student.

“‘Guruji, I would like to hear some stories of your childhood.’

‘I will tell you a few—each one with a moral!’ Sri Yukteswar’s eyes twinkled with his warning.

‘My mother once tried to frighten me with an appalling story of a ghost in a dark chamber. I went there immediately, and expressed my disappointment at having missed the ghost. Mother never told me another horror tale.

‘Moral: Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you.’”

Those are the very first words of that little book.

Want to live fearlessly?

Be like Yogananda’s guru and look fear in the face. Then, it will cease to trouble us.

Yogananda left India and came to the United States as a 27-year-old yogi guru in 1920. His mission was to integrate the wisdom of the East with the West.

To help bridge the gap in cultures, he talked about Jesus as the perfect embodiment of spiritual truth. And, one of the American philosophers he references the most is Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Emerson echoes this wisdom about what to do with our fear.

As we discuss in our Notes on The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Self-Reliance, Emerson liked to say that “God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.”

His advice on how to conquer fear was straight-forward: “Always, always, always, always, always do what you are afraid to do.”

What happens when we go straight toward the ghosts in the dark chambers? Well, Emerson tells us: “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.”

Modern science, as we often discuss, agrees.

We must APPROACH rather than AVOID our fears.

As we discuss in The Upside of Stress and The Telomere Effect, when we are willing to act in the presence of fear and see that the stressors in our lives are not THREATS to our well-being but an opportunity to practice our philosophy and forge antifragile confidence, we change our underlying physiology from a “threat response” to a “challenge response.”

Do that often enough, and the ghosts will stop being quite so terrifying.

Let’s do that.

TODAY.

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+1: Tolerant with Others (Part II) (#1336) 0

Nov 17, 2022

The Most Frequently Asked Question in Heroic Coach

In our last +1, we talked about some Ryan Holiday wisdom from his new book Discipline Is Destiny.

As you may recall, we brought Cato the Elder, Ben Franklin and Marcus Aurelius to the party to talk about the importance of focusing on all the ways WE can get better rather than worrying about all the ways other people need to improve.

Cato told us: “I am prepared to forgive everybody’s mistakes, except my own.”

Ben Franklin told us: “Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.”

Marcus Aurelius told us to be: “Tolerant with others, strict for yourself.”

We could add Jesus’ wisdom to the mix. He told us to quit worrying about the speck of dust in your brother’s eye and to focus on the BEAM in yours!

Same thing.

This is a really important Idea.

And…

It’s funny because as I created that last +1, I thought of what is probably THE most frequently asked question from people going through our Heroic Mastery Series/Coach certification program.

It goes something like this…

“I’m really into this stuff and I can already feel my life changing as I start to move from Theory to Practice to Mastery. It’s amazing!!”

Then they continue with…

“But…”

Then I often know what’s coming…

“The problem is that my [wife/husband/kids/extended family/colleagues/insert someone other than them!] REALLY needs to work on this stuff and…”

I laughed as I typed that.

And I usually laugh when I start my reply to our Hero-in-training.

I typically talk about prescribing medicine for your neighbor, unilaterality and “How am I that?” as I encourage them to avoid proselytizing and simply focus on DOING THE WORK—letting our example be the primary lesson rather than the lectures we’re all tempted to give when we’re on fire with our own self-development.

Then I tell them about the fact that MY OWN WIFE doesn’t want me to coach her. (HAH!)

(Trust me, Alexandra doesn’t want me to coach her unless she explicitly asks me for the support. After fifteen years, I’m almost getting that fact!

)

Now I’ve got another frame to use.

Let’s be prepared to forgive everybody’s mistakes, except our own.

Let’s search others for their virtues and ourselves for our vices.

Let’s be tolerant with others and strict with ourselves.

And, let’s notice EVERY TIME we’re tempted to do the opposite.

Then use that prompt/trigger/cue as an opportunity to cultivate our reactive discipline—stepping in between the stimulus and our old, habitual response as we choose a better response and practice our philosophy.

Not someday.

TODAY!!!

Trust me.

Your loved ones will thank you.

And, paradoxically at first glance but obvious at the second or third glance: This is the fastest way to actually convince your loved ones that you're on to something and that you have wisdom worth paying attention to.

Day 1. All in.

LET’S GO!

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+1: Tolerant with Others (#1335) 0

Nov 16, 2022

Strict with Yourself

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

Ryan Holiday is one of my favorite writers. We’ve featured a bunch of his books including The Obstacle Is the Way, The Daily Stoic, Ego Is the Enemy, and Stillness Is the Key.

He’s currently working on “The Stoic Virtue Series” in which he’s creating a new book for each of the cardinal virtues of Stoicism: Courage, Temperance, Justice, and Wisdom.

We briefly chatted about the first book in the series: Courage Is Calling.

Today we’re going to chat about an Idea from the second book in the series: Discipline Is Destiny.

We’re going to talk about an Idea that didn’t make it into the Note. It’s from a chapter called “Tolerant with Others. Strict with Yourself.”

Ryan tells us: “’I am prepared to forgive everybody’s mistakes,’ Cato the Elder said, ‘except my own.’ Ben Franklin, many generations later, would put forth an even better rule: ‘Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.’ Or as Marcus Aurelius put it, Tolerant with others, strict for yourself.”

That’s Today’s +1.

Let’s be tolerant with others—looking for their VIRTUES and forgiving their mistakes.

Let’s be strict with ourselves—looking for our vices and getting to work on them.

We have more than enough work to do on ourselves.

Let’s do it.

TODAY.

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+1: You Are a Weirdo (#1334) 0

Nov 15, 2022

At Least I Hope You Are, Hero!

In our last +1, we talked about Abigail Adams and her letter to her son, John Quincy Adams.

As you may recall, she admonished the 12-year-old who would become the sixth U.S. President to LIVE WITH VIRTUE.

And, as we discussed, she wisely declared: “These are the times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.”

As part of that +1, I mentioned the fact that I think she and her family would have been part of our Heroic movement—encouraging their kids to cultivate their virtue while doing the same on our Heroic app.

I also mentioned the fact that I think Benjamin Franklin would have either created something similar to our Heroic app to track HIS virtuous targets or joined the cause to help us win our current war between vice and virtue.

Then…

I typed “Benjamin Franklin” into my Mac’s search thingy to see if I could find a Big Idea from a PhilosophersNote on him and his commitment to virtue.

And…

I hit the jackpot.

Not only did I find a Big Idea featuring Benjamin Franklin and his idiosyncratic awesomeness, I ALSO found a reference to John Adams in the SAME Big Idea.

Fantastic!

The references were from Alan Cohen’s Spirit Means Business.

Franklin and Adams showed up in an Idea about helping us embrace our inner weirdos.

Alan Cohen tells us: “Being a misfit is not a defect. It may be your key to success. When I hear that a person is well adjusted, I ask, ‘Well adjusted to what?’ Learning how to find your way around a mental institution does not make you sane. Real sanity rests in authenticity. ...

Maybe you’re not so weird after all. Maybe your weirdness is your greatest asset. Maybe what you thought was wrong with you is what’s right with you. Just because you are out of the mainstream doesn’t disqualify you from vast achievement. You are in your own stream. World change agents do not apologize for their eccentricities or try to hide them. Idiosyncrasies come with the package. So just get on with your creations and make your contribution regardless of any oddness your personality has picked up along the way. Don’t wait until you are normal before you claim greatness. Normality and genius are rare bedfellows. As Walt Whitman proudly proclaimed, ‘Not a particle or an inch of me is vile . . . I celebrate myself.’”

That’s from a chapter in which we learn about some of history’s most awesome weirdos.

Get this: Did you know that Benjamin Franklin started each day with an “air bath,” standing naked outside for 30 minutes? Yep.

And, that fellow American hero John Quincy Adams swam nude in the Potomac river at 5 A.M. every morning, even in freezing weather. (Cold plunge for the win! Wim Hof would approve!)

Then we have Nikola Tesla and Steve Jobs with their whole array of idiosyncratic behaviors (and genius inventions).

Oh! And, let’s not forget about Albert Einstein.

Did you know that he didn’t even speak until he was three and, as an adult, would stop his car, pluck a grasshopper and EAT IT. Yep. That’s normal.

Then we have YOU.

How’s YOUR weirdness?

Alan tells us:

The Myth: Being a misfit is a defect you must correct.

The Reality: Your nonconformity is your pathway to fulfillment.

And...

So much of that passage is so eminently quotable.

There’s this: “Learning to find your way around a mental institution does not make you sane.” (Hah!)

Plus, this is worth a quick repeat: “Normality and genius are rare bedfellows.”

Then we have the whole “Well adjusted to WHAT?” conversation which—as you might be able to guess by this stage—reminds me of Krishnamurti’s wisdom that being well-adjusted to a PROFOUNDLY SICK society is no measure of health.

In a world where “normal” is so astonishingly sub-optimal (from a mental, physical and emotional health standpoint), why, my dear friend, should we aspire for “normalcy?”

Much better to lean into our weirdness and entertain the possibility that, perhaps, “your weirdness is your greatest asset.”

Here’s to echoing Whitman’s proclamation as we celebrate every particle and inch of ourselves.

Not someday.

TODAY.

btw: Whitman also told us that “In the faces of men and women, I see God.”

You know what I see and what we encourage our Coaches to see in the faces of men and women?

HEROES.

Yes: I’m looking at YOU, Hero!!!

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