OPTIMIZE with Brian Johnson | More Wisdom in Less Time

Jordan Peterson is one of the world's leading intellectuals. He's a Canadian clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Toronto. (Before that, he taught at Harvard.) He’s published over 100 scientific articles and he’s super-popular on YouTube. This book is wonderfully intense and equally thoughtful...

If you’ve ever worked out at a CrossFit gym and/or watched the Reebok CrossFit Games, you know that the absolute best CrossFit athletes are absolute beasts. Well, Ben Bergeron has been the coach behind six world championships.

Continuing our theme of wisdom gleaned from Zen Optimize in the Art of Spartan Racing, let’s talk about spiritual obstacle course racer, Sri Swami Satchidananda. Sri Swami Satchidananda was an obstacle course racer?  Well, yah!

Continuing our series of +1s on wisdom gleaned from my Zen in the Art of Spartan Training, today we’re going to talk about the inside of an Apple. But, first, a little more quick context. 

Here are 5 of my favorite Big Ideas from "Lead Yourself First" by Raymond M. Kethledge and Michael S. Erwin. Hope you enjoy!

Here are 5 of my favorite Big Ideas from "The Nicomachean Ethics" by Aristotle. Hope you enjoy! Aristotle's writings have been extraordinarily influential since ancient times. This treatise is named after his son and is a collection of his lecture notes--imagining attending his Lyceum and listening to him teach 2,300 years ago!

In our last +1, we talked about Zen in the Art of Spartan Spear Throwing and the recent installation of a spear throw setup in our backyard, complete with bails of hay, etc. (Yes, we’re ALL IN at the Johnson house.) How about YOU? Do you have a deep commitment to mastery in your life? 

Here are 5 of my favorite Big Ideas from "Reinventing Yourself" by Steve Chandler. Hope you enjoy! I got this book years ago when I first started working with Steve Chandler. At the time, I read and listened to a ton of his stuff. Steve and I worked together one-on-one for a couple years. This is our sixth Note on his books.

In our last +1, we talked about the fact that Americans check their phones 8 BILLION times every day. (Wow.) We also talked about the fact that (at least 5 billion of) those 8 billion checks are essentially kryptonite for the love in your life. Today I want to talk about some more wisdom from Yuval Noah Harari’s new book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. But first, let’s talk about horses.

We’re going to have a hard time actualizing our potential if we have a hard time getting out of bed. Energy is SUPER important. In fact, it’s the engine for our actualization. In this class, we’ll integrate a lot of the most essential aspects of eating, moving, and sleeping. But first, we’ll start by stepping back and recognizing just how important it is that we flip the switch in our minds...

In our last +1, we talked about my quest to be a Spartan champion in 2025 and how that’s resulted in a lot of WINing TODAY. (How’re your goals-systems?!) Today I want to talk about being a Champ Champ Champ. 

Here’s a quick look at our next class: Energy 101! 

I created this class after my friend Matt McCall (who helps run the Pritzker Group Venture Capital fund) asked me to do a talk for 60 of their portfolio CEOs. He was thinking “Optimizing for Supheroes 101.” I loved that idea and decided it would be the perfect context to share my absolute best stuff and here we are.

Yuval Noah Harari’s new book recently came out. It’s called 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. I got it the day it was released and started reading it immediately. It’s as thoughtful and mind-expanding as his first two: Sapiens + Homo Deus.

In our last couple +1s, we had some fun with Seth Godin and my dictionary as we learned how to be godlike. Today we’re going to talk about what he calls “The Icarus Deception.”