Optimize With Brian Johnson | More Wisdom In Less Time

James Stockdale spent 7 1/2 years as the highest ranking prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. 4 years in solitary confinement. 2 in leg irons. This book is about how he endured all of that with the wisdom of Stoic philosopher Epictetus in mind. In the Note, we explore the key tenets of Stoicism, the Stockdale Paradox, playing your role well and mastering your emotions.

Would you like to find the Zone more often? Well, yah! Leading sports psychologist Michael Lardon, M.D. shows us how. 10 core lessons. In the Note, we'll look at why you want to have two scorecards, the importance of activation energy (451 degrees, please!!) and how to keep your confidence dialed in.

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist Zen master and one of the world's leading spiritual teachers. In this great book he teaches us how to access the power of quiet in a noisy world. Big Ideas include bringing awareness to the "Four Nutriments" we consume, tuning in to the right radio station in our minds and creating an island of self.

Resilience. As Eric Greitens tells us, it's not so much about bouncing back as it is about moving through. And this former Navy SEAL, Rhodes Scholar, boxing champion and humanitarian who's been recognized as one of the greatest leaders in the world, knows a ton about how to cultivate it by embracing failure, forging our purpose and living with virtue.

Eric Greitens is pretty much a superhero. Part humanitarian and part warrior, he's an integrated man committed to serving profoundly. In this book, he shows us how to combine strength and compassion, find our purpose through service and cultivate practical wisdom

This is basically Earl Nightingale's greatest hits album, er, book. The editors of the book combed through over 700 (!!) hours of Earl's audio programs and pulled out the things he came back to again and again. The book is packed with wisdom. In the Note, we explore how to deal with your worries, the importance of active patience, and finding our second wind as we go from being a rowboat to an ocean liner.

Originally published in 1974, this book is, as the sub-title suggests, the classic guide to the mental side of peak performance and transcends tennis/sports. If we want to win the game of life, we've gotta start by winning the inner game. In the Note, we'll take a quick look at how to do that, learning about Self 1 + Self 2 (and how to help them get along), quieting our mind and asking for qualities we aspire to have.

Spartan Up!! Want a swift kick in the optimizing butt?! This is the book for you. It truly is "a take-no-prisoners guide to overcoming obstacles and achieving performance" delivered with enthusiasm by Joe De Sena--the renowned endurance/adventure racer who created Spartan Race. We'll look at what's impossible vs. just really hard, how to pass the cookie test as we develop grit and learn how to get to the next telephone pole in the race of life.

How'd you like to be perfectly yourself? In this great book, Matthew Kelly shows us how to become the-best-possible-version-of-yourself by doing the next right thing, making virtue our goal, building discipline, simplifying and finding ways to serve!

Concentration. As we know, the sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus. This is an old school manual on how to cultivate our strength of mind to set our lives on fire. In the Note, we'll look at some Big Ideas to cultivate our concentration, sticktoitiveness and make every moment a part of our practice.

Og Mandino was the most popular inspirational author of his era. Before that he was a 35-year-old drunken derelict! In this book, he tells us how he found "a better way to live" and shares his 17 Rules to Live By so we can rock it as well. We'll start by building foundations below our air-castles, counting our blessings, going the extra mile and learning from Lady Liberty's Hair-do.

This little book features a mysterious master who teaches his secrets to living in harmony with Universal Law. I love stories like this. It’s a super quick-reading, invigorating little tale. In the Note we'll have fun exploring how to clean up our mental house, the importance of focusing on our ONE thing and keeping Mr. Mo on our side!

Jim Rohn influenced a generation of self-help gurus and this book lays out his "five major keys for the life puzzle." We'll take a quick look at your life philosophy, what you're doing with the 86,400 ticks each day, how to finish before you start as you design your ideal life and other such goodness.

The-best-version-of-yourself. That's what Matthew Kelly is committed to helping us become and that's what this book is all about. In the Note, we have fun getting in tune with the Rhythms of Life as we explore the fact that everything is a choice, look at what we want to give our WHOLE life to and discover the mojo of great questions.

Would you like to be the greatest version of you? Og Mandino's classic can help with that. The best selling book on sales ever written is really a fun fable about how to achieve success in any/ever domain. In the Note, we unroll the "10 ancient scrolls" of wisdom to discover that obstacles are our friends, good habits are essential and other such goodness.

Want to know the strangest secret? Here it is: “We become what we think about.” That's it! Thank you, Earl Nightingale (and all other gret teachers who echo this wisdom!). In the Note we'll unpack Big Ideas from this uber-classic recording and learn how to optimize our thinking so we can actualize our potential.

This is one of Steven Pressfield's favorite books. When I heard that, I immediately got it. Brilliant. Patricia Ryan Madson is Emerita of Stanford University where she taught for three decades in the Drama Department. We'll have fun looking at her 13 maxims for improv living from this quick-reading, fun, smart, practical book.

Nonviolent Communication has sold over 1,000,000 copies. Why? It works. There are four key components to NVC: Observations + Feelings + Needs + Requests. In this Note, we'll take a quick look at each of them along with some other Big Ideas to communicate more compassionately.

Play! Stuart Brown, one of the world's leading play researchers, tells us that it's more important than you may think. We'll take a quick look at why it's so important, why you don't want to be a sea squirt and how to make your life one big sand box while infusing more joy into your life.

The ONE Thing. What's yours? Gary Keller (his Keller-Williams real estate is THE largest real estate company in the world--I bet that was a ONE Thing goal at some point!) shares his wisdom in this BRILLIANT book. We'll have fun exploring a few of my favorite Big Ideas: dominoes + extreme Pareto and other goodness.