+1 #1066: The Mountain-Races of Life

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. In our last couple ones, we chatted about a couple of the astonishing stats on the science of how movement optimizes our sense of well being and joy. Thank you Kelly McGonigal for writing the Joy of Movement, which is now our Go to Movement book on the science of how exercise helps us find happiness, hope, connection and courage. Kelly tells us that as she was writing the book, she had a floor to ceiling corkboard wall on which she put ideas and notes and inspiring pictures from her research. I thought that was a brilliant idea and I'm thinking about making one of my office walls all cork board as well. In the meantime, I started taping up pictures and notes. I have this picture of the group of optimizers with whom I finished the Spartan race up there. We got a link to it and this one of me helping Alexandra do the monkey bars. Link to that as well and a bunch of others from this collection of epic optimizers. Check out that link. Then I have some inspiring notes from our members taped up there. And the note Mr. Rogers wrote to himself regarding the challenges of creating. Check out that +1 and recall, as he said, the tortures of the damned is how he felt trying to create. Then I taped up a picture of the right front tire guy. You remember him, right? And that gets us one step closer to the point of today's plus one. As I was soaking up the energy goodness from my new array of taped up inspiration, I was reflecting on that tire guy and my commitment to being the guy ripping off your right front tire. Then I thought of David Brooks in his new book the Second Mountain and I had one of those nice little epiphany moments. That right front tire guy, he's the perfect metaphor for the point David's trying to make in his book. As he says, the first mountain is about building up the ego and defining the self. The second mountain is about shedding the ego and losing the self. If the first mountain is about acquisition, the second mountain is about contribution. If the first mountain is elitist, moving up the second mountain is egalitarian, planting yourself amid those in need and walking arm in arm with them. In short, the first mountain is basically all about you. You're the star of the show. You're the race car driver. The second mountain is basically all about others. You're willing to take the position in the pit stop crew and and primarily support others. You're the right front tire guy or gal. Now obviously it's never either or and we're always playing both roles, giving support and receiving support. And there's something so incredibly liberating about being willing to step back and make our primary focus helping others rather than trying to win our own race. And that's today's plus one. If you feel so inspired, let's put on that awesome anonymous red uniform and get to work. With one goal in mind, how can we help others win their races today? Let's actually spend a moment getting tactical about it. Pick three people. What's one thing you can do for each of them? Doesn't need to be something huge. Even just a word of encouragement or a hog and an I love you will do. Let's just be intentional about it. Person number one, who is it and what's thing number one? Person number two, who is it and what's thing number two you're going to do for that person? And then person number three, who are they? What are you going to do for them Now I can feel my love engines revving just thinking about that. Seriously. The misters went on in Ojai as I thought of my big three. How about you? Let's make today awesome by making it awesome for others today and tomorrow and repeat.