A short spoken reflection by Brian Johnson on the classic "two wolves" story reframed for his Mastery series. Johnson contrasts the ‘Daimon’ (Courage Wolf) and the ‘Demon’ (Fear Wolf), urging listeners to notice inner wolves, close the gap between who they are capable of being and who they actually are, and to cultivate virtuous action (arete) to produce eudaimonic joy.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. In our last plus one, we spent some time with Mark Devine and the two wolves within each of us. As I read that story, I made a note to include it as part of our Mastery series. In module 2 Hero Ology, we have wisdom on how to create antifragile confidence, heroic courage, and response ability. It's basically all about getting our minds right and choosing the most powerful response to any given situation. In other words, we need to train ourselves to feed the Wolf of Courage rather than the Wolf of Fear. Again and again and again and again and again and again. So I wrote down the two wolves on a sheet of paper and then I wrote Name Em. Then I drew the lines we often talk about that represent who we're capable of being at any given moment and who we're actually being. It's those times when we have a gap between those two lines that creates the ick. We get a little line capable. If there's a gap between capable and what we're actually being, that's where the ick exists. The top line, we get there by paying attention to our inner soul or Daimon. The bottom line that creates the gap, we get stuck there by listening to our inner demon, which, as we've discussed, is he's basically the etymological diminutive of Daimon. Daimon Demon. And I think those might just be our new names for the Courage Wolf and the Fear Wolf. Daimon Demon. And that's today's plus one. Let's notice the wolves within stare down the Demon Fear Wolf High five. And feed the Daimon Courage Wolf. Close the gap. Feel the eudaimonic joy that comes as a byproduct of living with virtuous Arete today.
