Brian Johnson uses a red-tailed hawk hunting a squirrel to show how great performers focus on the process, not the outcome. He quotes Carlos Castaneda on not worrying and John Eliot on letting results go while staying locked on the task.
Questions this episode answers
Brian Johnson.
+1: #1110 What Great Performance Looks Like.
April 19, 2020.
Optimize 2020.
Five days.
Chapters
You're listening to Optimize with Brian Johnson. More wisdom in less time.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another optimize +1. In our last +1, we did some.
Swooping and gliding and hunting with a.
Red tailed hawk and our bird watching guide, Carlos Castaneda. Today I want to chat about that hawk again.
I mentioned the fact that he's not.
Worried about whether or not he'll find his prey. He's just hunting calmly, 100% focused on the process, letting the outcomes take care of themselves. He's not up there flying around thinking.
To himself, oh my God, my family's going to starve if I don't pull.
It together and find a mouse soon. I've been flying around up here for two hours already.
Then I haven't seen a single mouse. Where'd they go? Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Enter Castaneda and his wisdom.
Once a man worries, he clings to anything out of desperation. And once he clings, he is bound to get exhausted or to exhaust whomever or whatever he is clinging to. A warrior hunter, on the other hand, knows he will lure game into his traps over and over again.
So he doesn't worry.
Now, to be fair and to state the obvious, our red tailed hawk friend doesn't have the prefrontal cortex to engage in any anxiety provoking, overthinking or, well, any thinking for that matter.
Which reminds me of some parallel wisdom.
We explored back in the day. You remember our plus one on squirrels?
Einstein. And you'd if not, check out the link. As you may recall, that one was.
Inspired by a pre trail drive. As I stopped at a stop sign right next to Byron Katie's little chapel in Ojai, I spotted a squirrel racing across a telephone wire.
And I thought to myself, I wonder what that guy's thinking. Then I reminded myself that he wasn't thinking. Then I thought of some wisdom from John Elliot's overachievement.
He tells us, I quote, great performers.
Focus on what they are doing and nothing else.
They are able to engage in a task so completely that there is no room left for self criticism, judgment or doubt to stay loose and supremely, even irrationally, self confident.
They let it happen, let it go.
They couldn't care less about the results.
End quote. That's today's plus one.
That red tailed hawk, he's the flying embodiment of great performers.
Let's be like him a little more today.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Optimize with Brian Johnson. To find out more go to Optimize Me.
Hey guys, this is Brian with a quick little P.S. i'm really excited to let you know about an event we're working on. Plan is to make it the premier self optimizing event of 2020. We're calling it Optimize 2020. You the modern hero.
Basic idea.
Five days, 101 world class luminaries, 1 million people. You can learn more and get your tickets to the online and offline event at Optimize Me 2020. Again, that's Optimize Me2020.
