Brian Johnson describes a coaching exercise from Phil Stutz that distinguishes a passive "thinking space" (where nothing happens) from an active "workspace" where action and tools produce results. He warns against rumination and recommends forcing yourself out of overthinking into doing (illustrated by a beach-ball metaphor). The clip closes by describing Johnson's Optimize membership (Philosopher's Notes and Optimal Living 101 classes) as a practical way to learn and apply life-optimizing ideas.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. In one of my coaching sessions with Phil Stutz, he told me to write something down. And he often does that. It's always awesome when he says that. So he said, draw a horizontal line. Above that line, put thinking space. Below the line, put workspace. Then he asked me, you know, what the thinking space is good for now? I didn't have a particularly good answer, and he said, nothing. Nothing happens in the thinking space. Now, obviously, stepping back and thinking about things is a vital skill. But the fact is, nothing actually happens until we take action, use the tools, and get to work on and in our lives. And as we've discussed numerous times, most of us don't actually think. We ruminate, which we know is not good at all. Phil says we all tend to live in the thinking space. He says we need to force ourselves down out of the overthinking and into the workspace. How? Use one of our plus one tools, get to work, do anything but overthink, or indulge in our kryptonite. He tells us that it's kind of like a beach ball in water. You press it down and what does it want to do? Pop back up? Well, we want to get really good at keeping that ball down. Today's plus one. Do you like me? And most people on the planet have a default tendency to spend too much time thinking about things and not enough time actually doing things. Remember the beach ball? Push it down every time it tries to pop back up. Isn't it a bit odd that we went from math to science to history, but somehow missed the class on how to live? For some wacky reason, optimal living 101 never made the schedule. Of course, it's too late to go back and change that, and you're too busy to read full time to catch up. But if you're like us, you're all about optimizing your life so you can actualize your potential. So imagine this. Imagine having someone read the best books on how to optimize your life and pull out the big ideas that can really change your life. You know those sections you underline and asterisks and mark all up. Then imagine that guy me connecting those awesome ideas to other great books and helping you actually apply the wisdom to your life today. Well, that's what I do with something we call philosopher's notes, where I've distilled hundreds of great books into 20 minute super practical summaries. Then imagine me taking the absolute best big ideas from those great books and sharing them with you in hour long Optimal Living 101 classes on everything from productivity, purpose and confidence to nutrition, goal setting and conquering procrastination. Helping you optimize every facet of your life so you can actualize your potential. You've got a personal trainer. I'm kind of like your personal philosopher. Ancient wisdom, modern science and practical tools. That's what our optimized membership program is all about. If you're feeling it, we'd love to have you join us.
