Brian Johnson marks episode 200 by laying out five Greek concepts for optimal living: arete (excellence), eudaimonia (happiness), entheos (enthusiasm), heroes (strength for others), and euthymia (tranquility from integrity). Ancient words for how to actually live.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another optimize plus one. Today we're hitting another exciting milestone in our plus one series, number 200. Let's celebrate in style. Now we celebrated number 100 with one of my favorite Greek words, euthymia. You may recall that euthymia is a word Seneca used to describe that feeling of calm confidence we have when we're living an authentic, self directed, meaningful life in accordance with our deepest sense of who we are. In English, the word euthymia means is translated as tranquility. I like to think of energized tranquility as the byproduct of having a few other Greek concepts optimized. I've been meditating on five of them lately as I think they capture the essence of what we're up to really well. Here they are. Arete plus eudaimonia plus entheos plus heroes plus euthymia. It all starts with arete, as we know the word directly translates as virtue or excellence, but has a deeper meaning, something along the lines of expressing our highest potential. When moment to moment to moment, when we express what we're capable of in any given moment, there's no room for regret or all the other negative stuff. We, we feel great, we flourish. Which leads us to the next Greek word, eudaimonia. The word eudaimonia literally means good soul. When we live with arete, we're on good terms with our inner soul that feels really good. Hence having a good soul or eudaimonia was the Greek word for a deep sense of happiness and well being. In fact, when you put arete and eudaimonia together, you could say that it's as if God's in the house. Which brings us to our next two little Greek words. En theos, God within. Put them together and what do you get? Enthusiasm. When we're living with arete, high fiving our inner souls, we feel radiantly alive and energized, but brimming with divine enthusiasm. Which leads us to what we do with that energy. We become heroes. As we've discussed, the ancient root of the word heroes didn't mean tough guy or killer of bad guys. It meant protector. A hero has strength for two. Their secret weapon is love, compassion and empathy. A hero cares. And of course, the world needs heroes today more than ever before. We need you to be a hero, which is why we work so hard to help you optimize so you can actualize your heroic potential. And finally, what do we get when we integrate Arete plus eudaimonia plus entheos as we express ourselves as heroes? Euthymia. A calm confidence, an energized tranquility only discovered when you're living in integrity with your highest values. Let's do that plus one style just a little more today.
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 and actualizing 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 plus modern science plus 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.
