Brian Johnson (Optymyze) discusses David Brooks' distinction between resume virtues and eulogy virtues—urging listeners to prioritize character development—and offers a Stephen Covey-inspired funeral exercise to clarify "eulogy virtues." He introduces his Philosopher's Notes service (20-minute summaries of great books) and the Optimize Me membership as tools to help listeners apply timeless wisdom to optimize their lives.
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You're listening to the Optymyze with Brian Johnson podcast. Unlock the full Optymyze experience and join over 10,000 premium members at Optimize Me. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. In our last plus one, we talked about the fact that the word character comes from the Greek word for chisel. David Brooks wrote a book all about how to use that chisel to craft our character. It's called the Road to Character. One of the key ideas. David tells us that our society is obsessed with what he calls resume virtues, the stuff that leads to letters after your name, the title on your LinkedIn profile, etc. Resume virtues are important, of course, but they are far from from everything David tells us. We need to focus more on eulogy virtues, the stuff that ultimately really matters. Here's an exercise to get some clarity on your eulogy virtues. It's inspired by Stephen Covey, another extraordinary teacher who taught us the value of character. Here's how it goes. You walk into a funeral. There's a casket in the front of the room. You cruise up to see who's inside it. You look inside and it's you. You're at your own funeral. Yes, that's intense. And yes, that's the point. Feel into that for a moment. Now a question. 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 a 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.
