+1: #215 Proving Yourself Right

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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optymyze Plus One. So in our last Plus One, we talked about the 10,000 8 hour and 36 minute rule, our new favorite rule for actualizing our potential. We learned that the best performers got the most sleep, 8 hours and 36 minutes on average in any 24 hour period of time. We also learned that they took on average a 30 minute nap every day. So today we're going to talk about the science of napping. Yes, there's a science of napping. And you know what it says. In short, naps are epically awesome. Seriously, get this. We're the only animal that tries to get all of its sleep in one cycle. Every other animal on the planet is multiphasic, meaning they have multiple phases of sleep. And we human animals used to be multiphasic as well. It was only recently that we eliminated the afternoon nap from our normal everyday lives. As Sara Mednick, one of the world's leading sleep plus nap researchers, tells us in her great book, take a nap, change your life. Naps are literally written in our DNA. And they used to be written into our cultural DNA as well. Did you know that back in ancient Roman times, they actually had a precise time when they were supposed to slow down, check out and take a nap? It was their sixth hour, roughly noon. For us. They called it sexta. And guess what? Their sixth hour, or sexta is, is the origin of our modern siesta. Of course, it's no longer cool in our modern society to check out a nap, but you've gotta know that this shift away from midday reboots is a really recent phenomenon. So back to the research. Sarah tells us that learning after a nap is equal to learning after a full night of sleep. And that test scores of non nappers deteriorated across the day. Research out of Harvard tells us that a nap as short as six minutes. Yes, six minutes can significantly boost your brain power. Six minutes? That's crazy. The point of this plus one. Let's drop the stigma around naps. You want to be supercharged and joyful and human. Take a nap, change your life.

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.