Brian Johnson opens with a Mark Twain quote urging risk-taking and argues science supports this view: people overestimate how badly they'll feel after failure (poor affective forecasting, cited via Sonia Lyubomirsky) and are more resilient than expected. He connects this to regret — failing to try leads to long-term rumination — then pivots to describing his work: distilled book summaries called Philosopher's Notes, hour-long "Optimal Living 101" classes covering productivity, purpose, confidence, nutrition, goal setting, and a membership program offering practical tools to optimize life.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another optimize plus one. Mark Twain tells us that 20 years from now, we will be more disappointed by the things we didn't do than by the things we did do. So he says we should throw off the bow lines and sail away from the safe harbor, catching the trade winds in our sails. Well, get this. Science agrees in the midst of happiness, the Sonia Lybomirsky walks us through the fact that we are surprisingly resilient in the face of adversity and we consistently.
Overestimate how bad we'll feel in the.
Future if something goes wrong.
This is one of her myths of happiness. In fact, this is such a common phenomenon that scientists actually have a name for it. They say we have poor effective forecasting abilities. So back to our quote to go for it. If you go for it and fail, odds are you'll bounce back faster than you may think.
But if you don't go for it.
You run the risk of torturing yourself with an infinite number of scenarios where it could have worked out.
Enter regret. So, do you have any dreams that.
You need to pursue?
Here's to sailing away from the safe.
Harbors, knowing we have what it takes to bounce back from from the inevitable.
Storms and the occasional shipwrecks 20 years from now.
Let's look back with a smile at all the things we had the courage to do. 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 it 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.
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.
