17 Dec 2025 · 0 min
Brian Johnson uses the mantra "champ, champ, champ" to excel across three domains: athletic, professional, and family. He draws inspiration from Conor McGregor's rise to two UFC weight-class championships, then asks listeners to imagine their best selves in energy, work, and love.
You're listening to Optimize with Brian Johnson. More wisdom in less time.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. In our last plus one we talked about my quest to be a Spartan champion in 2025 and how that's resulted in a lot of winning. To today. How are your goals systems today? I want to talk about being a champ. Champ, champ. I laughed as I typed that and as I even say that out loud. Note this +1 is a bit ridiculous. Perhaps I should say a bit more ridiculous than usual. So, quick context. After one of the best mixed martial arts coaches in the world, Faraz Zahabi, owner of Tristar Gym and Georges St. Pierre's coach, became an optimizer, then sent a note telling me how much he loved the philosopher's notes. Thank you, Faraz. I learned more about Faraz and his mastery of his craft and in the process paid more attention to the ufc, the Ultimate Fighting Championship. In the process, I stumbled across Conor McGregor before he was the superstar he is today. Now, it's cliche to say that I could see that he had a spark of something different about him, but, well, he. He did. And he does so while embracing Maslow's wisdom that there are no perfect human beings, check out that +1. I've enjoyed watching his entertaining, charismatic rise to superstardom. Short story for those who may not know, Conor McGregor is an Irish mixed martial arts MMA fighter who was the first person in the Premier League of mma, the ufc, to win championships in two weight classes. It's a pretty impressive feat and it's especially impressive and inspiring because he went from being an apprentice plumber to a kid with a dream receiving welfare checks to winning those two world championships and making something like $100 million in his first professional boxing match against one of the all time greats. Now, in addition to being a great fighter coach, Conor is also a great promoter. All of which brings us closer to today's plus one. So after winning the two championships, he took to calling himself Champ Champ. As I typed in as I say that as it's so wonderfully ridiculous. Champ. Champ. Yep. So as I've been stepping up my athlete game, I've been having fun with different mantras during my meditation and during my training and during my everyday life. Now Optimus is one of my favorite ways to focus my energy on being my best. I also like world class. And as the bars moved up, world champion might have been getting some air time in my head. Of course, my athletic goals are really just a means to optimize my energy which is really just a means to optimize my work and my love. So I've been having fun playing with different ways to capture all big 33 commitments in one mantra. That's when champ, champ, champ popped into my head. I laugh as I say that as well and I laughed when it first appeared in my head on the trail. And I always think when something makes me laugh that it's a very, very good sign. So that's the standard. A world class world champion athlete and a world class world champion husband and father and a world class world champion philosopher, teacher, leader. That's like me. Champ, champ, champ. How about you? What's the best version of you look like? Energy, work and love wise? Any fun ways to bring your commitments to life?
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Optymyze with Brian Johnson. To find out more, go to Optimize Me sa.
