+1: #620 Spiritual Sports

You're listening to Optimize with Brian Johnson. More wisdom in less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. Now, with all this talk about sports heroes and scoring touchdowns and winning forever, I think it's time to remind ourselves that sports simply provide the perfect oversimplified context for spiritual truths. That's why we love watching the Olympics, Super Bowls and World cup so much. When we watch an athlete performing at their absolute optimist best, we're simply reminded of our own heroic potential. Of course, we want to make sure we get off the couch and get into the arena of life and use their demonstration of greatness and as an inspiration for our own pursuit of excellence, rather than as mere entertainment by people who are somehow gifted in ways in which we are remember, according to Anders Ericsson, the preeminent researcher on what makes great people great, we all have what he calls the gift. Check out that +1. It's linked in this one. So bringing it back to the spiritual arena, Today we're going to talk about rooming. As you may know, Rumi was one of the greatest spiritual beings in history, and his beautiful poetry is beloved around the world. He was a Sufi, which is essentially a Muslim mystic. He was born in the 13th century in what is now Afghanistan, and he lived and taught in Konya, Turkey, which was at the time the capital of the dominant Seltjk empire. Now I smile as I recall studying Rumi and visiting his grave in Konya, Turkey, on my little philosophical tour over 15 years ago, during which I also studied Socrates in Athens, Jesus in Jerusalem, and Marcus Aurelius near the Danube in Hungary. So what does Rumi say? What does he have to say about how he should live? Well, in terms of the intensity with which our sports heroes lived, I love the way he encourages us to play the much bigger game of life. These passages capture some of his spiritual intensity. He says, and I quote, I am burning. If anyone lacks tinder, let him set his rubbish ablaze with my fire. And he also says, travelers, it is late. Life's sun is going to set during these brief days that you have strength, be quick and spare no effort of your wings. And finally, he says he is a letter to everyone. You open says, live. Yeah, all in. If roomie played football, he would have played it like Jerry Rice. If he coached basketball, he would have coached it like John Wooden. So today's plus one. If you feel so inspired, I'd love to have you join me in opening Roomie's letter. Let's spare no effort of our wings as we set ourselves on fire so that others may feel the warmth of our glow. And we can change the world one person at a time together. Starting with you and me today. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Optimize with Brian Johnson. To find out more, go go to Optimize me.