Brian Johnson (Optimize) presents a short motivational +1 video reflecting on Aristotle’s idea of eudaimonia — the highest good as having a good soul guided by an inner daimon — and notes the Roman equivalent term "genius." He encourages viewers to acknowledge and 'high-five' their genius throughout the day and to check it for guidance on the next best step.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. As you know, if you've been following along, I'm a bit obsessed with Aristotle's idea that the whole point of life, the ultimate target, the summum bonum, the highest good, is to have a good soul, to be a eudaimon. Now we have a guiding spirit. The best version of us is whispering in our ear and. And guiding us to our destiny. We just need to get better at high fiving that inner daimon. Moment to moment to moment. And voila, we experience eudaimonia. But somehow along the way, I forgot that the Romans had their own Latin word for the Greek word daimon. Thanks to Steve Pressfield in the artist's way for the reminder. Now you know what they called our daimon? The Romans in ancient Latin, they called it genius. They said that we all have our own genius right there guiding us all day, every day. Daimon, meet genius. Today's +1. If you feel so inspired, please take a moment and wave and say hi to your genius. Perhaps give him or her a high five. And I say we let our geniuses guide us all day. Today. Today. When in doubt, just glance at your genius and check in on the next best step. Your genius knows always.
