17 Dec 2025 · 2 min
Brian Johnson uses Georges St. Pierre's example to argue that real decisions cut off other options, unlike sacrifices that feel like loss. When you decide who you want to be, you stop hedging and can pursue it consistently.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. Georges St. Pierre is one of the greatest mixed martial artists in the world.
Ever.
Of course, he wasn't always one of the greatest. At one point he was just a young guy working as a garbage man who decided he was going to be the best in the world. People around him thought he was crazy. Of course they did. Who says stuff like that? Hint people who have a shot at making it happen. So when GSP decided he would be the best in the world at what he wanted to do, he also decided what he wasn't going to do. Train instead of party, he said. Work instead of play. Perfect practice instead of casual repetition. All of his energy went into achieving his goal and making his dream a reality. And you should see the consistency in his schedule. It's astonishing. In his great book, the Way of the Fight, GSP makes the important distinction that all those things he was no longer going to do. What weren't sacrifices, they were decisions. Sacrifices versus decisions. There's a huge difference between the two. One comes with a little whiny voice. The other comes with the calm, confidence and grounded, authentic power of a committed person. Today's plus one Practical application. Who have you decided to be and and what decisions do you need to make to focus your energy?
Little P.S. here.
Remember the Latin root of the word decide literally means to cut off. When we make a true decision, we cut off all other options and go all in. Let's do that.
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