Brian Johnson recounts a backyard training accident that required surgery (plates and a total of 20 screws) and uses the experience to teach about cultivating "antifragile response ability": the practiced habit of stepping into the gap between stimulus and response (a concept he links to Viktor Frankl and Stephen Covey) so challenges make you stronger. He frames this as part of training—practice the small stuff to be ready for the big stuff—and closes with a Plus One prompt to apply the idea repeatedly.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. Not too long ago I introduced you to my suunto watch. Then I introduced you to my little Spartan Leonidas. Today I'd like to introduce you to my new bionic arm. But first I'd like to tell you a little story. It starts out like most days. Deep work, deep love, hit the trail, come back and do the quick spartan circuit in the backyard, etc. Only this time things didn't quite go as planned. Long story short, after going up and down our 20 foot rope climb and moving on to our wall traverse, I might have slipped, which happens and then fell as awkwardly and as hard as possible. First time for that and well, let's just say that I basically carried my hand into the emergency room. Pictures below for the bold if you'd like to see why Emerson took one look, screamed, and then ran into his room and shut the door. Poor little guy. I'll spare you the details, but highlights include the ER nurse commenting that I walked into the hospital all calm and cool like David Goggins. The surgeon said it looked like I fell from a second story building after he put a couple plates and 20 screws into my arm. Eek. The best part? After the surgery they originally told me it was 18 screws and it wasn't until my second follow up x ray that we did a recount to discover 20 screws in there versus 18 plus 1 plus 1. So yeah, I'm now officially bionic and we might have had fun changing up the programming for our Coach certification program by creating Module X. This is what we train for, in which we discuss the power of antifragile response ability and talked about the fact that challenges simply give us an opportunity to move from theory to practice to mastery. Wisdom for the win as Viktor Frankl says, there's a gap right there between a stimulus in our lives and and our response to that stimulus. Can you see it now? In that gap Frankl says exists our freedom. Stephen Covey calls it being proactive, having response ability. It's the most important thing we can master. Which is why he made it habit number one of highly successful people. I like to think of it as antifragile response ability. How do we cultivate the ability to respond to any situation in such a manner that we get stronger Ohms style obstacles make me stronger. That my friends, is what we train for. Today's plus one Face any challenges lately? Are you allowing your typical knee jerk reaction to take over unconsciously or are you choosing to step back and into the gap between between stimulus and response as you craft your optimal response. Here's to stepping into that gap again and again and again all day, every day with the small stuff so we're ready for the big stuff. Remembering this is what we train for. Plus one plus one plus one Bionic body parts optional. And PS for the bold picks below.
