+1 #952: Be Fit to Be Useful

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another optimize plus one. A couple plus ones ago we hung out with Christopher McDougall and his natural Born Heroes. For those who may not know, MacDougall is also the author of Born to Run. He's a brilliant storyteller. In Natural Born Heroes he weaves together a number of different narratives with an emphasis on two. One about an extraordinary wartime adventure on Crete, the other about natural movement. It's a quick reading, page turning book packed with inspiration and big ideas on how we can each tap into the extraordinary powers latent within. If that sounds like fun, I highly recommend it. Now, a big theme of the book is the fact that why we are building our strength matters. If we want to be a hero and protector to those around us, we need to focus on being useful. Which leads us to another great passage from that book. Here it is. I exercise only with the intention to carry out a physical gain or to triumph over competitors. George Hebert believed, is brutally egoistic and brutal. Egoism, Hebert believed, just isn't human. Hebert consequently came up with the strangest mission statement and ever devised for getting in shape. He called it the Natural Method and it would be ruled by a five word credo that had zero to do with getting ripped, getting thin or going for gold. In fact, it had zero to do with getting anything. Hebert was heading in the opposite direction. Hebert declared be fit to be useful. It was brilliant, really. In those final two words, Ebert came up with a complete philosophy for life. No matter who you are, no matter what you're seeking or hope to leave behind after your time on the planet, is there any better approach than simply to be useful? Here is the great duty of man to himself, to his family, to his homeland and to humanity. Hebert writes, only the strong will prove useful in difficult circumstances of life. Well, there you go, that's today's plus one. We can be fit to win the next race or to be ripped in that next selfie we take and post everywhere, or we can be fit to be useful. Here's to being fit physically, mentally, emotionally. So we can be very useful.