Joe De Sena's ten Spartan virtues: self-awareness, commitment, passion, discipline, prioritization, grit, courage, optimism, integrity, and wholeness. The episode defines each one and asks you to inventory which you already have and which ones to build next, connecting the practice to Aristotle's idea of flourishing.
You're listening to Optimize with Bryan Johnson. More wisdom in less time.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. In our last plus one, we hung out with my two favorite Joes, Scholar of the hero's journey and grandpa in my spiritual family tree, Joseph Campbell and gritty, heroic exemplar and soul brother, Joe decenna. Today I want to spend a little more time with Joe Disena. Let's open up his latest book, the spartan way. Page 14. He tells us. I quote, through work and endurance racing I have come to know many people. Some of them were unforgettable. These great ones all shared the same core qualities. I call them the Spartan Core Virtues. Combine these qualities into one person and you have the ideal boss, the valuable employee, the perfect business partner, or a comrade in any endeavor. Here's a short description of each of the Spartan Core virtues. Self Awareness. Know who you are and who you are not. If you don't, you'll be confused. Daily Commitment. Stick to it. Because the world is filled with people who don't. You're better than that. Passion. If you're not passionate about what you do, you're not going to be great at it. Take things seriously and learn to be passionate. Discipline. Set your rules and stick to them. Be disciplined about it. Prioritization. Deal with the important things. Important being what you define as important. First. Grit. Get gritty. Break out of your comfort zone. Do the hard scary shit. Find your passion and persevere. Courage. This is the ability to stay focused and work relentlessly with both intensity and passion through virtually anything, especially through failure. Optimism. See the world as you want it to be, not as it is. Be ever hopeful. Integrity. If you're not honest with yourself and others, then what are you? Wholeness. Live the life of a complete and whole Spartan. End quote. There you go. The ten Spartan Core virtues. Repetition is the essence of mastery. So let's go through them again. This time, if you feel so inspired and didn't already do a quick inventory on how you're dealing with each, please do. Self Awareness plus Commitment plus Passion plus Discipline plus Prioritization plus Grit plus Courage plus Optimism plus Integrity plus Wholeness. So what's awesome for you and what needs some work? What can and will your start doing differently? Let's remember it's all about operationalizing. Virtue +1 +1 +1 PS one of the things Joe and I joke about is that I'm his brother from Athens. He's from Sparta. I'm from Athens. Embodying those Spartan virtues. Well, that of course, is what Aristotle taught us when he said that the summum bonum, the highest good, is to live with Eudaimonia, to flourish by having a good soul. How do we do that? Live virtuously. Again, echo the one word summation of all of our work together, Arete. Express the best version of yourself, moment to moment to moment. And voila. Enter Eudaimonia. Plus a deep sense of flourishing. More on all that. Soon and forever.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Optymyze with Brian Johnson. To find out more, go to Optimize Me.
Hey guys, this is Brian with a quick little P.S. i'm really excited to let you know about an event we're working on. Plan is to make it the premier self optimizing event of 2020. Recalling it, optimize 2020. You the modern hero. Basic idea. Five days, 101 world class luminaries. One million people. You can learn more and get your tickets to the online and offline event at Optimize Me 2020. Again, that's Optimize Me 2020. Hope to see you there.
