Brian Johnson reflects on his long-running weekly meetings with coach Phil Stutts and a recent conversation about locking in a higher baseline of productivity and "mojo." He connects disciplined daily protocols and energy-management practices (digital sunsets, balancing energy/work/love) to what he calls a "soul-force equation," and recounts Phil's Venn-diagram sketch that locates a meeting-point where divine energy and personal effort intersect. The core message: consistently show up in a grounded, energized, tranquil way—giving (figuratively) 105%—to "high five God" and plug into divine power.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome Back to another optimize +1. For the first three years of working together, Phil Stutts and I met every single week. I think we might have rescheduled a couple sessions and made them up and skipped maybe one week. My collection of notes from our hundred and fifty plus chats so far is one of my most prized possessions and one of the last things I most carefully packed before we moved out to the country. Here after testing an every other weak rhythm for a couple of months after moving to the country Hermitage, we're back to every week. So the other day we had another great chat. I've been on a bit of a roll and feel like I'm hitting a new level of productivity and overall mojo. We talked about that and how to lock in those games to make this new best, my new baseline. Of course, we chatted about the importance of continuing to rock the protocol, and we connected that to our soul force equation. Then we made some powerful distinctions about how, as Phil would say, God will give you all the energy you need, but important, but you need to meet him or her, whatever you call that powerful force, more than halfway. And that the only way to do that is by pushing yourself beyond the bounds of what you think is possible. Now, we're not talking about pushing yourself in some manic, ungrounded kind of way. We're talking about doing it in a grounded, energized, tranquility kind of way where you're truly working your protocol and giving the world all you've got, moment to moment to moment, while honoring and oscillating the rhythms and all the practices like digital sunsets and balancing your energy, work and love. Then, as we consistently do that boom, we plug into that divine power and go to the next level. Desmond Tutu's wisdom that our job is to simply keep our light bulbs screwed in so God can shine through comes to mind. Now, to bring the point home, Phil did one of his little sketches, like the ones in his great book, the Tools. Imagine two ven circles. First, we have an oval circle oriented vertically from the top to the bottom. That's God. Then imagine another oval circle, also oriented vertically, connecting to the first one, this one from the bottom to the top. That's you. Now, those two circles meet in the middle. Phil puts a dot right in that section where they meet, and he tells us that's where the magic happens. And as Yoda says, we can only reach that point by giving 105% of ourselves to the world. Not occasionally, but moment to moment, to moment. Of course, on one level, you can't give more than 100%, but you've got to try, because that's where the magic lies, and that's today's plus one. Are you giving us all you've got? Again, we're not talking about pushing yourself in some manic, ungrounded kind of way. We're talking about showing up and doing your best in a grounded, energized tranquility kind of way, where you're truly working your protocol and giving the world all you've got, moment to moment to moment, while oscillating and honoring little things like digital sunsets while dynamically balancing your energy, your work and love, etc. Etc. Etc. Here's to high fiving God and plugging into divine power today.
