Brian Johnson explains the lag, a frustrating phase in creative work where effort doesn't yet show results. He offers three tools: confidence in your vision, the ability to say no, and daily urgent progress. Viewing lag as proof you're striving helps you push through.
Hey hero. If you're enjoying these daily plus ones, make sure you head to heroic us to access a ton more resources to help you move from theory to practice to mastery and express the best, most heroic version of yourself today. And now, here's Brian with today's plus one.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. Returning to our hero's journey theme. Imagine yourself at the start of an epic journey. You're looking out across a canyon and you can see a shimmering oasis on the other side of the canyon. It's epic, super bright and shiny and awesome. And it's yours. You know it. You can feel it. Then you get to work. You descend into the depths of the canyon to get to the other side. It's dark in here. The trees are thick. So thick that you've got to cut your way through them. And you look up and. And you can't quite see that epic vision anymore. Eek. Enter that whiny little voice in your head that wonders what the heck you're doing and questions why you're down here in the mosquito infested forest in the first place. Todd Henry calls this part of the journey the lag in his great book Die Empty. Here's how he puts it. He says the lag is the gap between cause and effect. It's the season between planting a seed and reaping a harvest. It's the time when all the work you've done seems to have returned. Little to no visible reward and there is little on the horizon to indicate that things are going to get better. Ever been there? Me too. What to do here? Well, here's Todd again. He tells us we when you are in the lag, the only thing that keeps you moving are a confidence in your vision and ability to bring it to fruition, B a willingness to say no to other things that tempt you to divert from your course and C daily, diligent, urgent progress. So today's plus one. How's your lag? First, celebrate the fact that you have a lag. And if you don't ever experience a lag, try a little harder. Stretch yourself a little more. Feel the burn, baby. And second, how are your ABCs of dealing with the lag? What can you do to A boost your confidence, B increase your focus and C, make daily diligent, urgent progress. Fantastic. Get on that. See ya on the other side, little PS Here, Todd is the one who also defined mediocrity for us. Thank you, sir. Recall that the ancient etymology of that word is this Mediocrity comes from Medias plus ocris, which literally means to be stuck in the middle of a rugged mountain. As we discussed in the plus one back in the day, mediocrity has has a lot of synonyms. Average, middling, unexceptional, unexciting, lackluster, forgettable, amateurish, etc. But it only has one antonym excellence. Thank you Apple Dictionary for that. So if you want to make it to the summit and avoid getting stuck in the lag of mediocrity, you need to practice excellence again and again and again. Especially when you don't feel like it.
We hope you enjoyed today's +1 for more resources to help you move from theory to practice to mastery and express the best, most heroic version of yourself. Head to Heroic Us Today. And if you liked this episode, please leave a positive review and hit the Follow subscribe button on your platform of choice. And if you liked this episode, please leave a positive review and hit the Follow or Subscribe button on your platform of choice. Also, have you heard the news about Brian's book? Activate your Heroic potential Head to Heroic US Book to learn more and get your copy as well as check out exclusive content and bonuses. That's Heroic US Book. Let's go hero.
