17 Dec 2025 · 3 min
Brian Johnson argues that Eckhart Tolle's "be present" message gets misread as permission to abandon goals. He separates clock time, which lets you plan and build, from psychological time, which breeds anxiety. The move is combining real ambitions with moment-to-moment awareness.
You're listening to Optimize with Bryan Johnson More Wisdom in Less Time this is a mini chapter from Brian's book A Philosopher's Notes. You can find it on Amazon. The Tolle Trap in addition to having the world's greatest sweater vest collection, Eckhart Tolle has some really powerful ideas for optimal living. But I think a lot of people who get all horny about creating a new Earth via the power of now fall into what I call the Tolle Trap, where it's all about being in the moment. D'oh. It's not in his fab book Happier the Good Dr. Tal Ben Shahar articulates four different archetypes that provide a useful model to help us conceptualize and address the problem. Here's my take on it. First, we've got the rat racer. The typical Western mode of being or always chasing goals we're told matter never really happy because we're never quite there. Then there's the hedonist, the typical spiritual way of being, misreading Tolle and the Gita thinking it's all about just being in the moment. Eek. Then there's the nihilist who bounces back and forth between those two, then flips everyone and everything off and becomes the cynic, AKA a disillusioned idealist. And finally there's the happy person who realizes life is all about having goals that inspire us and loving this moment as we take baby steps in the direction of our ideals. It's easy to bounce around all four ways of being. But let's not kid ourselves that we're either happy or spiritual as we pretend to get it and just love, love love the power of now. Fact is, even Tolle appreciates the importance of goals and provides some great advice on the subject, telling us goals are important, but that we want to make sure we don't let what he calls clock time slip into psychological time. The difference? Healthy human beings use clock time to set goals and organize their tasks accordingly. Unhealthy human beings slip into psychological time as they waste energy getting anxious about the outcomes of future events, or they get their panties or undies in a bunch with guilt or shame about past events. Or they lose their vitality and overall life mojo as they fall into the Tolle trap of trying to avoid goals altogether. Or they do all three how about you? Where are you hanging out? How can you more consistently play in the happiness zone? Do you need more truly inspiring goals? More presence? Let's set some goals that inspire us, love where we're at and have fun taking the next step in the direction of our dreams. We hope you enjoyed this mini chapter from Brian's book, A Philosopher's Notes. Want more wisdom in less time delivered in your inbox? Sign up for Brian's free daily newsletter, the Optimizer, and get the full ebook and audiobook at brianjohnson Me APN.
