In this solo Heroic Plus One episode, Brian Johnson shares a personal story from a recent chess tournament he attended with his son Emerson in Houston. He describes Emerson’s performance (3‑1‑1) and highlights a friend’s impressive 4‑1‑0 record, including a draw against a grandmaster that secured the tournament win and a $100 prize. Brian celebrates his friend’s achievement, noting that Emerson immediately sent a congratulatory text, and introduces the concept of "celebratory love"—the powerful emotional response of honoring others’ successes. He challenges listeners to find something awesome to celebrate in someone today, encouraging repeated acts of celebration. The episode closes with a call to subscribe and visit heroic.us for additional resources, training programs, and tools to help listeners live heroically.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic Plus One. Last weekend, Emerson and I went to a chess tournament in Houston. As I've said 1 million times, our chess adventures are tied for first as my absolutely favorite thing in the world. We share a king-size bed when we stay in a hotel, and I always love sleeping next to him. Fun fact, Emerson likes to turn sideways in the middle of the night. On one night, he His foot wound up in the palm of my hand. It reminded me of the day he was born, when his tiny little foot easily fit within the palm of my hand. Only his 13-year-old foot is now huge. Oh, how time flies, and oh, how much I love my big guy. That's not quite the point of today's plus one. This is Emerson played well in the tournament, going three. 1-1. 3 wins, 1 loss, 1 draw. One of his friends, however, played really well. He went 4-1-0 with a draw against a grandmaster. He won the whole tournament and full $100. Let's go! Now, Emerson won his last game quickly, so we followed his friend's last game on our drive home. Oftentimes they have it online. This time they did. We watched it. And after we saw that he drew the GM, which is a big deal, Emerson immediately texted his friend's mom via my Batphone to tell him congratulations on the great tournament. I celebrated his celebration of his friend and told him that scientists have a way to describe that type of love. They call it celebratory love. It's one of the most powerful ways of showing our love, and that's today's Plus One. Your mission, should you choose to accept it: find something awesome you can celebrate in someone Today. Bonus points for doing it more than once. Day one, all in. Let's go celebrate other people. Hey, this is Brian. Thanks for spending a few minutes with me today. If you enjoyed it, please hit subscribe so that the best of the show keeps landing in your feed. Then head over to heroic.us. That's heroic.us, where you'll find the full library of wisdom I've created over the last 20 years, as well as the app, advanced training programs, coaching, and everything else we've built to help you optimize your life, actualize your potential, and live heroically. It is day 1. We are all in. Let's go.
