Brian Johnson uses Michael Phelps' WIN framework (What's Important Now) to explain how to perform well when you don't feel your best. His son Emerson hit a chess milestone, and Johnson learned that rigid control matters less than showing up with small daily practices and flexibility.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic one. In our last series of plus ones, we've been having fun exploring our relationship to data and the science that shows how important it is. We use that data wisely now. It's funny because the family called me right after I typed that last one. We chatted about the SoCalm awards ceremony and how inspiring it was. In fact, I'm still buzzing from McRaven's speech and getting to spend some time with General Fenton and his awesome command team. And then I told Emerson about the plus ones I was writing and how I just wrote about that day when he had a terrible aura. Score but the best day of chess in his life, he said. And I got goosebumps typing this. Oh yeah, I remember that day. That's the day I got over 2000 on chess.com now I didn't remember that detail. And for the record, and at the risk of being immodest while feeling incredible pride in my not so little 11 year old boy, getting your Chess.com rating over 2000 is crazy. But what I'm most excited about is that he knows he can show up as his best, even when he might not be feeling his best. And you know who that makes me think of? Nope. Got goosebumps again. Typing that, I think of Michael Phelps. One of the most powerful passages from his great book no Limits is all about how he could show up and perform at his best when he wasn't at his best. Here's the passage from his book. He tells us one thing that separates Michael from other swimmers. Bob, his coach, like to say, is that if they don't feel good, they don't swim good. That's not the way it is for Michael. Michael, he says, performs no matter what he's feeling. He has practiced it for a long time, he knows exactly what he wants to get done and he's able to compartmentalize what's important. Bob, Phelps says, with his seemingly endless collection of sayings, naturally has an acronym to describe the mental aspect to my racing. It's W I n what's important now. And finally he says it's true when it comes down to it, when the time comes to focus and be mentally prepared, I can do whatever it takes to get there in any situation. Now, to be clear, I'm emphasizing this wisdom because I used to be that guy who needed to make sure I was perfectly bubble wrapped and controlling every variable in my life to show up as my best. If those variables weren't optimized too often I'd flood the bank of rigidity. See this +1 on the importance of being flexible. I link and not show up as my best. Now, now I'm all in on channeling my inner Emerson and Ellen Langer and Michael Phelps. And that's today's plus one. Let's use the data life and technology gives us to get a little clearer on the little things we can do to optimize and dominate today.
