Brian Johnson shares a morning conversation with his son Emerson, who has solved chess puzzles on chesstempo.com for 160 straight days and reached a rating of 1834. Following Rick Rubin's idea that "the best work is the work you are most excited about," Brian lets Emerson skip his usual training blocks to focus on what he loves most.
Questions this episode answers
July 23, 2024
At least 160 days
About 1834
1900
Elementary school Chess National Championships, 2025
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. In our last plus one we talked about my morning ritual of checking out my aura scores, then committing to my heroic protocol, then soaking my mind in some inspiring virtue quotes, then sharing those quotes on our social platform. My number one quote for that morning was a Rick Rubin gem. As you may recall, in the Creative act, which is a great book by the way, check out the notes. Rubin tells us that, and I quote, the best work is the work you are most excited about. Now, I had that wisdom in mind as I wrapped up my meditation and connected with Emerson, who had joined me in my office and was doing some chess tempo puzzles sprawled out on the floor. We connected for a couple minutes and I kicked him out as I needed to do some super deep work to put the final touches on a top secret talk I was going to be giving in Europe the following week for some of the world's most elite athletes. Now, Emerson is currently on a roll on chesstempo.com he's done at least one puzzle for over 160 days and in the process he's gotten his rating over 1800. I think he's at about 1834 right now, which puts him in the very top of the most serious chess players who use that platform to train. I wish they had a leaderboard for most consecutive days of training in a row. I'm pretty sure he'd be near the top. And I can assure you this is what I'm most proud of. And that streak is his number one target for the elementary school Chess National Championships he's preparing for in 2025. Consistency is the exponentializer, folks. Check out that +1. So back to me and Emerson in my office. Emerson says, hey Daddy, can we do something special when I get to 1900 on justtempo.com to which I said as I thought about how incredibly focused he gets when he has a clear, specific, challenging big goal. Absolutely. What do you think you'd like to do? Note. I knew the answer would be going to his favorite restaurant. And I was right. Then, as he was heading out of my office with his computer under his arm so he could keep training and I could focus, he asked me if he could skip some of his other training that day so he could focus more energy on chest tempo to hit that goal note. He also does the Grandmaster prep book and some chessable courses. His prescribed Training is usually 30 minutes chest tempo, 30 minutes Chesa bowl and 30 minutes Grandmaster Book. Now you know what I thought of when he asked me that question of whether or not he could focus more energy on what he was really excited about. Yep, I thought of that Rick Rubin quote. Then I told him, absolutely, that's a great idea. That's how you've gotten better every time you've made a big leap. You got really excited about something and crushed that right. He smiled and nodded his head in agreement. Then I told him, there's a great music producer who once said, the best work is the work you are most excited about. And that's today's plus one. What are you most excited about these days? Pay attention and go follow that bliss and give us all you've got today.
