Energy 101 (Intro)

You're listening to Optimize with Bryan Johnson. More wisdom in less time.

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to the Optimal Living 101 Masterclass Series. Today, I'm excited to chat about Energy 101, how to give your soul the energy it needs so you can live your greatest life. As always, we've got 10 big ideas. Actually, we have 11 ideas. Champions do more style. Let's start at the top, and then we will jump in. So, big idea number one, we're gonna look at the Greek etymology of the word energy. What does it literally mean? Well, here's a hint. It literally means in work. Energy is basically a capacity to do work. You need to have a strong engine if you want to actualize your potential. That's gonna be the underlying theme. It's obvious, but we've got to make that connection. All the things that you want to achieve in your life, our energy is going to be the engine to allow us to do the work and to do so with high levels of vitality, strength, power, vigor, et cetera. We're also going to talk about the microscopic powerhouses within your body called mitochondria. You have a quadrillion mitochondria. That's 10, 10 million times a billion, right? Crazy number of these things. We're gonna talk about that in some detail and how we play nice with our mitochondria such that those powerhouses do their work, such that we can be energized and do what we're here to do on the planet. The second big idea is to make an iconoclastic commitment to being exceptional heroes. The fact is, our society is profoundly sick. As Krishnamurti says, it's no measure of well being, of no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society as iconoclasts. The science and neuroscience of iconoclasm is step back, see things a little differently than most people, have the courage to be different, and then be an exemplar, Be the change you want to see and have ripples in the world. That requires commitment. It requires raising our standards. We're going to talk about that. And ultimately, being a hero, we're going, why do we want to energize? To have the strength, the energy for two, so we can make a significant difference in the world, give our gifts in greatest service, et cetera. Big idea number three is going to be rule number one, which is, the energy's all there. Everything you need, all that energy you need is there. We just need to get out of the way and Quit doing the things that's dissipating our energy. But your body wants to be vital. It wants to be energized. We just need to quit doing the things that are, again, getting in the way. We're going to use two metaphors. One, golden heroes. We're going to talk about the Golden Buddha story, which is actually not just a story. It's a historical reality, which is pretty cool. We're going to talk about seeds and the latent potential in seeds. We'll talk about what I call our little micro farm in our backyard where we've planted quite a few seeds, pack it to soil. It's crazy how you activate potential. Potential when you have the right environment. But the energy was already always there. The fourth big idea is Optimus, you. We need to create a life that excites us, that inspires us, that makes us want to get out of bed in the morning. If you're bored with your life, why are you going to want to jump out of bed with a ton of energy? You're not. So we're going to step back and we're going to think about what would you do if you had no fear? Literally, if you had no fear. We'll do a little exercise on that. We need to see it.

We.

We need to believe it. And then we need to be that best version of ourselves. We're gonna take that energy, and then we're gonna look at every single choice we're making throughout the day as either a plus one energizer or a minus one enervator. Energizer. Enervator. Everything we're doing throughout the day is doing one or the other. Again, you aggregate and compound those one way or the other. You get a significant difference. At the end of the day. We, week, month, year, et cetera, enervate. We'll talk about the etymology of that word as well, which is kind of cool. Then after we've kind of established the mindset, and let's be honest, the reality is you already know what you need to do. We need to get you fired up, get to that 212 degrees, such that you're actually doing what we need to do. But our fifth big idea, we'll get into some practical details with eating. Number five is eat. We'll look at an 80, 20, 1, 2, 3. The top three things that we want to pay attention to that might be getting in the way. Remember, rule number one of nutrition and life is stop doing the things that are holding you back, that are chipping Away at your vitality. We'll talk about the three big things. We'll also talk about how you can fuel your body for optimal energy. Fascinating conversation. Sugar vis a vis fat. After we talk about the 8020 stuff. 8020 will be non debatable. Look, everyone's going to agree on this. The fat for fuel, etc. A little more debatable, but exciting stuff. Exciting data that's coming out. I'll share some personal stories as well. 6th Big Idea is move. You need to eat, then you need to move. Well, all right. We'll talk about some big ideas from Movement 101 that are the most important in this context. Right? We don't want to be active and sedentary. We want to remember that you draw a circle of movement within there as exercise. Both are super important. Exercise is like taking a little bit of Ritalin and a little bit of Prozac, but you can't just do that then sit the rest of the day. We'll talk about why and how to get yourself moving. Then we'll talk about the training equation and the fact that you might be under training or you might be over training. We'll talk about anabolic versus catabolic. Those have some fun etymological roots as well. Our seventh big idea is sleep plus Zambonis. Sleep plus Zambonis. Remember that Dan Pink said taking a nap is like taking a Zamboni across a sheet of ice in between periods when you're playing hockey. Sleep is unbelievably important for our energy. We'll talk about how much sleep some of the most elite athletes who are paid for their performance strive to get in a daily basis. The numbers are going to shock you. They certainly shocked me. 8th big idea. As I take a deep breath. We need to breathe, we need to meditate. We need to be able to flip the switch between being on and being deeply relaxed and off. We want to have this up energy and we also want to be able to go down. We'll talk about it the next big idea as well, which is number nine, oscillate. Literally you want to go on, then you want to go off, on, off. You want to have the amplitude really strong between your on and you're off. Be truly on, single mindedly focused and then be truly off. Otherwise you kind of flatline. You're never really all the way on because you're distracting yourself. And you never fully go off because you're always looking at your texts and your email inputs, et cetera. That leads to burnout. So in that idea, we'll talk about making waves and we'll talk about matching your best energy to the most important work. Then we'll talk about the fact that we need to create boundaries or we're going to create burnout. 10th Big Idea is to dominate. You want energy? Quit avoiding things. You need to approach the things that might be stressing you out so they don't grow in their power. Right when you feel a little bit of pain, you want to bring it on and go toward it. That's where the energy, the vitality, the joy comes from. We're also going to talk about the importance of dominating any potential digital addiction. When we look at enervators and what weakens us, there's no question that our digital stimulation are incessant all day, every day, and then late into the night. Digital stimulation is one of the best ways to erode your energy and your capacity to bring yourself to the moment, which will be the final aspect of that idea. Mastery of micro moments. And then our final idea number 11 will be energy algorithms taking all these ideas and as always, moving from theory to practice, identifying the number one thing you could be doing to boost your energy and the number one thing you need to stop doing to boost your energy, your self care habit and your kryptonite. And then we're gonna spiral up, make it one big game. We're gonna revisit the theme of making your prior best, your new baseline as we play the game as well as we can. What's the game? To me, the game is to be a eudaimon, to be that exemplar that Aristotle talks about. Experience the joy, the happiness, etc. When we have a good soul. But that soul requires a ton of energy. So let's give it to him or her and enjoy the whole process. That's a quick look. Now let's jump in.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Optymyze with Brian Johnson. To find out more, go to Optimize Me.