In this solo monologue, Brian Johnson uses a simple hotel luggage‑cart return as a concrete illustration of his broader philosophy that everyday micro‑actions are opportunities to practice excellence. While waiting outside the conference center for his son Emerson’s tennis match, he recounts his role as Emerson’s nutritionist, trainer, and mental‑toughness coach, and describes a “mid‑game protocol” of brief, high‑intensity movements (jumping jacks, burpees, Hindu squats) inspired by his interview with exercise‑science author John Ratey. He connects the cart‑return habit to a note he took on Bill Belichick’s “Art of Winning,” which frames putting a shopping cart back as a litmus test of commitment to excellence. The episode ends with a call to action: return carts (or any small items) to their proper place with a joyful smile, using the act to flex one’s “excellence muscles” throughout the day.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic Plus One. In the spirit of mining everyday activities as opportunities to practice our philosophy, today we're gonna talk about returning a shopping cart where it belongs. Well, technically, we're gonna talk about returning a hotel baggage cart thingy back to where it belongs, but same basic idea. Now, I'm typing this one sitting on the ground in the hotel conference center, Right outside the door where Emerson will come out after he finishes his game. It's 2 hours and 30 minutes after the start of the 6th round. We talked about in the last +1, his games may go as long as 3.5 hours to 4 hours. Fun fact, I just saw him go out a different door to go to the bathroom. We smiled at each other. And I smiled as I imagined him banging out 33 jumping jacks in the bathroom after using the facilities. One of our little during-the-game protocols that matches the pregame. Again, 3, 4 hours. of a game. Get in there and get your, get your heart rate going, etc. Whole nother chat. Check out the notes on Spark by John Ratey for more. I'll tell you right now, I once interviewed John Ratey, who wrote the book on the science of exercise and how it improves your brain. I had 2 notes on 2 different books of his. I had 2 interviews queued up. We did the first one over an hour. He said, how about we take a break? He banged out a set of Hindu squats. I banged out a set of burpees. And he said, 30 seconds, 60 seconds, that's all it takes to get your overall mind working a little bit better, a little bit more focused, a little bit more positive, etc. Anyway, Mid-Game Protocol, leveraging the science of micro-movement to boost your brain for the win. Now, right before I parked myself on the ground with my back against a wall to wait for the big guy, I checked out of our hotel room. This was a huge hotel, and they have luggage carrier things that are like the ones you can rent at the airport. Right? So I load ours up. Note, I bring all our food for tournaments as I serve as Emerson's nutritionist and chef to go along with my personal training and mental toughness duties. Now it looks like we moved in. We've got an Instant Pot and everything. So rather than drive the car up to unload the cart, I walk the extra few hundred yards to get some more steps and movement. Note, I slightly regretted I didn't wear my heart rate monitor to get another 10 to 15 minutes of zone 2 track to hit my 3 to 4 hour target of the week, and I unload the luggage into the car. I'm walking back to the hotel to drop it off, and there are like 5 or 6 of these kind of sort of randomly left sort of close to the front lobby, but not really where they belong. I think about leaving mine there for a second. Then I remembered a note I created recently where the author said that putting your shopping cart back where it belongs is one of the simplest Litmus tests of your commitment to excellence. So it's from a note I created on Bill Belichick, the Super Bowl-winning coach. He wrote a book called The Art of Winning. He shares this blurb. Check out the notes for more. So I walked the extra 75 to 100 yards and put the luggage cart thing where it belonged. And that's today's plus one. The next time you have the chance, put your shopping cart back where it belongs and do it with a joyful smile. As you work out your excellence muscles and close the gap with the little things all day, every day, especially today.
