Brian Johnson finds a cicada exoskeleton on his desk and uses its molting cycle as a metaphor for shedding destructive habits. Cicadas spend years underground before emerging and transforming. He challenges you to identify and molt one kryptonite habit holding you back.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic Plus One. As we've discussed many times, we live out in the country outside Austin. It's summertime as I type this, and we have a ton of cicadas on our land, as in a ton. And I absolutely love their sounds. And Eleanor just brought one into my office and set it on my desk. Technically, she brought in a cicada exoskeleton, but it looks Like it's an actual cicada. Do you know the backstory behind cicadas? I didn't until this summer. Get this. Cicadas are bugs that spend the first year or more of their lives underground eating tree roots and stuff like that. Then they emerge from underground, climb up a tree, completely shed their entire exoskeleton, form a new one in a matter of hours, fly around, Mate, then die a few weeks later. It's crazy. ChatGPT and I chatted about it. Here's how it described it. A cicada doesn't just shed a little skin. It sheds its entire exoskeleton. It literally climbs a tree, its back splits open, and it slowly pulls itself out of the body that carried it for years. What's left behind is a perfect hollow replica of the insect. Legs, claws, eyes, even the outer covering of its body. He continues by saying, imagine if a human did that. Imagine climbing a tree and stepping completely out of your skin— fingernails, toenails, and every other external surface— leaving behind a perfect shell of yourself. That's essentially what a cicada does. It spends years preparing underground, then one night emerges, leaves its old self behind, expands into something capable of flight, and never looks back. It's one of nature's most powerful metaphors for transformation. Growth sometimes requires leaving an entire former self behind. Thank you, ChatGPT. As I've said, not a line, not a word of these Plus Ones are ever touched by any AI. If I ever do use something, I'll do what I just did right there. Of course, we can't step out of our old selves and become an entirely new version of ourselves, but What if we could? What if we could transform a significant part of our lives in an instant, shedding the stuff that wasn't working and creating a new, more heroic version of ourselves? How powerful would that be? With that in mind, what's one thing you want to molt out of your life? That kryptonite habit or behavior or attitude that just needs to go? Climb up that metaphorical tree and let it go today. And let's appreciate that hopefully we have longer than a few weeks to spread our wings and fly. I've got an image of that cicada. Check it out. P.S. I already said this, but just so you know, I never use ChatGPT to write or even edit these Plus Ones or Philosopher's Notes as I want to preserve my voice. The only time you'll ever see ChatGPT's presence in here is if I directly quote it like I just did. P.P.S. Day 1. All in. Let's go.
