In this personal vlog, Brian Johnson reflects on his family's move from Ojai, California to a country property outside Austin, Texas, where they built a walking trail that has become his favorite place. He recounts the evolution of barefoot walking on the trail—once possible for him, now his wife and children can do it, while he is re‑training his feet. Over recent weeks he has been strengthening his feet by walking a gravel section of the half‑mile loop while carrying a 20‑pound ruck, describing the sharp, repetitive pain of the rocks. He uses this physical discomfort as a metaphor for the challenges people face, repeatedly chanting “I’m getting stronger” and inviting viewers to join the chorus, emphasizing shared struggle and collective growth. The video ends with a note that his family is heading out for a sunset walk, and he hopes to join them.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic Plus One. As you know, if you've been following along, we live out in the country outside Austin. We're blessed to have a little land, and on that land, we're blessed to have a little walking trail. It's tied for first as my favorite thing in the world. I created it with Emerson within a few days of moving here. Fun fact, we moved here exactly 6 years ago to the day. I did not realize that the day I wrote this was the anniversary of the day we moved here until I typed that. Now, before we moved to Austin, we lived in a sweet little town in Southern California called Ojai, and I wrote some Plus Ones forever ago about how I used to hike the first part of the trail out there barefoot. You can check them out, I got them linked in this Plus One. Now, at the time, I could walk the trail barefoot. The kids and the wifey couldn't do that. These days, the kids and wifey can easily walk our trail barefoot, And I cannot. Fun facts, our kids have never worn shoes on our trail and have never worn anything but minimalist shoes since they were born. Actually, that's not true. Emerson got some sweet cowboy boots when we first got here, and they did have some rain boots with normal soles on them, but that's not quite the point of this plus one. This is. I've been training my feet to get strong enough to walk barefoot again. It's been a few weeks and I'm way stronger. Most of the trail is basically dirt that cuts through trees and loops around the property. Walking on that part is easy enough, but we have a long gravel driveway road kind of thing on one part of the half-mile loop, and that part is about a tenth of a mile and consists of loose rocks of various sizes. Here is a reenactment of me walking down that section a few minutes ago with a 20-pound ruck on as I get strong again. Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow. Each little and big rock was jabbing my feet in a wonderfully not wonderful way, to which I said to myself, I'm getting stronger, I'm getting stronger, I'm getting stronger, I'm getting stronger, I'm getting stronger. And that is the point of this plus one. You got some wonderfully not wonderful rocks you're walking over these days. I repeat, of course you do. You're human, and a human aspiring to be heroic, no less. I feel the pain With you, as you walk over those rocks today, know that I feel the pain with you. If you'd like, I will join you in the ow ow ow ow ow chorus. Let's not pretend the challenges don't often hurt; they do. But let's also not forget that when we do it right, we're getting stronger. So if you'd like, I'll join you in this chorus as well. I'm getting stronger. I'm getting stronger. I'm getting stronger. Make that we're getting stronger. We're getting stronger. We're getting stronger all day, every day, together, today. P.S., the wifey and the kids just headed out for a sunset walk. I'm gonna see if I can join them.
