Hērōs + Virtues vs. Bling (My focus on New Year’s morning!)

Hey, this is Brian with a quick note before we jump into today's show. If you haven't signed up for the Optymyze Premium membership yet, A, what are you waiting for? And B, you can now get the first 30 days of optimizing for free. Just cruise on over to Optimize me and sign up. Over 10,000 people now start their days with Optymyze so they can actualize their potential, including best selling authors, leading entrepreneurs and even NCAA championship teams, two of them. So again, 30 days of free optimizing at Optimize Me. If you're already a member, thanks for your support. Now for the show, You're listening to Optymyze with Bryan Johnson. More wisdom in less time. Hey guys, what's up? This is Brian. Happy New Year. It's bright and early over here. I went to bed early, partied like a rock star in bed at 7:45 after the family and I had a nice dinner and walk, talking about what we were grateful for in 2016 and what we're gonna do in 2017, what we're excited about. Anyway, yesterday I did a video on, what was it, Community and consistency and my love affair with calendars. So there's the new calendar. Very excited about marking that thing up. And this morning in my meditation, as I'm continuing to play with the idea of what my kind of word is for the year, I realized that when you put community, which for me symbolizes love both online and offline, together with consistency, you have what I'm really committed to dedicating 2017 to, which is heroes. So being a hero and Hero Training 101, which is something that we're going to be talking a lot about next week we're going to launch my first ever weekend immersion workshop and it's going to be called Hero Training 101. Still finalizing the date, I'm unbelievably excited about that. Can't wait to see those of you who can make it out to Ojai for that. But anyway, so I'm doing my morning journaling, right? And I'm realizing, okay, hero training 101 heroes. Remember the ancient Greek word for heroes is protector. A hero has strength for two. Their, their main secret weapon is love. A hero cares, they're immune to obstacles, etc. Etc. And then I started realizing, okay, well as I do my own planning for the year, which is how I am preparing for greatest year ever, one on one is how do I take what I do to help you do what you're Going to do what or part of what you're going to do, at least to make this the greatest year ever. I realized, you know what our first big idea zero is hero training. That really, that's the goal that we all have, is for us to have strength for two, for us to show up as the best version of ourselves, and to truly connect to something bigger than ourselves, to be fueled by love, etc. Etc. And then I started playing around with the idea of what virtues does a hero have, right? And so most of us, when we do our New Year's planning, we're thinking about what things we want to acquire in 2017 or whatever the year is, right? And the six pack we want to have or the car we want to drive or whatever goals we want to achieve. I'm going to encourage us to think about the virtues that we want to cultivate, the virtues that we want to embody. So I'm sitting here thinking about, okay, heroes. And I like writing down the classic Greek version because it reminds me of the fact that this is. Although this heroes means the singular hero protector, for me, it represents all of us as heroes, right? As protectors with strength for two, ready to serve. Well, what are a hero's virtues? And specifically for me, what virtues do I want to cultivate this year such that I can give my greatest gifts and greatest service to the world? Now, an important thing that we'll talk about in Greatest Year Ever 101 is if you're just going after the bling. So virtues versus bling, as I mentioned in the last or a couple videos ago, anyway, I think we all share the same goal, which is to live with arete, which again, classic Greek, says you want to have happiness, which is the ultimate goal. The only reason you're setting your extrinsic material goals, the only reason we are for the next year is to achieve the ultimate goal, which is happiness. Well, there's a more direct route to getting happiness than acquiring all the things that we think we want. It's to live with virtue, right? It's to do the best we're capable of, moment to moment to moment, and get rid of this gap where what we're capable of and what we're actually doing exists. That's where the depression, anxiety, et cetera, close the gap, live with virtue. So we're going to unpack that more. And I would love to encourage you to think about what virtues do you want. And then when you go after virtues primarily instead of after the bling, two things happen. Number One, you immediately win the real game. The real game we're all playing is to be happy, to flourish, right? Well, living with virtue is the most direct way there. You don't need to go acquire things and then be happy, just live with virtue. Then burpee alert, then you are going to be happy. Right now it's a really cool thing. So when you focus on virtue, first of all, you win the real game, you feel more happiness right now. And secondly, you're positioned to win the other game, the bling game. Because guess what? People who live with virtue consistently can much more easily acquire the material things that they want. Which is why all the great spiritual teachers tell us, first focus on your consciousness. First, focus on being a great human being. If you do that, all the material things will fall into your lap. But if you go after the material things and you cut corners and you don't live with virtue, then science says you will be more psychologically wobbly. That's the technical description. You will be less psychologically stable if you're pursuing bling all the time. Then if you're pursuing virtue and you're going to be less likely to get it, and again, you're going to be falling behind in the real game of happiness, flourishing, etc. So nothing against materiality, nothing against beauty and luxury, but let those be a byproduct of your virtue. Commit yourself to something bigger than yourself and more importantly, become a hero, become a protector, have the strength for two, be ready to serve profoundly and live with virtue. So here's a look at my virtues. When I look at what are a hero's virtues that I want to embody. And maybe some of these will inspire you to consider becoming part of your goal setting for 2017. First of all, a hero's number one asset, a number one virtue is love, right? It's compassion, it's empathy. A hero cares. One of the things that I do when I train every morning, I do a little warm up set. I kind of do, you know, wrist opening and ankle opening and then I do sets of 10 of different things. But I always do 11, right? I don't do 10, I do 11. And I say to myself, champions do more, right? Champions are always doing a little bit more than everybody else. But then now I say, champions do more. That's cool. So I'll bang out 11 instead of 10, right? Just a tiny little incremental improvement. But heroes do more for someone else. It's not about us. It's about Getting strength for two or for 2,000 or for 2 million, or for 2 billion, or whatever your aspiration is, right? So there you go, love. We're doing everything for something bigger than ourselves. Strength, obviously, is an important part of being a hero. If you don't have the strength to get out of bed in the morning, you're going to have a tough time serving as profoundly as you can. Right? Let's get the strength via our fundamentals, via discipline, via grit. We've got the four elements of grit. You got to be passionate about whatever it is you're going for. You got to practice it daily. You need to have a purpose. It needs to be bigger than. You can't just be about you. And you need to have hope. You need to see that if you put in the effort, you can create a better future. Then another virtue for me is consistency, which we talked about yesterday, which means standing together. It also means standing firm. And when I think of a heroic consistency, it's standing firm. We're not talking about Aram Bashura, right? Remember that idea from Eknath Eswaron, being a hero in the beginning, where you start the year, or whatever it is, with trumpets of fanfare? Eswaran says, and then the moment things get hard, you tiptoe out the back door. We're not talking about being a hero in the beginning here. We're talking about being a hero, period. And a hero is always ready. This is one of the big ideas from Dean Carnassus, great book, the Road to Sparta. A hero is ready, period. They don't know when they're going to get called. I talk to Emerson, my son, all the time about heroes, right? And we're talking about firefighters, some of his favorite people in the world. And whenever we see them, we always come up and hang out with them. They told us the other day that within 60 seconds of receiving a dispatch that someone needs help. Gives me tears in my eyes as I start to say this. Within 60 seconds, they're out the door, boom, done. They're ready. They're ready to serve. They're not hungover while on the job and oh, I can't do it. No, can't show up today. They're not thinking about it. Oh, no, I don't feel like going out. They jump up and they go, serve. Heroes are ready to serve. You can only do that if you're consistent in your fundamentals and practicing on a daily basis and having that commitment and true love to go out and do what needs to get done. And again, for us, each of us is going to have a Different definition of what it means to be a hero. I look at my wife Alexandra. She's an unbelievable hero. Now, she's not putting herself out publicly right now beyond some meditation she does for our community, etc. But she's up in an instant to take care of our son and soon to be new baby girl. That's heroic. So whatever it means for you, who in your world do you need to have strength for? Who needs you to protect them? Who needs you to be an embodiment of your highest self? Think about that and then be consistent for them. Confidence, the Latin root of the word confidence is with intense trust. Not cockiness and all that stuff, but with intense trust that you can handle whatever life throws at you. That's a virtue I'm excited to cultivate. Equanimity, again, from the Latin, means balanced mind. Equanimity, balanced mind, right? You don't get thrown off by life. You see how fast you get thrown off. You see how fast you can get back to a state of balance, right? Which is the essence of wisdom. You love what is. You're not arguing against reality, right? You love what is. You use the obstacle as the way makes you stronger. Antifragile, et cetera. A hero is creative, right? They're crafty. They find ways to get around obstacles and. And they see the world differently and they propose an optimized reality to the world. You can't do that if you're plugged into the Matrix all the time. You got to unplug and see life differently, get outside of media's obsessive perspective on things and see the world a little differently. Propose a different reality and then take action. We talked about this in the Science of Being an Iconoclast, right? And then of course, a hero has courage. Antifragile style. Courage, right? And remember, the word courage comes from the French and Latin word for heart. If you don't have courage, then you don't have any of these virtues. You can talk about these things conceptually, but just as the heart pumps blood to your arms and legs and organs, etc. Courage vitalizes all these other virtues. You've got to actually do these things when it matters most. Practice on the small things so you're ready for the big ones. Be anti fragile. Be simultaneously super aggressive and super conservative, right? Barbell strategy is what Nassim Taleb describes it as. Then you have smart, grounded courage. I want to cultivate that in 2017. And then that leads to just being grounded in general. Right? So deep, deep foundation strong, stable, present, etc. Hard working heroes show up day in and day out, but they also oscillate. We need to be fresh. We can't constantly be grinding, right? We gotta unplug and take care of ourselves. So we're sustainably powerful, focused. Heroes are able to focus their minds at will. They do deep work on what matters. Reducing distractions is a big focus of mine. Then we have a few others. Heroes are human. We're not talking about being perfect. There are no perfect human beings, period. Abraham Maslow and everyone else tells us that. So let's remind ourselves that the game isn't trying to be perfect. The game is to try to be heroically human and to be our best version of ourselves more and more consistently. We will never be perfect, period. Which introduces a level of humility. We can embrace our imperfections and still have the courage to go out and do what we feel called to do. We are authentic, right? We write our own story. That's what the word authentic means, literally means. Author and authentic come from the same root, right? So when you're authentic, you're writing your own story. You're not doing what society says you should do, or what other people say you should do. You're deciding what you're going to do. And you write your story and you tell your story powerfully. You have authenticity. And of course, heroes are hopeful and optimistic. They see a better future and they're willing to do the work to make it happen, right? Hope isn't a sterile thing. It's a look. I'm going to do what needs to happen in order to create that better future, period. And of course, a hero is energized and enthusiastic. When you think of a hero, you think of someone that has the energy to go out and do what needs to get done, which is why energy is my number one priority. Without that, we have a tough time getting out of bed. We're going to have a tough time serving profoundly and heroically. And when you're energized, you also tend to be enthusiastic. God is flowing through you, right? Entheos. And as Joseph Campbell says, a vital person vitalizes. When we are committed to living with these sorts of virtues, it vitalizes people around us just as a demonstration of what's possible. I feel that that's what we're ultimately called to do. That is a look at how I'm thinking about 2017. On January 1, 2017, let's cultivate virtues. Can't wait to share more in greatest year ever. 101 and then in Hero training 101. So next week we'll be sharing more on the hero aspect, but excited to share that for now. Happy, happy New Year. Just so excited to help you make this the greatest year of your life ever. In service to something bigger than you and bigger than us. Let's go out and do it. Have an awesome day. See you.