How Can I Maintain Energized Tranquility as I Look To Take My Business To the Next Level? - with Brian Johnson on Optimize Coach

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Actually it's about energy management. So I am in the process of creating and launching my own business, which is something I've been dreaming about for very long time. And I finally have everything that I need. I feel like I have everything that I need to make it happen. It's very exciting and I've been trying to be as focused as I can on my fundamentals and. But I've also been working deeply, you know, like really, really deeply, like more than I've ever had. And I'm not so sure. I'm checking all the boxes. I think maybe there's something missing. I'm missing something because I've often wake up like at 2:30 in the morning with something that never happened to me and my mind's going like it's racing and sometimes I wake up feeling not as energized, you know, to do the work. And I don't know. Do you have any tips, something that could help me?

What do you think, Nat? Yeah, I do. Let me ask you, I have some ideas, but what's the one thing you think you could be doing that you're not currently doing that would help with that?

I thought it would be something around sleep, but I've been, I've been like very, very focused on that. Like my bedtime has been very consistent and my digital sunset as well. So that's why I'm like, okay, what am I not doing?

All right, perfect. So then I won't say this is easy, but this is easy. And it's funny because I just had a. Which is good news. And stepping back, congratulations on the business and on the momentum, etc. I had a very similar conversation with one of our new larger investors with Heroic the other day and he struggled with his sleep. He could never get out of the 70s and he would wake up in the middle of the night and he'd just be up. For him, it was a habitual, chronic thing and he never didn't do that for you. It sounds like it's a bit of a new thing, but I think the underlying root cause of it might be similar. Especially if you're doing the digital sunset and you're actually prioritizing sleep. And having experienced this firsthand, I can say with some Confidence that I think that the thing that's worth experimenting with is making sure that during the day you are oscillating and you are turning your mind off, truly off. Because as I discussed with him and I think is appropriate in this context when we are on, even if we're training and even if we have a basic meditation practice and you know that I, the first thing I did when I went on entrepreneurially was I doubled my meditation and I doubled it again. So I'm meditating for an hour in the morning and then 15 to 20 last night was 30 minutes after I tuck the kids in. I am deliberately creating what he called empty space. So I am really deliberately going down to give my mind time to process all the up. And our minds are kind of like, they're not at all like, but they're kind of like our, you know, digestion of food. Like if you eat a lot of, well, you eat any amount of food, your body needs to digest that. It's the same thing with information and inputs. Your mind needs to digest all of that. And as we've discussed, we are exposed to more stimuli in one day than our ancestors were exposed to in their entire lifetime. And not even like hundreds of thousands years ago. Hundreds of years ago, we just did not have the same stimulation that we do now. So when people like us turn up an already ambitious lifestyle into even more entrepreneurial or ambitious creative pursuit, it's very easy to overwhelm that system. And I think it's unbelievably important to deliberately train your recovery. And it's very much like properly digesting food. And if you're consuming and going that hard, then I would encourage you to look at your oscillation during the day and all the things that are obvious. I know you're probably doing a lot of these things, but let's revisit them briefly for those who may not be as versed as if you are going on, you want to oscillate in general, every 60, 75, 90 minutes you're on and then you're off. And the off is not, you know, do a call for 60 minutes or something, you know, and then maybe I check in tech wise for another 15 or 20 and then I got to get out personally in us, you know, and I hit the trail and oscillate and get offline. So checking email, checking Instagram, checking whatever is not recovery, that's more innervation if it is not, you know, oscillated properly. So I'd consider that. And then I Personally, I have benefited tremendously from my meditation practice. There is simply no way I would be sleeping better than I've ever slept, while going harder than I've ever gone, if I didn't do what I'm doing now, an hour is my choice, etc. But I would shine a bright light on that of potentially maybe a more robust practice in the morning and then even like a micro one during the day and then a micro one in the evenings. Because that's how we release the pressure and allow our minds to kind of process the things that otherwise wake us up, even if they aren't stressing you out. It's a eustress thing, not even a distress. It's a good stress. But again, you can only process so much information in any given day. And the more quiet, empty space we have, I find, the more likely it is that we're going to, oh, okay, we're good subconscious. We don't need to chew on that anymore. It bubbled up during my meditation. And again, our meditation isn't a quiet mind per se. It's a mind that allows whatever's going to arise to arise and we bring it back to our anchor, whether that's our breath or a mantra or a hero's, you know, conversation or a prayer or whatever it is. But that bubbling up of thoughts that occurs in meditation, you want it to happen then not at 2am and then you also want to have good practices. You want to be proactive and deal with it so that you don't need to deal with it. But then when you do inevitably wake up, you also want to have an if this, then that algorithm. So if I do wake up at 2am then perhaps, as I've encouraged before, you do a quick audit. What do I think I did that I could have done differently that would have allowed my brain to quiet down? Oh, I went all day today. I could have just gone on a walk here or I could have meditated there. And then you have fun. Mistake. Runner is high. No shame. I'm actually excited about the data. Boom. I'm going to do that a little differently next time. And then whatever it is you do, whether it's a mantra or a prayer, I literally say Steve Jobs is. Here's to the crazy ones. I've memorized it. That's what I say to myself if I wake up in the middle of the night, and I often do, to go to the restroom or whatever. And then. And I also, of course, if I don't do these things, we'll be A little bit too busy in the mind. And we'll also experience that. But again, that's exactly what should be happening right now. You're pushing yourself, Abraham Maslow. Something good must be cooking, Abe. Right from his wife. And let's do the practices, but then have that. If I do wake up, then I do this routine, you know, the breath count, the mantra, the prayer, whatever. And then do that. And then, then you say perf. I say, perfect. Extra meditation. There's no stress. My stress isn't going to help me, you know, And I'll fall asleep when I fall asleep. And me trying to. Or being upset with myself isn't going to help the cause. Therefore, I quickly learn. And then I get extra meditation. Perfect. Literally, that's a mantra. Perfect, perfect, perfect. Let's go. Anyway, I said a lot, a lot more we can talk about. What do you think?

I hadn't considered the fact that I needed to do maybe a longer meditation in the morning. Because the thing is, when I wake up, I want to go at it. And so I've been having trouble sitting still for longer than 15 minutes. My meditation used to be like 30 minutes, and now it's. It's 15 because I begin to feel restless.

So I'm gonna. We're gonna play ping pong. I'm gonna go. We're gonna go back and forth real quick. That sign is exactly what I and you and everyone else in our situation feels. And that's where we have the humility to go. Oh, I see. Aristotle's yoga. I gotta bend a little bit more this way and I'm going to do 20 minutes or 25 minutes. It becomes a psychological just. Even you will get the physiological neurological benefits. But the principal reason to do it is psychological. It's not to dominate yourself in a negative sense, but self mastery is. I feel this urge to go, go, go, go, go. And I'm calm and confident and energized and tranquil and disciplined enough to do what I know I need to do in this context. And even if it's just an extra minute, again, physiologically nice, psychologically even more powerful. But yeah, sorry to interrupt, but it's really important when we find ourselves going a little bit too hard that we discipline ourselves to come back and go just as hard in the other direction.

I appreciate you saying that. It becomes something in my mind because the thing you usually say is that speed is a force and use it. And I'm always like, okay, should I be sitting still? Should I use this momentum that I've created.

So we're going to go there again. So the only way you can use speed as a force is if you train your recovery. So Steven Kotler in the Rise of Superman and then in the Art of Impossible, he talks about being in flow. So you're in flow right now, which feels great. But flow is expensive. Flow is really, really expensive. Energetically for your nervous system, you can only sustain so much energy before you burn out. And again, you and I are wise enough. Now, you don't have any gray that I can see, but I got a lot of gray here. We need to have the wisdom to know the game we're playing, which is to create energized tranquility. We are not manically pursuing something that needs to happen tomorrow. We're making sure we're properly managing our energy such that we have that grounded, true calm, confidence and tranquility. Euthymia, we know we're on the right path. We know what enervated anxiety feels like. We're committed to not experiencing that and showing up consistently. Because remember, the exponentializer here is consistency. And if you're waking up the next day and you are only at, you know, 60 or 70% or even 80 or 90, I so strongly dislike feeling less than my best. And I know what my best feels like. And I train for that, that I'm ruthless because I'll leave some on the table today, which I do deliberately every day so I can show up tomorrow with my best. And of course we want to go right when we wake up. But again, that disciplined approach is what allows us to have the exponentializer of consistency, which is where the infinite power lies. And what we need to do more than anything is connect to that, whatever you want to call it, universal source of power. And there is literally no better way to do that than meditation. And you do all the eating and the moving and the sleeping and the breathing, but breathing, which is part of meditation, there's no more direct channel to that infinite power. And it's with that connection that we want to move with speed. If you aren't connected to that, you actually don't want to move with speed because then you're just going to be weird and like that fire hydrant, not you, but one will be weird. Like the fire hydrant being sprayed around the room. No, no, no. It's a grounded velocity. It's a well trained wise where we have that insight that comes from something bigger than ourselves. And then we take action and the fear doesn't get in the way of doing what we know is the right thing, but again, with anything, you can take it too far. So there's a vice of deficiency and a vice of excess and we just want to continue to practice correcting whatever our kind of thing is. And for other people, I'd give them the opposite advice. I'd tell them perhaps to meditate a little bit less if they were overdoing it and move a little bit more. But for people like us in this situation, it's the other correction. And I think that we just need to be aware of that. And I will restate for you and for myself and for everyone. That extra 15 minutes in the morning will pay for itself tonight by following asleep more quickly and by staying asleep more deeply and then getting the restorative creative REM sleep and allow you to go back to sleep more quickly. The ROI on that from an entrepreneurial perspective is there's no greater investment period. And then I would also encourage you to consider at least a 5 or 10 or even 15 minute PM practice which is the cornerstone of so many different traditions from Vipassana to Transcendental Meditation. I've done it in the past, but frankly I didn't realize how powerful it is until I restarted it X months ago. It's the, it's the secret sauce. I mean, I'm going to do the hour continued in the morning, but I'm definitely doing the PM because it's like a, I don't even know what the right. It's like a quick car wash at the end of the day, you know, it's like a unbelievable decompressant to allow those final little residual things to resolve. So yeah, I'd consider a 15, 20 minute minimum morning, maybe even 30, and then a 10, 15 minute PM for this phase and perhaps for all phases, you know, And I think that will have profound impacts. Tell me what you think.

Yeah, I appreciate you saying that. I think I'll definitely start doing that today and experiment with that. And I also like what you said about when I wake up, I try to think back like, okay, what happens that I'm waking up and I came into one thing that's a big fear door that it's like, what if it doesn't work? And also what if it does? So it's kind of like a, like a thing that came up this past few nights.

Perfect hero's journey. That's exactly what you should be experiencing. And then again we celebrate that that is a reverse indicator. And then you say thank you to your mind for presenting that wonderful Question to you and let it know you'll come back to it, you know, tomorrow morning when you're feeling rested. And then if this, then that mantra, breath, awesome, we got this. And then it's process. So again with what I'm doing right now, you know, as an analog in parallel, and all of us who are really kind of striving to go to that next level heroically, of course, we feel these things. It's not possible to not feel these things. And then what do we do? We, we take action. As Phil would say, you string the next pearl, you know, and he literally counseled me the other week or so, you know, don't you dare look back and count the pearls. Do not pay attention. Of course you need data. Did I hit the target or not? Outcome wise. But don't you dare start counting the pearls. Goosebumps. String the next pearl. Which is another way to say, now it needs to be done. Now it needs to be done. Now it needs to be done. Some things will work, some things won't. Perfect. Take the data and then, you know, literally perfect. You completely accept whatever's going to happen. You know, you're putting yourself out there because you're striving to serve heroically. It's supposed to be hard, it may not work. Perfect. You're antifragile, you're being aggressive, you're being conservative. You know the risk you're taking. And then what needs to get done. What needs to get done. What needs to get done. And the wobbler wobblier you feel, the more committed you are to your protocol, the more you're stressing yourself out, the more committed you are to your protocol, which again is the sole force equation. Energy times focus times what's important out of the power of consistency. But that energy has to be the starting point. And the first thing I do to say it again, I've probably mentioned this, at least in the investor calls, is I do an inventory of my soul force. So I'm constantly checking in on my soul force equation. Energy is my principal thing. It's what am I doing here? What needs a little bit of work. And there's always something that's working and needs work. You know, Lent started two days ago. I was raised Catholic, so I still love the idea of it. What are you giving up? I gave up digital anything again. You know, I found myself slippery slope. Not crazy, but a little bit into the digital news with all the craziness with the election and the Capitol stuff. Gone. Thank you, Lent gone. I'm Back to zero, clean the consciousness. I don't need those inputs right now. Thank you for the Economist. Once a week you've heard me say the story, but just, it's really fun when we approach it with that constant and never ending, experimenting, dynamic equilibrium. We're never going to get there. Let go of the idea that you're somehow going to figure it out one day. Or you just have perfect energy, you're never stressed. Sleep is perfect all the time. Like that's the greatest source of anxiety and frustration is, why am I experiencing this again? Because you're human and you're heroic. You're supposed to feel tired sometimes, you're supposed to feel overwhelmed sometimes. You're supposed to feel like you want to give up some time. It's like, that's like the definition of the hero's journey. Then you pick yourself up, dust yourself up, see what you've learned, and then do what needs to get done. Literally. That is like the definition of a meaningful life. You don't want stress, then get rid of all of your meaning. Get rid of everything that challenges you. Don't have kids, don't try to do things that are bigger than you. Perfect. Go to a beach somewhere, go sip some pina coladas or whatever, and your life will be easy. And oh, wait, you missed the whole game. So again, this is supposed to be happening and I'm excited for you and always love seeing you.

I'm excited as well. I appreciate you saying all of that because sometimes today my energy is a bit lower, so I kind of needed the, the support, figuring out exactly which lever I should pull. I'll definitely get on that. So I appreciate you taking the time and coaching me.

I love it. So let's go there for one more moment. So when your energy is low, which it inevitably will be, nothing is wrong with you, Nat, because you're Nat. You are human. Pushing yourself hard, it is a sign that you need to recover. Now what we want to make sure we don't do so positively. We want to recover. So what are the recovery activities? So today's not the day to push hard. You need to do what needs to get done. You want to be a professional that plays poorly. Well. And I want you to get excited about the days when you don't have it. It's the days that I don't have it. I'm not 101 every day of the week, obviously. And I've trained myself to get excited for the days when I'm a little bit flat. And it's Those days that I do my best and my best is not going to be what it is when I'm at my best. But again, to use a sports metaphor, the best golfers are the ones who know how to, as Jim Afromo says, play poorly. Well, when they just know they don't have it because every, every professional shows up and some days they're not at their best. But the best of the best recognize that they don't get emotional and then they play within the constraints of that reality for the day and they don't go sideways. So on days where you don't have it energetically, which tends to correlate with psychological doubt, starts to creep in a little bit more deeply and all that stuff. Don't do the stupid stuff. Keep the kryptonite securely locked up. The pickles are in their jars in the closet. You don't do dumb things. Don't spiral into a vicious cycle. Recognize that this is an off day. You're going to be a professional and play poorly. Well, which means you're also going to prioritize your recovery. And maybe you're going to meditate for an extra half an hour that day or take a mellow walk and not push yourself hard exercise wise. Days like today are not the days to go hit a hiit workout. It's a day to say, wow, maybe I was going a little too hard on that too. So I need to relax, allow my nervous system to recover and rebuild and I'm going to go be ready tomorrow morning, go to bed super early, do this, do that. Anyway, it's a really important idea to not spiral down because that's the tendency for all of us. And the best know that and they're able to maintain their protocol at a limited level and not go do the silly. Really, I did that? And then one day becomes two, becomes three becomes, you know, a week or two. Then you look back and like, oh my God, I just did that again. We're not doing that anymore. Like that level of stability is. Then you have the antifragile confidence. The true I get stronger. The worse I feel, the stronger I get because the more committed I am. And I used to spiral out, now I am spiraling up. Minus one plus one. Boom. Thank you stoic gods for blessing me with the opportunity to practice my philosophy. Let's go. We hope you enjoyed that part of a live coaching session from the Optimize Coach program. For more info, head to Optimize Me coach.