How to Make Today a Masterpiece

Hey guys, this is Brian. I am excited to be back after two years with my first journal. Little lesson, new journal always started with a quote. Maslow tells us what one can be, one must be. Thank you, Abe. First page of a journal. Nice for notes or for quotes. Let's jump straight in. Today we're going to talk about how to make today a masterpiece. Masterpiece. That's what we want to make today. Inspired by John Wooden. John Wooden was, according to espn, the greatest coach ever. He won a ton of tournaments. But the thing about John was he never focused on the outcome. He always focused on the process. What he told his students players was, let's make today's practice perfect. Let's see if we can have a perfect practice. Let's see if we can make today a masterpiece. Now, when he focused on that, the outcomes took care of themselves because he was so focused on the process. So that's the inspiration. Here's a little more on the why I think we want to think about how to make today a masterpiece. Did I win? This is from a great book called With Winning in the philosopher's note I created on it yesterday. Unbelievably good book. PNTV coming up soon. He tells this story about a golfer who he was coaching, hadn't won in a few years. And when they were doing their year end planning, they decided, you know what, we're not going to make a goal that you're going to win a tournament this year. We're going to make the goal. All about the process. And his theme for the year this golfer became process is primary. Process is primary. Process as primary. He wanted to focus on executing each shot as well as he could. He was focused on the process, not the outcome of winning a tournament. So fast forward. This Guy's in his fourth tournament that year at Torrey Pines. He's on the 18th hole and he's got a 30 inch putt. 30 inch putt to win the tournament. Now the crowd knows that he's about ready to win if he makes it and not win if he doesn't make it. It's a million dollar putt. The guy is so focused on process, he doesn't even know that this putt is for the win. He sinks the putt, his wife runs up on the green and that's when he realizes that he won. He asked her, did I win? He had no idea that that putt was a million dollar putt. Now what do you think? Do you think that his performance on that putt was better because he was Focused on the process rather than outcome. He really had no idea. Now if he was focused on the outcome, obsessed about whether he was going to make the putt to win a million bucks, how do you think you would have approached that putt? With nerves, with fear. Would have come in. It would have gotten out of just executing, making the process primary. So that's a little bit on how we want to make or why we want to make today a masterpiece. Now let's look at how again. We'll talk a lot more about outcome versus process. I've been studying this a lot. Can't wait to unpack it more. Let's look at the how. How do you make today a masterpiece? Well, I think there are two steps. One, you map it out. Two, you do it. Not complicated. In fact, I could just end right there. Map it out. Do it. We'll go into a little more detail though. So I've got five things that I think we want to think about on the map side and five things we want to think about on the do side. Number one, what's your one thing? When you're mapping out your ideal day, it's really helpful to know when what your number one thing is in your life. What is your purpose? What is your ultimate calling? Your one thing, what is it? What drives you? Right? We're going to use that to map out our ideal day. So here's my ideal day. My little office desk here. I'll pull it over. I didn't create this with the intention of sharing it, but this is what I look at every day. So I look at it and I say, look, how do I make today a masterpiece? And I'm recording this a little after 6am I got up this morning at 3:20. I love to get up early. Went to bed last night, 7:15. I love to go to bed early so I can get up early. So I have a few hours of work time before the family gets up. We might hear Emerson say daddy when he gets up. When he gets up, that's when I know it's family time. I take a little break, go on an adventure with him. But I'm getting ahead of myself. So I've structured my day based around my one thing. My one thing is really, really simple. I'm committed to. This is a symbol that I use for philosopher, the phi. I am committed to studying, embodying and teaching the fundamentals of optimal living. While I help you optimize your life, I want to integrate ancient wisdom, modern science, common sense, virtue, mastery and fun and Help you optimize your life and actualize your potential. That's my one thing. Now, I've also turned pro on that. I used to kind of be an amateur about it. Steven Pressfield talks about this and turning pro in the war of art. You need to move from being an amateur, which comes from the Latin word, to love. But Pressfield tells us, look, if you really loved something, you wouldn't be an amateur, you wouldn't be a hobbyist. You. You turn pro. So when you figure out your one thing that you're most passionate about and you choose to turn pro on it, your life changes and it actually gets really, really easy to create your ideal day. So here's what mine looks like. I have What I call am one. Am one. I wake up early, I meditate for 20 minutes. I do yoga for five minutes. Super simple. And then I create a philosopher's note. It's just what I do every morning, Monday through Friday. Here's a note I created this morning. Improv wisdom, unbelievably good book. Here's a little look at the other notes that I've created. I've created 25 notes in the last, I don't know, 30 plus days. Just on fire. I'm focused. This is my one thing. I've turned pro. And the only way I can do that is if I strive to make today a masterpiece. So that's my AM one, right? I do that. Then I have my time for my family. And this is again my ideal day. I'm a little intense, and I've been working on this for 15 years, but this is what it looks like. AM2. So I hang out with the family, I eat a little breakfast, and I come back and I hit it from 9 to noon. I call that AM2 now. Then I record MP3s, I do PNTV videos, I do some biz stuff, whatever. And I take a little nap, eat a little lunch, and then I get back at it. Pm. What do I do in pm Well, I read. I turn the computer off, and I read, read, read, read, and read some more. It's the only way I'm going to be able to have books that I've got ready to create notes on. And then I end my day at 5. Computer's off. I spend time with the family again. We have our awesome routines. Dinner, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I have a digital sunset. I'll do videos on that. I turn off all the electronics. We're dorks. We wear funny lights to make our melatonin come to life so we can get good nights of sleep. That's my ideal day. I've been working on this for 15 years and I'm excited to see if I can create a perfect day. That's a perfect practice for me. That's how I make today a masterpiece. Now, do I do that perfectly? Of course I don't do it perfectly, but I strive to get better and better every day. Now, what you'll notice here is that I've got stuff that I don't do. The only way to achieve what I want to achieve is to have a stop doing list. Don't do list. Now, for me, that's stuff like no email. I literally do not check email these days. I have one person with whom I trade emails, basically, who helps run all the ops, and my ninja, amazing guy shout out to Evan. He's a stud. And I put nothing in my calendar. Literally, I've had nothing in my calendar other than a couple of interviews I'd committed to before I turn on my phone. Literally, I turn it on for the first time in 10 days. Yesterday, I've had it on twice in the last two weeks. It's not important. If I want to create my ideal day and really, really get back into the start of the year, I made those big shifts. Now, I'm obviously a little out there, but what's on your stop list? What do you need to do? What do you need to reduce? That's just not helping you execute your professionalism. That's supporting you in your one thing that helps you make today a masterpiece. Identify your don't do list and then don't do it. It's hard, but don't do it. I don't think you can create an ideal day without fundamentals. The fundies, whatever you want to call them, I think there are top three that everyone needs to have. Exercise, rest and nutrition. We'll talk about those again and again and again and again and again. But again, leading psychotherapists, neuroscientists tell us you want to dial everything in. You got to start here. Exercise, rest, nutrition. Right. So how are you going to attend to that? How you going to bake that into your ideal day? I should say that I. In my afternoon, that's when I train or hike or do whatever I'm going to do that day. Then, of course, you got meditation, you got gratitude, you got other stuff, fundies. So we've figured out our one thing. We've identified it, clarified it, or we're working to clarify it. We're Turning pro. We've got a stop list, a don't do list. We've got fundies, right? Our basic disciplines and fundamentals. And then bookend your day. So this is from the Compound Effect. I've been doing it, but the Compound Effect, he articulated it really, really well. We've got a video on that. But he basically says, look, you have more control over your AM and your PM than the middle of your day. A lot of stuff can come into the middle of the day, but you have control over your AM and your pm. How do you bookend your days for awesomeness? Am, pm. What do you do when you're on. Make that habitual. That's a quick look at how to map out your ideal day. And again, I've been working on this for long, long time. Wherever you are in the process, start thinking about what would your masterpiece look like. Map it out. Part one, part two. Then you need to do it. Not complicated. You've got your map, right? Now go execute it. One way to help you do that is to track your time. Track it. Keep track of where you spend your time. I've got this little David Allen credit card thingy and I've got, you know, what I've done so far. So I've got 3.22am I got up, I went to bed last night at 7:10. Yes. Wow. Feels great. 4:03am I started work on that note I showed you. It was done by 5:54. That was exciting. Wow. I'll take it. Smiley face. 6:02. Started working on this video. I tracked my time. When you track your time, I promise you the quality of your days will go up dramatically. You won't want to put things on your list and that aren't your highest self that are your amateur hour self. Oh, yeah. I went to ESPN for the seventh time today. That was one of my. Stop doing lists. I don't need to watch other people going after their goals. I'm going to focus on mine. Turn off the news. I don't want to log that. But track it. Be ruthless about it. Put what you do on a list somewhere that'll help you make today a masterpiece. Then be willing to suck. You got to be willing to make mistakes, you got to be willing to fail. You got to be willing to stretch and you got to be willing to fall down. That's the only way we can do anything in life. You got to be willing to suck. Then you got to practice and you got to polish. You got to practice and you got to polish. Optimize whatever the word is you want to use. Get a little bit better. Day in and day out, John Wooden back to our man up here. He says, look, if you just try to get a little bit better every day, just a tiny little bit better every day. You practice and you polish. You practice and you polish. You get your map a little bit clearer. You get your one thing a little clearer. You get a little more deeply committed to turning pro. Get more clarity on the stop list, and you build your habits. Use your willpower wisely to build habits that really work for you. And you do that forever. And guess what? In days and weeks and months and decades, you become significantly better. A little better. Every day compounded over time equals a lot better. So there you go. Quick look. How to make today a masterpiece. I think I'll unpack this in a full 60, 75 minute class in my little philosopher's notes. Optimal living program, dealio, etc. But I hope you enjoyed. Remember this guy? Did I win? The Guy's on the 18th hole, he's lined up 30 inch, 1 million dollar putt, and he doesn't even know what's at stake because he's so focused on the process. Process was primary for him. How can you make process more primary for you? Map it out. Identify your one thing. Turn pro. Stop doing certain things. Definitely build in your fundies. Bookend your days with goodness. Am pm. Just do it. Track it. Be willing to suck. Practice, polish, practice, polish forever. Good things will happen. Diligently, patiently, persistently, playfully. Let's do this. Hope you enjoyed. Let me know if you have any videos you'd like me to cover. I've got a ton queued up. Cannot wait to share more. Appreciate you and all your support. Have an awesome day. Let's make it a masterpiece. See ya.