Brian Johnson delivers a short, personal podcast reflection about love and family. He describes his long-running weekly coaching sessions with Phil Stotts, recounts the birth and intimate bonding moment with his son Emerson (including the newborn wrapping his tiny hand around Brian's pinky), mentions their 'squeezies' game referenced in chapter 1 of Arete, and invites listeners to recall and celebrate a special love moment in their own lives.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic one. There's one thing I've had in my calendar every week for the last seven and a half years. My one on one coaching session with my Yoda Phil Stotts. These days, with the rare exceptions for the weeks when I happen to be traveling, we connected 1:40pm Central Time on Tuesdays. It remains amazing to me how densely packed with practical wisdom every one of our sessions continues to be. Now, today I want to chat about one of the things we talked about a few sessions ago. Let's get to work. So after Phil and I chatted about some heroic goodness, he asked me how the family was doing. I let him know that Alexandra and the kids were great. Then we talked about the fact that Emerson and I had just gotten back from one of our weekend trips, which, as you know, if you've been following along, I absolutely cherish a few things. Tie for first. But nothing beats Boys Only Adventures featuring us dominating our chest protocols, highlighted by falling asleep holding hands. By the way, you want to know one of the reasons why I absolutely love falling asleep holding hands with my big guy? It's because it reminds me of the day he was born. More precisely, it reminds me of the moment he was born. Quick context. Alexandra is considerably more heroic than I am. A couple of the infinite number of things she has done to establish that fact is having home births with both Emerson and Eleanor. With Emerson, she had a long labor, something like 19 hours. I remember taking a shower together after being something like 12 hours into her labor. And we joked that we needed a vacation. Little did we know how much our lives were about to change. In a few more hours, insert the exploding head emoji. Parents. You know what I'm talking about. Not parents. Well, there's life before kids and life after kids, and they're very different. Insert another head exploding emoji. So although it was almost 12 years ago, time flies. I can remember the day Emerson was born like it was yesterday. Now, I was blessed to be the very first person to hold Emerson. I literally caught him on his way out. And you know what happened? The moment he was officially in my arms, he looked right at me. Then he wrapped his tiny little hand around my pinky finger. And technically, his hands were so small that he couldn't even wrap that tiny little hand all the way around my pinky finger. I got tears in my eyes typing that and saying that he and I have replayed that moment together countless times. Only now his big hand can wrap up my pinky finger. Can't believe it now. I always tell him that right when we locked eyes right after he was born, we said I love you to each other. Which is why we also love to play this squeezies game we talk about in the first chapter of Arete. We've got that linked. It's a plus one as well. And that's what I'm thinking about when we fall asleep together in a hotel bed holding hands. And that's today's plus one. We'll chat about the wisdom I got from my Yoda in our next plus one for today. If you feel so inspired, think about one of the most special love moments of your life. We talk a lot about the work hero bars. We want to make sure we remember to celebrate the highlight reel love moments as well. So what's one for you? Bring it to mind. Soak your consciousness in that goodness and if you feel so inspired, go celebrate it with your loved one Today.
