17 Dec 2025 · 0 min
Brian Johnson shares how his kids turned Fitbits into a competition, using the story to argue that reframing chores as games makes healthy habits stick. He cites Seneca and Michelle Seger on why this matters for your future self.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic plus one. Grandma and Grandpa got the kids Fitbits for Christmas and after Mommy's first attempt to get them synced up to her phone didn't work. They wound up finding a home in our kitchen drawer and we didn't get them working until well into the new year. Then I busted them out and got the app working on my bat phone and the next day Emerson sprang out of bed to check on his sleep. He got 9 hours and 40 minutes of sleep and started tracking his steps. Wow, I'm already at 27 steps, he said by the time he had gone to the bathroom and headed into my office. I laughed as I typed that, and I laughed when he said that. That's amazing, buddy. Nice work. Emerson replies, I bet you I'm gonna get more steps than you today. To which I replied, I bet you that would be awesome. Then his sister rolled into my office and checked in on her sleep. She got 10 hours and already had her steps rocking. Then the fun began. The two of them started racing back and forth in the hallway. Then they headed outside and hit our trail and came back in nearly 30 minutes later all sweaty. Emerson, we just did four loops. We already have 7,000 steps. How many do you have? Me? Wow, that's impressive. I only have 1,487 steps so far. Now this is quite remarkable because although Emerson loves running around and playing games, he just isn't that big of a fan of getting out and exercising unless there's a really good reason to do it. His sister Eleanor naturally enjoys movement more, but it's never really been her thing Here his thing until it became a game. Which is the point of today's Plus One. One of the consistent themes in our Mastery Programs 101 coaching sessions with me at 1:01pm Central Time every day Join us. Is the fact that hitting our heroic targets can often feel like a chore. Things we insert whiny voice have to do now as per our notes on Michelle Seger's great book on the science of getting yourself to engage in healthy behaviors, I've been stressing the importance of turning those chores into gifts we give to our future selves. I've been encouraging our heroic masters to remember the fact that by eating well and moving our bodies and making sure we get great sleep, we are giving our future selves a much better shot at activating their soul force to show up heroically energized, productive and connected. Ideally, we want to arrive at a place where we experience hedonic eudaimonia and know the truth of Seneca's statement that how much better to pursue a straight course and eventually reach that destination where the things that are pleasant and the things that are honorable finally become for you the same. And one of the best ways to do that? Channel your inner enthusiastic kid and make it a game. Remember, although even the most flourishing lives have moments of drudgery to them, of course, this is supposed to be fun. Day one all in. Let's go hero.
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