Brian Johnson traces "hero" back to its ancient Greek root meaning "protector" and argues true heroism comes from love, compassion, and committed service. He cites Christopher McDougall and James Stockdale, and pushes the practical idea of being your brother's keeper through small daily improvements.
Chapters
Foreign. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another micro class. This one's on hero equals protector. It's inspired by two books. Natural Born Heroes by Christopher McDougall. Awesome book. And Thoughts of a Philosophical fighter Pilot, James Stockdale, Equally great book. Talking about heroes, I want to emphasize a couple of points here. First, did you know that the ancient Greeks, when they were coming up with the ideal of what a hero is, the heroic ideal, they decided that the word would mean protector. A hero literally in ancient Greek, means protector. They didn't say one who kills bad guys or one who does unbelievably awesome things. That's a hero. It was a Protector. And Christopher McDougall tells us we need to keep that in mind, because the key asset, the key attribute of a hero in ancient times and modern times is love and compassion. That's the source of strength, endurance of the soul, which is what Socrates described courage as. Endurance of the soul. Well, how do you get endurance of the soul? By being committed to something bigger than yourself. You want strength for more than just you. You want to be a protector, to have the. The love and compassion to give yourself most fully to the world. James Stockdale echoes this wisdom. He says that the standard we should aspire to is a very simple old one, old school one. We want to be our brother's keeper. That is the virtue we want to aspire to. To be noble, to be good, to be our brother's keeper. He says, unfortunately, too often we're asking ourselves the wrong question. Instead of, how can I serve? How can I be my brother's keeper? How can I help? We say, what's in it for me? As the dominant question. Well, that's going to get you to a very different spot than how can I help? How can I serve? Hero equals protector. The greatest strength of a hero is our love and our compassion. As Christopher McDougall says, all of us, all of us individuals, the ordinary, have the opportunity to be extraordinary and cultivating this love, this compassion, moving from what's in it for me to going beyond the call of duty. James Stockdale earned the highest honor that one can receive in America called the Congressional Medal of Honor. And the way you get that is you go beyond a reasonable call of duty. Go beyond the call of duty, you do more than what could be reasonably asked of you. That's a great standard. How do we go beyond the call of duty to live with even more love, more compassion, give ourselves mute this voice a little or a lot more? Again, we live in the kind of selfie age where it's all about designing the perfect lifestyle and showing that lifestyle up. We do well to orient more and more to this virtue. Being our brother's keeper. How can you do that? 1% more today aggregate compound over time become the hero that you are capable of and destined to be.
Isn't it a bit odd that we went from math to science to history but somehow missed the class on how to live? For some wacky reason, optimal living 101 never made the schedule. Of course, it's too late to go back and change that and you're too busy to read full time to catch up yet. If you're like us, you're all about optimizing your life and actualizing your potential. So imagine this. Imagine having someone read the best books on optimal living and pulling out the big ideas that can truly change your life. You know those sections you asterisk and underline and mark all up? Then imagine that guy me connecting those.
Ideas to other great books and helping.
You apply them to your life today. Well, that's what I do is something we call Philosopher's Notes where I break down each great book into a simple 6 page PDF, a 20 minute MP3 and 10 minute Philosopher's Notes TV episode. Then imagine me taking the absolute best.
Big ideas from those great books and.
Sharing them with you in fun, inspiring, super practical optimal living 101 classes on stuff like purpose 101 confidence 101 business 101 meditation 101, that sort of thing.
You've got a personal trainer?
I'm kind of like your personal philosopher. Ancient Wisdom plus Modern Science plus Common Sense plus Virtue plus Mastery plus fun. That's what our Optimized membership program is all about. We'd love to have you join us.
