Brian Johnson explains how pressure drives personal growth and flow, drawing on insights from Steven Kotler. He argues that without challenge and stress, you don't develop the resilience and skills that matter.
Hi, this is Brian.
Welcome back to another micro class.
This one's inspired by a chat I had yesterday with Steven Kotler, who wrote the great book the Rise of Superman. That's you with your cape on, flying away. The Rise of Superman, which is all about getting into the flow state my interview, I asked Stephen, who's one of the world's leading experts on the science of flow, he created something called the Flow Genome Project. Check that out. I said, what's one of the best ways to get into flow? And he said, risk. You need to be willing to stretch yourself. We've talked about this a lot. Stretch, but don't snap. 4% is the place to go, right? Just outside of your current level of skill. Challenge to skill ratio is one of the hallmarks of flow, which we talk.
About all the time. That's flow.
Here is your challenge. Here is your skill. If your challenge is too high relative to your skill, you're going to be anxious. The challenge is too low relative to your skill, you're going to be bored.
Right.
Challenge, skill, etc. So risking yourself by pushing yourself a little bit past your comfort zone is a great way to rise. At the end of our interview, I asked Stephen, as I ask all of my guests, what's one piece of wisdom that you would give someone who's committed.
To optimizing their lives and actualizing their potential?
And he said this. No pressure, no diamonds. Quoting someone from a few hundred years.
Ago, I don't recall who it was, but I love the idea.
No pressure. Here's a lump of coal.
Isn't that pretty?
It's just a lump of coal. Then what happens? Then it goes under unbelievable pressure for an unbelievable extended period of time. And what do you get out of it?
Isn't that a gorgeous diamond?
You get an amazing bling, bling, bling, bling diamond, but you only got it because of the pressure that it was under a significant amount of pressure under a significant amount of time or over an extended period of time, right? And here we are again. Here's the little version of us, right? We push ourselves pressure, but boom. Got a little bit bigger pressure. Boom, boom. Put that out all the way over weeks and months and years and decades. And what do you have? You have a glittering, beautiful diamond of a life. But if you're never willing to put pressure on yourself, you're never going to get there. So what can you do to stretch a little bit more? Again, don't snap.
Ouch.
Stretch. What's one thing you could do today?
Number one, Thing.
This is the most important part of all these classes. Theory to practice. What can you do to stretch a.
Little bit more today?
No pressure, no diamonds. Let's exert a healthy amount of pressure, consistently let the compound effect go to work and watch our lives glitter shine.
Let's do this. Hope you enjoyed. Look forward to sharing more. No pressure, no diamonds. Hey guys, this is Brian. A lot of people don't know what I do beyond these YouTube videos I put up. So I thought I'd give you a quick tour of our membership platform. Thousands of people have joined us already. 10 bucks a month get access to a ton of stuff that's in addition to what I put up on YouTube for free. So the basic idea is you just watched a micro class. Hope you enjoyed that. I share. I just started doing these micro classes, but I Now share over 50 of these per month. We've shared dozens so far and it's basically a quick class on my absolute favorite stuff across the different domains of optimal living. Two to three maybe five minute little micro classes on how to optimize your life. In addition to that you get access to every single one of our Philosopher's notes. We now have over 250 philosophers notes on some really, really good books. A lot of them in each one of them. Familiar with the PNTV videos if you've watched many of those. But we also have PDFs and MP3s of our Philosopher's notes. So here's. Let's take a look at what a PDF looks like. This is an example of a Philosopher's note. It's a six page PDF where I basically share some of my favorite thoughts, riff on it, talk about how other teachers say the same things, and give you a nice playful kick in the butt to go out and apply the wisdom that is a philosopher's note. I record that as an MP3 that you can download as well. And 250 of those, I produce 10 of those at least per month that I share with you in addition to the micro classes. And then you also get access to all of our old classes. We have the five day immersion reboot habits 101, confidence 101, getting stuff done 101, meditation 101, then future classes including relationships 101, energy 101, purpose 101, biz 101 goals 101, etc. So there you go. Really blessed to have some extraordinary support and I will share with you where you go to sign up. I'll put a link to this but basically, cruise on over here, you can sign up. And this is the kind of response we've gotten so far from our members.
It's pretty neat.
I've made more positive changes in my life, my brief membership, only three months so far, than I did through years of counseling. Yes. Brian Johnson, you are a rock star. Thank you very much. That's very kind of you. And I'm making huge strides in optimizing my life. As a result of your philosopher's notes and optimal living classes. I spend $19 a month on my gym membership to take care of my body. A mere $10 a month on an optimal living membership is the biggest value invest investment I've ever made in my emotional, mental, and spiritual health. Thank you for the incredible work you're doing to inspire us to be rock stars in our own lives. Unbelievably inspiring and humbling. In 24 hours, we received hundreds of extraordinary notes from members around the world. So there you go. That's a quick look at what we're up to. 10 bucks a month. Hope to astonish you. There you go.
