Brian Johnson separates naive passion, which fades when things get hard, from informed passion, which expects obstacles and pushes through them. He draws on Eknath Easwaran and Sanskrit to show how early-stage quitters differ from those who stick around, then argues you need the courage to turn one into the other.
Chapters
You're listening to Optimize with Bryan Johnson. More wisdom in less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another micro class. This one's on passion. Naive versus informed. It's inspired by art and fear. Two different types of passion. Naive passion and informed passion. Most important thing to think about as we think about this is our relationship to obstacles. When something gets in our way, here's the big shiny goal that we want to achieve, right? And we start with naive passion. And we hit an obstacle. Oh, man, that's tough to get over. I don't know how I'm going to do it. I give up because I have naive passion. As I mature and I realize every single goal that's worth attaining has at least one or two or three or 100 obstacles between me and its attainment, then I have informed passion. And when I hit that first obstacle, I quit giving up. I quit being what Eknath Eswaran calls a hero. In the beginning, Arumbashura. They have a word for it in Sanskrit. It's so common. You start something, you're super fired up. I'm going to go achieve this. Meditation practice, business venture, relationship, whatever. And then the moment you hit an obstacle, he says, you tiptoe out the back door. Oh, wait, I'm gonna go sneak out this door. Did I say I was excited about that? Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, you know, tiptoe out the back door. Trumpets of fanfare. In the beginning, you're a hero. In the beginning, naively passionate. And then you bail the moment it becomes challenging. It takes courage to transfer. Translate our naive passion into informed passion. We want to cultivate that courage and that maturity. And when we hit obstacles, lean into them. We want to stop stopping and certainly stop quitting. As we talked about in an earlier big idea in this series. There you go. Passion. Naive versus informed. How are you showing up? How can you optimize that just a little bit more today? Hi, this is Brian. I hope you enjoyed that micro class. If so, I think you'll enjoy everything else we offer at BrianJohnson. Me. Two basic things. One, our free newsletter. It's called the Optimizer. Over 50,000 people start their day with it and they tell us it's pretty awesome. And two, our Optimal living membership program. This is where I put all my best stuff. Ten bucks a month for a ton of wisdom. Two primary things in there, philosopher's notes plus optimal living 101 classes. When you sign up, you'll get instant access to 250 philosopher's notes, which are basically six page PDFs and 20 minute MP3s where I capture my favorite big ideas from great books. The PNTV episodes are kind of a mini version of all that goodness. You'll also get instant access to all my optimal living classes. This is where I take all the ideas we cover in the Philosopher's Notes and boil it down to the most practical stuff you can apply today. Classes include Confidence 101, Getting Stuff Done 101, Relationships 101, Habits 101, etc. You'll also get access to what we call micro classes that I think you'll love. We aim to astonish, and we're blessed to have thousands of members telling us we're helping them change their lives and and that this is the best 10 bucks they invest in themselves every month. Go to BrianJohnson Me Membership to learn more. Thanks for your support and have an awesome day.
