Micro Class - Peaks + Valleys

You're listening to Optimize with Brian Johnson. More wisdom in less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another micro class. This one's on Peaks and Valleys. It's inspired by Be quick but don't hurry. Andy Hill, John Wooden. Peaks and Valleys. Peaks and Valleys. Peaks and Valleys. Peaks and valleys. A lot of us live in peaks and then valleys. I know I certainly used to. I used to be really up and on fire and then really down and bummed John Wooden. Not the way he rolled. He didn't engage in emotional ups and downs. He was very, very, very even keeled. He built up consistently at as a master does. So we want to do the same. We want to master our peaks and valleys. Now, when I read this idea made me think of two things. First of all, the number one thing that we can do to master these peaks and valleys that I've done and that has enabled me to no longer experience this period is my commitment to my number one non negotiable. Number one non negotiable. This is the most important idea I'm ever going to share and I'm going to continue sharing it again and again and again. As we talked about in no Sweat with Michelle Seeger, all of us have a habit that we do that provides a foundation that helps us have a great day. And if we don't do that number one most important thing, we're not going to have an awesome day. It's just how it works. We need to identify what that non negotiable is and then do it. For me, it's sleep. If I don't get a good night of sleep, I don't have as great of a day as if I do. So I prioritize that it's a number one non negotiable. Am I perfect? Of course not. But when I'm off, I know that. Wow, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night and I feel it. No big deal. I'm an experimenter. Let me go back to the lab and work on that. What's your number one non negotiable? Might be sleep, might be exercise, might be nutrition, might be meditation, might be yoga. What is it? Figure it out and integrate it into your life. That's a huge way to deal with peaks and valleys. I like to jokingly say that it's really hard to have a bad day when you get a good night of sleep. You meditate, you exercise, you do your creative work, you spend time with your family, you do your fundamentals. This is what I'M committed to doing every day. It's hard to have peaks and valleys in that model. There's mastery in that. So think about that in your life. That's peaks and valleys. That's part one, part two. When I read this reminds me of me back in the day when I did have peaks and valleys. Fifteen years ago, I was running my first business called E teams sports technology. 3 million teams around the world use it now, little league baseball, etc. I was 25 years old, very young. We raised $5 million, went from two employees to 45 in about nine months. And one of the guys we hired was a guy named Kelly Perdue out of ucla. We had won their business plan competition and he had a JD and an mba and he was a West Point grad, Army Ranger, military intelligence office. Amazing human who became my right hand guy and our head of business development. That's a long contextual prelude to what we would do together. So Kelly and I were in our office that we shared together and of course we had a ping pong table. Yeah, we had a little dartboard. Pretty sweet. This is the late 90s.com boom number one. And with any startup, some days were better than others, right? And so we got to this point where there's just peaks and valleys, ups and downs, where we go up to our whiteboard and we'd draw a happy face if something went well in a phone call or if it didn't, we draw a sad face. And then it got to a point where on that whiteboard we just draw an up arrow or a down arrow. It just became a joke for us that any given day or any given hour could have these peaks and valleys. And Kelly shared this wisdom, which is fantastic. He said nothing is ever as good as it seems or as bad as it seems. Nothing is ever as good as it seems or as bad as it seems. That's a great piece of wisdom to maintain our equanimity and and balance rather than getting thrown up and down. Fun thing with Kelly is he went on to win the Apprentice. That was a reference for him in his application. He won season two. Check him out. Cool guy. So thanks for your support, Kelly. And there you go. Peaks and valleys. Manage the process of managing your peaks and valleys by honoring your number one, non negotiable. Seriously, I'm going to keep on coming back to this and notice that as your little experimenter in your lab coat with your clipboard and your pen, notice with data if you have better days when you do this and worse days. When you don't. It's a huge, huge, huge idea that I'm excited to continue to encourage you to implement and I look forward to sharing more soon. Here you go. Enjoy the process. Have another awesome day. See ya. 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 2 our optimal living Membership program. This is where I put all my best stuff. 10 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. 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