Brian Johnson argues purpose is what drives success, using Walter Mischel's marshmallow test research and Angela Duckworth's grit concept. Define a clear purpose, visualize yourself ten years ahead, and let that vision fuel your daily habits.
Hi, this is Brian.
Welcome back to another micro class.
This one's on purpose equals engine. It's inspired by the common denominator of success. In the last micro class, we talked about the definition of the common denominator of success, which is successful. People make a habit of doing the things that failures don't like to do. They're not driven by their feelings, are driven by compelling results. How do they get that fire? Via their purpose. Purpose 101. If you haven't checked out that class yet and you're not feeling totally on purpose, check it out. It's one of my favorite classes, and a lot of people have loved it. If you are really feeling like you're living on purpose, and obviously you have an engine that's allowing you to move through a lot of things that you weren't able to move through when you didn't have the same level of clarity. We need to know our strongest why and stay connected to it if we want to form the habit of doing things that we often may not like to do and no longer be driven by our feelings rather than our identity. I just recorded a class called Willpower 101, which we're gonna share soon. And imagine this is you and you're cruising into an FMRI machine, right? Fmri, which is scanning your brain. And it's just fascinating stuff. Walter Mischel shares this in the marshmallow test. And he says you can bring people in an FMRI and then ask them to think about themselves, and a certain part of their brain will light up.
When we think about ourselves.
Then he says, okay, now think about a stranger, and a different part of our brain lights up the self kind of center, and then the stranger center, right? Then he says, okay, now think about you, your future self. And this is the whole study. What he wants to see is when someone thinks about their future self, does it look more like themselves or does it look more like a stranger? And what's fascinating is they've discovered that if your future self maps over your self right now, right? And it shows up and lights up the same basic place in your brain, you have higher levels. You tend to have higher levels of willpower than people whose future self is more connected and lights up the part of their brain that's more associated with.
Their vision of a stranger.
And their willpower is lower than people who are connected to their future self. Now, that's crazy when you think about it, practically speaking, what we want to do is connect to our purpose, our reason for being alive, which is really what fires us up about what we're creating in our future, right. Is this is what I feel like I'm called to do today, tomorrow, the day after that, for the rest of my life, is how Angela Duckworth describes it. Right? If you want grit, you need to have a clear purpose. Till her last dying breath, Angela Duckworth tells us she is committing to doing scientific research that helps kids develop character. Period. End of discussion. She has a very clear sense of her future self. And I guarantee you if you put her into an fmri, you're going to see, I would be willing to bet a significant amount she's showing up like that. Her willpower is going to be stronger as a result of that and she's going to do the little things more consistently on a day in and day out basis. She's going to make a habit of doing the things that failures don't like to do. The common denominator of success. So what is your purpose? Can you state it in one or two sentences? What is it? See your future self ten years from now. Who are you? What does your life look like? And then see that the little choices you're making right now. Right. Are affecting that future self. Be driven by a purpose such that you have the habit of doing the things that you know you want to.
Do, whether you feel like it or not.
That is how our purpose serves as our engine. I hope you enjoyed and let's go.
Out and make all this happen. Have another awesome day.
See you.
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. 2 to 3 maybe 5 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 philosopher's notes on some really, really good books. A lot of them in each one of them. You're 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 and 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 3 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. 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.
