Brian Johnson explores David Brooks' idea of résumé virtues, the skills and achievements you list on a job application, versus eulogy virtues, the character traits people mention at your funeral. The class pushes you to identify which virtues matter most and build your life around them instead of chasing secondary success.
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 Resume Virtues. It's inspired by the Road to Character by David Brooks. Phenomenal book resume virtues versus eulogy virtues. There's a big difference between these two. David's point throughout the book is that our culture is almost exclusively focused on resume virtues. What can we do to achieve? Now, of course, it's important that we have strong skills and abilities to create powerful things in our lives, right? But that needs to be counterbalanced with the eulogy virtues. And the reality is that everyone, if you asked, hey, what's more important? Ultimately, what's more important? Resume virtues, how well you can do things, or eulogy virtues, who you are in your deepest essence, the stuff that people are gonna talk about at your funeral, which is more important? Everyone's gonna say, well, yeah, the eulogy virtues are more important. But we spend almost all of our time cultivating the. The resume virtues. We need to spend more time focused on the eulogy virtues. Let's do that right now. When you fast forward to the end of your life, which, by the way, is going to happen. We don't want to deny that fact. And you're gone and people come up and they have things to say about you. What do they say? What are the qualities that you hope they have to speak about in reference to you and your life and how you impacted them? Identify those eulogy virtues, begin with the end in mind, as Stephen Covey would say, and then live your life in integrity with those virtues. Now, moment to moment to moment, we have an opportunity to cultivate these eulogy virtues. That's the essence of character. Let's focus on it and realize as well as Stephen Covey says, he calls this primary greatness, primary greatness versus secondary greatness. And the reality is these virtues actually drive ultimate success and they bring more meaning and joy to our lives, right? But the success becomes a byproduct of our essence. And these eulogy virtues are a great way to get more clarity on how to cultivate character. Here's to your eulogy virtues, embodying them more and more day in and day out. 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. Three 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.
