Micro Class: The 5% Solution

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 is on the 5% solution. It's inspired by Crazy Good by Steve Chandler. In that book, Steve talks about his work with Nathaniel Brandon, author of the Six Pillars of Self Esteem, which we also profile. And he came up with this great concept called sentence stem completion. Sentence stem completion, which helps us realize and tap into the wisdom we already have within ourselves and also helps us make incremental improvements so we get in trouble when we try to go from totally not together to. To, oh, I'm perfect, right? I'm just going to make that big leap, done, never going to think about it again. That's just not how it works. We can improve 5%, though. We can overwhelm ourselves by thinking we need to be perfect right now and make a huge leap or we can get 5% better and then 5% more better and then 5% better from there. And 5%, 5%, 5%, 5%, 5 percent, 5%. Pretty soon you've covered that distance of where you were and where you wanted to be over the long run in a much more mature and wise way. So sentence stem completion works like this. We ask ourselves, if I brought. If I brought 5% more awareness to whatever's happening in my life, so think of a challenge that you have right now. What's stressing you out? And then think, If I brought 5% more awareness to this challenge, then what would you do? Finish that sentence. If I brought 5% more awareness to this challenge, then I would do this. And I would do this. Just stream of consciousness, no pressure. You don't need to get it perfect. And I do this too. Oh, and I do that. Oh, and I do that. And what you'd find is you're going to come up with tiny little solutions. 5%. Anybody can do 5%. But if you think you need to have 1,005%, you need to go from the one place of not quite having it figured out to having it totally figured out. You're going to overwhelm yourself and crack open another beer or turn on the TV or Internet or whatever you do to numb yourself, make it easy. If you brought 5% more awareness to the challenge you're facing right now, stream of consciousness, then what? Six things. Sentence stem completion. 5% solutions. Take some time. Do this not only now, but anytime you feel stressed out. If you brought 5% more awareness, what would you do? It's a big idea. I hope you enjoyed and I look forward to sharing more soon. 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. 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 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.