Micro Class: Veritas

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 Veritas. It's inspired by the Power of Ideals by William Damon and Anne Colby. Veritas is a Latin word for. For truth. In ancient Rome, they said that the goddess of truth, Veritas, was the mother of all virtue, truth. If you weren't willing to shine the light of truth, to shine the light of Veritas on yourself and on your life, there is no possible way you can live with ultimate virtue in this context. In the Power of Ideals, we're talking about moral exemplars and how we can live with a higher level of character and, and exemplary morality. Right. And to do the right thing when it matters most. Well, truth is the number one virtue that we need to embody. And they use a phrase called inner truthfulness. They have six different aspects, qualities of truth that they talk about and we talk about in the note. The most important, the number one, is inner truthfulness. There's no possible way you're going to become that what you're destined to be. This is your highest potential, right? And this is what you're capable of in this moment. They call them micro occasions, right? If in this micro occasion today you were capable of this and you did this and there's a gap and you fail to look at that gap and you rationalize it and you say, oh, whatever, you know these standards, I mean, everybody does this. Why do I need to do that? You're rationalizing. You're not having a high level of inner truthfulness. If you don't have the willingness to say, you know what, I'm capable of this and I need to work on it, I'm going to be honest with myself, I'm going to have inner truthfulness. If you don't do that, you can never actually take the steps to become this. Our moral exemplars did that. They have a deep level of inner truthfulness. Other aspects of truthfulness include discernment. That's an aspect of being truthful. You need to actually be discerning. You need to slow down and look at your life and not only see what's working in your life, but what's working in culture, and say, well, what am I gonna do? And then this was the second one, this is the first quality. And then you resolve to live in integrity with that truth. It's a really powerful equation. Inner truthfulness, what's working, what's not discern unplug from the Internet, plug into the Internet, and then resolve to live with more integrity. Veritas. Let's make it one of our most cherished values and virtues. And very practically, what's one thing you can shine some light of truth on? And then, what's one thing you can do to influence this? Always move from theory to practice. 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.