Micro Class: Warren Buffett on Goals
17 Dec 2025 · 5 min
A short podcast/micro-class by Brian Johnson that explains Warren Buffett’s goal-setting advice: list 25 possible life goals, choose the top five that most energize you, and discard the other 20 to focus your life on using your greatest gifts. The episode also promotes Brian Johnson’s Optimize membership and Philosopher’s Notes—services that summarize books and provide practical 'optimal living' courses.
Chapters
Hey, this is Brian with a quick note before we jump into today's show. If you haven't signed up for the Optymyze Premium membership yet, A, what are you waiting for? And B, you can now get the first 30 days of optimizing for free. Just cruise on over to Optimize Me and sign up. Over 10,000 people now start their days with Optymyze so they can actualize their potential, including best selling authors, leading entrepreneurs, and even NCAA championship teams. Two of them. So again, 30 days of free optimizing at Optimize Me. If you're already a member, thanks for your support. Now for the show, 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 Buffett Goals. It's inspired by Born for this by Chris Guillebeau. All about helping you find the work you were meant to do. Talked about the joy money flow concept in the last idea. Here's one way to get some more clarity. Warren Buffett apparently had a friend who once came to him and asked him for advice, right? And Buffett said he's trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. Buffett said, think about the 25 things that you could see doing over the course of your life. 25 life goals that inspire you that you'd like to do in your life. 1, 2, 25. Right? Think about all those things and then look at that list. Think hard about it and pick the five that most fire you up. That if you got to the end of your life and you achieve these five things, that'd be a win, right? So you've got 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. These five things. We're not talking about bucket list stuff as much as we are. How are you going to use your greatest gifts and greatest service to the world? Top five. And then he says throw away everything else. Throw away those other 20 goals. This is your life. Focus right here. You're not going to someday get to these after you get these done. This is your life. Be willing to commit, decide, cut off other options, throw them away and focus. Be willing to put all of your best energy into that. That's a cool way to expand and then contract. What are your top 25? And then what are the top five? Think about that. Isn't it a bit odd that we went from math to science to history, but somehow missed the class on how to live? For some wacky reason, optimal living 101 never made the schedule. Of course it's too late to go back and change that and you're too busy to read full time to catch yet. If you're like us, you're all about optimizing your life and actualizing your potential. So imagine this. Imagine having someone read the best books on optimal living and pulling out the big ideas that can truly change your life. You know those sections you asterisk and underline and mark all up? Then imagine that guy me connecting those ideas to other great books in helping you apply them to your life today. Well, that's what I do with something we call Philosopher's Notes where I break down each great book into a simple 6 page PDF, 20 minute MP3 and 10 minute Philosopher's Notes TV episode. Then imagine me taking the absolute best big ideas from those great books and sharing them with you in fun, inspiring, super practical optimal living 101 classes on stuff like purpose 101, confidence 101, business 101, meditation 101, that sort of thing. You got a personal trainer? I'm kind of like your personal philosopher. Ancient wisdom plus Modern science plus Common sense plus Virtue plus Mastery plus Fun. That's what our optimized membership program is all about. We'd love to have you join us. Check us out at BrianJohnson. Me join.










