Micro Class - Your Mind as a Video Game

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 youn Mind as a Video Game. It's inspired by Waking up by Sam Harris rational approach to spirituality. Sam Harris is awesome and humble in his description of his own challenges and his contemplative path. And he says he finds it funny at this stage how quickly his mind can flip from being awesome and happy to being not so much back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And he realized, you know what, I can kind of approach my mind as a video game. And there's two paths I can take. I can be smart about it or I can be not so smart about it. And they're very, very different. But imagine if you were playing a video game and you faced a monster with really long legs. Let's say this monster has long legs. For some reason, right now you're going up against this monster. If you're doing it intelligently, you get defeated a couple times, Boom. Ah, bummer. But then you realize how to go around it, right? You can go around that way, you can go around this way, you go to the next level and then of course you face new challenges, right? And you learn how to go around them. But if you're playing the video game of life unintelligently, you face this monster and he beats you every single time. You never practice different moves around him and you just get sad face defeated every single time. And you suffer a lot more than you need to suffer. So my question for you in this little micro class is what's your number one monster? Number one monster is what? What trips you up that leads to more suffering than you need to experience. And most importantly, what can you do differently? How can you maneuver around this guy and get to the next level? You might want to do some if then planning. I'm loving this a la whoop, right? If you feel tempted to respond to your monster this way, then you're gonna do this. That's how I'm gonna defeat this monster. Go test it. It might not work the first time or the fifth time or the tenth time, but go test it and tweak it and a video game and quit doing the same thing if it's not working for you. That's a quick look at your mind as a video game. I love that metaphor and I hope you enjoyed. Identify your number one monster if you're feeling it and do a little if, then implementation, intention, planning and enjoy the process alright, 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 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, et cetera. 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.