Our World Needs More Hērōs (+ Optimizing in the Face of Uncommon Challenges)

Hey, guys, what's up? This is Bry. In the midst of everything else going on in the world, we are packing up our house. We're moving. Longer conversation. The painters just arrived. Obviously, that pales in comparison to everything else going on, but I wanted to create a quick video, just walk you through how I'm thinking about things and remind us all that this is what we train for, right? So we talk a lot about Epictetus, right? And he says that, hey, the challenges that you've been given, it's almost as if God has given you a great training partner, a sparring partner, so you can see what you're made of, right? So we got to remember. And he says, too, you know, the boxer that goes into the ring, gets hit in the face and walks out of the ring. He's like, they would never. This is what they train for. They know they're going to get knocked around. So as we face extraordinary challenges, it's time for us to step up and be the best version of ourselves. Emerson and I are actually going to get a tour of the SEAL facility next week. We're unbelievably excited and honored about that Longer conversation. But Mark Devine, in his recent book Staring down the Wolf, he says that the frogmen, as they're known, the SEALs, have this thing like a frogman behind glass, kind of like a fire alarm, right? And around it, it says, in case of war, break glass. Get access to the Navy seals because they're going to go to battle for us, to protect us as heroes. So if we talk about being the best version of ourselves, optimize equals optimist equals best equals eudaimon equals heroes. We need to know that in case of emergency, break glass, we're here to protect, to serve, to have the strength for two, for our families, for our communities, for the world. Moving from theory to practice to mastery. This is what we train for. That optimist, best version of you is sitting behind that glass that your family needs to break. And we need to show up with the grounded, calm confidence, obviously responding appropriately to life's challenges. Lot going on, not pretending that's not the case. We embrace reality. We grip it, as the Stoics would say, fiercely, and then we love it. We do what we need to do to become anti fragile, moving from fragility beyond resilience to getting stronger as a result of these challenges. I've been playing around with this, what I call the virtue compass, right? Destination Yu Daimon. The best version of you. Well, guess what? In a world as disoriented as our world is today, we need to orient around these virtues, remembering the fact that as the Stoics and all great teachers say, we need to step in between stimulus and response. Right here in that gap is our freedom. We want emotional stamina. What do we need to do? We need to work our protocols with more vigilance than ever before. The virtues are a great compass for us. This is what I reflect on every morning these days. We've got our cardinal points. The four cardinal virtues. Wisdom. We know the game we're playing and how to play it well. Self. Mastery. We actually play the game when it matters most. We show up with the most discipline and self mastery. Courage. We do what needs to get done whether we feel like it or not. Love. We realize this is what it's all about. Having the strength for two. Showing up powerfully in service to the world. Then what's interesting is those are the four cardinal points. Positive psychologists tell us there are five virtues that are most highly correlated to our eudaimonic flourishing. Again, these are most important to operationalize right now. Hope. Gratitude. Curiosity. Zest. And then love. What's interesting is you can see these sub points as almost the perfect blend of these two cardinal virtues. Courage plus wisdom is hope. We see a better future. We know the future is going to be better. We can hold that vision in our minds in the midst of challenges. We have the sense of agency. Right? We've got the three elements. A better future. Agency and pathways. Obstacles. Make me stronger. That's the essence of hope. Gratitude. I write every morning. Thank you, God, for blessing me with the gift of my life. Let's not take it for granted when you practice and rehearse death. We're not quite so shocked when it may come sooner than we had hoped. Again, that's a hardcore stoic ideal, but memento mori. Let's be grateful for the life that we have. Let's be grateful for the moment we have right now and every other blessing we have. We need that as fuel to face the challenges we're experiencing right now. Gratitude is more important today, right now, than ever before. Start your day with a list of things you're grateful for, with hope for where you're headed and how you're going to get through this even stronger than you are right now. Again, engage in love with your family more than ever before. Get curious. Get curious about what's working in your life. Get curious about what you need to do to stay plugged in, to have the emotional stamina, to be the light in the midst of all of this darkness. What are you going to do? How can you get a little bit better? Make your prior best your current baseline. Use this challenge as an opportunity to be more vigilant in all the things you know are important. And then zest. Our energy is unbelievably important. Eating, moving, sleeping, breathing, focusing our mind, meditating, etc. We need to be more attuned to this than ever before. So wisdom, self mastery, courage, love, hope, gratitude, curiosity, zest. Let's operationalize virtue. Let's remember this is what we train for. Become the best version of ourselves in the context of this challenge, such that others can break the glass and release our optimist best version of ourselves. Love you all. Sending tons of love to you and your family. Let's get stronger.