Brian Johnson reflects on parenting lessons from Lanny Basham's Parenting Champions, using a road-trip conversation with his son Emerson about a chess tournament to explore prioritizing who kids become over what they accomplish, gratitude for supporters, and building character through competition.
Hey hero, if you're enjoying these daily plus ones, make sure you head to heroic us to check out all of the other goodness we have to help you activate your best every day. And now today's Plus One.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic Plus One. In our last couple 1s we mined some wisdom from my recent road trip with Emerson to the Texas State Chess Championships. Today I want to talk about one of the things we talked about on the long five hour drive home. But first I want to talk about one of my all time favorite authors who wrote one of the main books that is guiding how I'm striving to support Emerson in his quest for chess mastery. The book is called Parenting Champions. It's by Lanny Basham who wrote one of my all time favorite and one of the all time greatest books on peak performance and mental toughness called With Winning in Mind by the way, as it turns out, which is especially relevant as I talk about the wisdom I'm trying to impart to my son. Lanny's son Troy wrote another great book I love called Attainment. Check out those notes linked in the plus one. So in Parenting Champions, Lanny gives us some great wisdom on everything from creating an empowered self image to setting effective goals. Pro tip make sure you're focused on the process targets. But the thing that most struck me was wisdom from the first chapter of the book which is called the question Lanny asks us concerning your kids. I have just one question for you. What is more important to you? What your children accomplish or who they become? Pause for a moment and ask yourself that question. Which is more important for you? Lanny tells us that he's asked thousands of parents and they all give the same answer you did. It is of course who they become. And that is why I'm so excited for this next phase of my relationship with Emerson. We now have a wonderful context to use his current intrinsic passion for chess as the perfect context to help him win the ultimate game of life by practicing his and our philosophy. Now let's chat about that five hour drive. I asked him who we need to thank for helping him do so well in the tournament. I asked what specifically each person did. He said fun Master Mike is funny and he made chess fun. And he said his coach Nick saw his potential and helped him prepare. Mommy made him healthy foods and meditations and Daddy paid for it and drove him there and coached him on the mental toughness. Then we talked about all the people who built the roads we drove on to get there. The people who worked out and built the hotel we stayed at, and who built the car we drove and got the gas to the gas station. And I let him know we could spend our entire drive trying to thank all the people who made our weekend possible, and we'd still barely scratch the surface. And that's today's plus one. As we bring forth the best within ourselves and our kids in whatever game we're playing these days, let's remember the ultimate game and. And let's remember the people who help us accomplish our dreams and become who we're destined to be. Day one. All in. Let's go, hero.
We hope you enjoyed today's Heroic one. For more ancient wisdom, modern science, and practical tools to help you flourish in energy, work, and love, head to Heroic Us, where you can get started on your heroic journey for free.
