PNTV - Take the Stairs by Rory Vaden

You're listening to optimize with brian johnson. More wisdom in less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to Philosopher's Notes TV Today, another great book, Take the Stairs. Take the Stairs by Rory Vaden. Subtitle 7 Steps to Achieving True Success. It's a great book. Philosopher's Note, Bunch of big ideas. Let's look at five of my favorite ones now. So first big idea here is the pain paradox. The pain paradox. Basic idea here is that doing the easy things now makes it hard over the long run. And paradoxically, doing the hard things now make it easier for us over the long run. Pretty straightforward. But if you're avoiding all of the little challenges in your life and you're taking what feels easier and what is easier right now, you're setting yourself up for a lot of hardship in the future. But if you're willing to exert some more discipline, lean into your challenges now, you're going to create a lot more ease in your future. And that hard stuff doesn't last as long as you might think. You build a certain level of strength and things get easier when you lean into them. You. He tells a great story about cows versus buffaloes. Rory grew up in Colorado on the plains. And apparently when a storm would come in, cows would respond very differently than buffalo. So let's say a storm is coming in and the cows are right here. And they see it coming, they're like, oh, no. Then it starts raining on them and the cows try to run away from the rain. How's that work out for them? Well, the rain follows them. They can't outrun it, so they stay under the rain for a long time. Right, because they're trying to run away from their problems, if you will, to use the metaphor. Now, the buffalo, on the other hand, see the same storm coming and they say, ah, interesting. We're gonna wait until this goes over the peak, the crest of a peak of a mountain. Then we're gonna charge at it. We're gonna go head straight at the storm. So the storm's approaching and then they run, charge right at it and run through it. The storm passes and they spend a lot less time underneath that rain than the cows who tried to avoid the challenge. They ran straight at it. It's a great idea. Pain paradox. Bring it on. The tools guys say, quit avoiding things and lean into it. You'll surprise yourself by the power you have. In the note, I share a story about Paul Bunyan in his Pilgrim's Progress. He has a character who has a shield and that Makes him invincible. Only caveat is the shield will make him invincible, provided he heads straight at his challenges. If he runs away and goes the other way, he's vulnerable. But if he heads straight at his challenges, he's invincible. So think of that pain paradox. That's our first big idea. Second one is pretty fun. Are you a should head? A should head? You don't want to be a should head. Rory has a in his seven strategies. The first one was the pain paradox. Second one is commitment. Commitment. And he says, look, you can either be really committed, 100% or less than 100% committed. Now, if you're 100% committed, you're all in. You're going to do it. If you're less than 100% committed, you're asking yourself way too often, should I do this? So if you're meditating or you are committed to exercising or whatever it is, but you're not quite 100% committed, you are a should head. You're asking yourself constantly, should I meditate today or should today be the day off? Should I post my blog like I said I would? Or should today be the day that I take off? Should I? Should I? Should I? You are a should head. Right? But if you're in this domain, you're not asking should, you're asking how. How do I get my meditation done today? I have a busy day. How am I going to get it done? Not should I get it done, how do I get it done? It's a huge distinction. We want to quit being should heads. That's our second big idea. And he talks too about 211 degrees versus 212 degrees. You'll remember when we did the Orison Sweat Martin episodes, we talked about what he calls activation energy. There's a huge difference between 211 degrees and 212 degrees. At 212 degrees, water boils. You can do stuff with boiling water. Steam can power locomotives and boats. It's amazing. 211 degrees. Although hot, in fact very hot. It's not the same as 212 degrees. That one degree makes a huge difference. That one degree is what gives us true commitment. There's a huge difference between 90% committed, 92% committed, 99% committed and 100% committed. We want to go to that last percent, non negotiable. Makes your life, again, paradoxically, much easier. Third big idea. Focus is power. Focus is power. When I journal, I often draw this, which represents to me all the things I could do. And focusing on this particular outcome that particular task or set of things that I'm going to do. And Rory talks about a magnifying glass. I like to draw in my journal a little magnifying glass. Right here's the sun, and there's a focus point that comes. You can burn a piece of paper. Now. You can set that piece of paper on the asphalt, on the street on a really hot day, and nothing will happen because the sun's rays are diffused. But. But if you come in between the sun and that piece of paper and you hold a magnifying glass precisely, you can't just hold it. You've got to actually focus the sun's rays. You can burn that piece of paper. It's the same thing with everything in our lives. We need to focus our thoughts, we need to focus our energy on what's important to us. Quit distracting ourselves. Quit diffusing our energy and focus. There's tremendous power and focus. We're going to talk about that some more. Rory's second book, which I read the day after I read this book, is called Procrastinate On Purpose. In that one, he actually has what he calls a focus funnel, where you take all the things you could be focusing on and you figure out what you want to concentrate on. We'll talk more about that in a little bit. But for now, remember, focus is power. If you're distracting yourself, how can you focus? Get on that. Create your power. Fourth big Idea here is Mr. Mr. M. What's the M for? Mediocrity. Mediocrity. Mr. M is a voice in your head that's committed to slowing down your momentum. You may have noticed you're constantly chit chatting with yourself. There's a more positive version of you and then there's the less positive version of you. Rory says that Mr. M is tiny. He's almost invisible. But he has a huge mouth, and he goes on and on and on and on and on. Mr. Mediocrity is constantly telling you all the things that you can't do and all the shortcomings you have that are limiting your potential. Rory says unequivocally, we need to silence Mr. M. And the way he advocates doing that is by talking over him with positive self talk. You can't hold 2 thoughts in your mind simultaneously. So if you have a negative one coming to the megaphone with Mr. Mediocrity, cancel it out by thinking positive thoughts. And he says, it may feel stupid when you start doing it. It might always feel stupid, but do it anyway. Successful people who get control of their mind do these things consistently. So think of whenever, notice when you have that negative thought and then have your array of positive thoughts you can insert. So if you're thinking, God, why did I do that? Or I did that again, I didn't want to do that. You're such an idiot. You're never going to get this. Whatever your negative banter is, notice it, stop it and say, I've got this. We're good, I'm learning, needs work. I'm going to do it this way next time. We're good. And be strong in your mind rather than letting Mr. M take over the airwaves. Big idea. Fifth big idea is another good one. Visioneering. Visioneering. Two words, vision plus engineering. Vision engineering. Visioneering, right. These are the two components. It's not particularly complicated. If you want to create a great life, you need to have a clear vision. Some people call it a purpose, a mission, whatever. We're going to call it visioneering here right now. You have an amazing vision that inspires you and you've taken the time to do the engineering work to imagine what you have to do consistently to make this vision a reality. Who are you going to be? What fundamentals are you going to integrate in your life? Exercise, nutrition, proper rest, training your mind. What systems are you going to build so you can consistently show up and have masterpiece days? Vision engineering. Put the two together. You've got visioneering and you've got a recipe, a map for creating your optimal life. Do that silence Mr. M when he inevitably comes on the airwaves. Remember, focus is power. That magnifying glass. If you've never done the experiment with a magnifying glass, I highly encourage you to go to Amazon, find a cheap magnifying glass or wherever you go to find a magnifying glass and try it safely. Because you can and will burn things when you figure it out. We need to bring that attention to our lives. It's super powerful. Quit being a should head if your commitment is over here. You are asking, should I? Oh, I don't know, should I? Quit asking that. Ask how do I for the commitments you've gone all in on. Non negotiable, 100%. You can't do that with every single commitment in your life. Every commitment you want to make, you should do with every commitment. If you're going to make a commitment to someone or something, be all in, be done. It's just you say you're going to do something and that is the equation done. But don't commit unless you are done. When you do, it's not a should I, it's a how do I follow through on that commitment, not be a should head and then the pain paradox. Remember your cows and buffalo head straight at your challenges and paradoxically, your life's going to be a lot easier. What was your favorite big idea? How are you going to move from theory to practice? Get on that and have another awesome day. And people are telling me I should say more about what you can get as part of our membership, but we've got a link somewhere around here. Click on that you can join and get access to 250 Philosopher's Notes six six page PDFs, 20 minute MP3s, a bunch of micro classes. I create a ton of content that I don't share on YouTube. I obviously share a ton here. We have a lot more. The response has been awesome. I appreciate all of you for your support and I look forward to sharing more soon. Have an awesome day. See you. Hi, this is Brian. I hope you enjoyed that Philosopher's Notes TV episode. 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. 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