PNTV - Today We Are Rich by Tim Sanders

You're listening to Optimize with Brian Johnson. More wisdom in Less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to Philosopher's nodestv Today, another great book. Read it on my Kindle Today we are Rich by Tim Sanders Subtitle Harnessing the Power of Total Confidence Tim Sanders is phenomenal. I read his first book, I don't know how many years ago now called Love is the Killer App. Awesome book where he talks about being a love cat and he actually teaches us how to read a book properly and mark it all up and keep track of what's going on and then share the wisdom with our friends and be a love cat by dropping wisdom on people at the water cooler and wherever else. And that was one of the things that inspired me to create Philosopher's Notes to to actually pull out these big ideas and to share them with my friends and with my virtual friends and hopefully give them the wisdom and inspiration to go out and optimize their lives. So I love Tim. This book is phenomenal and fun Read Bunch of big ideas in the Philosopher's Note. We've got five of them here, so let's jump in and explore them. First, what does it mean today we are rich. So Tim in this book talks about how his grandmother Billy was raised him and she was awesome and she taught him about something called a forever kind of rich. There's bank account rich, then there's forever kind of rich. And he shares a story about how she shared what little they had with someone who is in bigger need than they were. And she says we can afford to do that. We're rich. We're forever kind of rich. And that richness in spirit is what the book is all about. Let the material wealth and the bank account wealth be a byproduct of being rich and generous in spirit. That's the essence of what we're talking about. First, big idea in terms of how we cultivate that daily practices. Nothing new here. We know that what we do day in and day out is what's going to create the confidence and the overall sense of abundance in our lives again, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically, et cetera. But he shares a great story about he was doing some coaching with a friend and his friend fell on hard times after the dot com boom back in the day, 2002. And he's having some tough times and Tim asks him, what are you not doing today that you used to do when you were totally on? You used to do certain things that you're no longer doing? What are they? And it's a great question to ask yourself and to ask ourselves often if we ever find ourselves in a funk. Simply identify. Wow. When I was most on, whether it was yesterday or last week or a year ago or 10 years ago, what was I doing? Oh, yeah, that was when I was exercising and training for the marathon or triathlon or whatever. I was eating really well. I was going to bed at a reasonable hour. I was meditating or whatever it was for you that you were doing when you were on. Do that now. Those are your daily and weekly practices that you want to engage in. Not particularly complicated. We just need to bring awareness to it. Do that which helps us feel better more consistently. And when we fall off, notice what's missing. Identify what one thing would most benefit us if we did it consistently and commit to doing it. That's our first big idea. Daily practices. Second Big idea Mind diets. Tim and I had lunch years ago and he calls himself in the book a healthy thought nut. He's a healthy food nut as well, but he's a healthy thought nut. And he says, look, just like you're really aware of what you put into your mouth, you don't just throw anything into your mouth. You might have better or not so great habits, but you're still aware you're not going to just eat anything. He says, we need to have the same attention to our minds because our minds are constantly consuming whatever it is that we allow into our consciousness. We talked about this with Thich Nhat Hanh. He described four nutriments that we were chewing on, right? So the TV shows that you watch, the magazines that you read, the whatever other media you consume, talk radio or whatever, all of that stuff is going into your head. And it doesn't just go away. It's sitting there and your consciousness is chewing on it, trying to make sense out of it. And you need to decide, is it that important to know what your favorite celebrity ate for dinner last night and have that going through your mind? Or can you unplug from some of that and consume some healthier stuff? Whether it's this type of content or whatever, journaling about what's meaningful for you. Trade that for this and have your mind chew on that. It's a huge practice. Be a mindful eater of mind stuff. Have a good mind diet. Second big idea. Third big idea. He talks about the importance of integrity. His grandma told him, integrity is what it's all about. And it's all about your actions. At the end of the day, it's not about what you say is important to you. It's about doing the things that you say are important to you. And she has a great example, he shares a great example of your promise keeping ratio. So to both yourself and to other people. So when you say you're going to do something, I'm going to meditate tomorrow, I'm going to meditate for the next 30 days. And you do it for a day or two or three, then you don't do it. That's not helping your promise keeping ratio. It's a sign that you're out of integrity, you're disintegrating. What you say is important to you isn't what you actually do. Now, none of us are perfect, but we want to become more aware of when we're making promises to ourselves and to other people. Sometimes we don't even have any intention to honor, oh yeah, I'll call you. You have no intention to call the person. Don't make that promise. Don't make a commitment unless you are 100% committed to honoring it. Now, things may change. You may get to a point with some new data where you say, look, that commitment that I had made to you, I'm going to need to make a new agreement with you and you make a new agreement with them. But we want to be aware of our promise keeping ratio and reduce the number of times we, we make promises that we don't follow through on. It's a big idea to cultivate our integrity. The fourth big idea on embracing the today we are rich philosophy is A helper's high talks about researchers who look at the effects of being nice, of helping people, and they call it a helper's high. It's similar to a runner's high of you feel great after you run. Well, you feel great after you do something nice for someone. Could be super simple or it could be more intricate and in depth and time intensive. But it's extraordinary. And the benefits last way longer than a runner's high last for weeks at times. Researchers tell us too that the fastest way to boost your mood is to do something nice for someone else. Get out of your own the little contracted sense of what's wrong in your life. Help someone and experience the helper's high. I always love one of Wayne Dyer's stories from Power of Intention. Talks about serotonin being released when someone does something nice for someone else. And he shares the story and he goes something like this, some individual does something nice for someone else. What's fascinating is the individual doing the nice thing Has a boost of serotonin, the feel good hormone, right? The individual receiving the kind act also has a boost of serotonin. That's pretty awesome. But what was fascinating to me was an individual watching the exchange of someone doing something nice for someone else also has a boost of serotonin. So our emotions are contagious and we want to boost it by being nice. Get a helper's high. Do something nice. Think about that. What can you do to today? Do one nice thing for someone today doesn't need to be huge. A tiny thank you or a compliment or whatever is a huge, huge practice for us to engage in daily to have a sense of richness in our lives. Fifth big idea is to become a grateful poet. A grateful poet. Poet. People. What people do you have to be grateful for? What opportunities do you have to be grateful for? What experiences do you have to be grateful for? And what things do you have to be grateful for? Experiences. So we've got an opportunity to make some poetry. Day in and day out we've talked about gratitude. Another one of those scientifically proven, simple ways to boost our well being, to keep track of things we're grateful for. Tim suggests we become poets about it. End of the day, think about, well, we're maybe going to do this weekly. Whatever it is for you, what people in your life are you grateful for? Think about that. Think about the opportunities that you have in your life. It might be a challenge that's giving you an opportunity to grow. It might be something that's unquestionably positive, if you will. But what are the opportunities in your life you can be grateful for? What experiences have you had in the past that you can be grateful for that have helped you grow as a human being? And what things in your life make your life possible? Even what we're doing right now is just. It's a miracle to think about the things that are involved in us being able to communicate this way around the world. It's mind boggling. So let's focus on the little things we can be grateful for. Become grateful poets. Get that helper's high. Boost our promise keeping ratio. Quit making promises to people you don't intend to carry out. He quotes I think it was Norman Vincent Peale who said, promises are like screaming babies in a movie theater. Carry them out as fast as you can. When you say you're going to do something, make it a game to see how fast you can follow through on that commitment. Boom. Done. Be the type of person who, when you say you're going to do something, it's just done. People can count on you to do it. One way to do that is to carry it out as fast as you can, particularly if it takes less than a couple of minutes. Then we want to focus on what we're eating in terms of consuming mentally, have a strong mind diet and get back to our practices. What were you doing when you were most on in your life and how do you create more of those habits and practices in your life today? Simple equation to a ton of happiness. I hope you enjoyed and I look forward to sharing more with you soon. Have another 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. 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 boil it down to the most practical stuff you can apply today. Classes include Confidence 101, Getting Stuff Done 101, Relationships 101, Habits 101, etc. 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.