Brian Johnson (Heroic +1 #1,453) presents a short podcast on why the best reason to say no is having a bigger "yes"—a compelling, long-term commitment or practice. He cites Seth Godin (and writer Justine Musk), Stephen Covey (7 Habits), the Four Disciplines of Execution, Cal Newport (Deep Work), and David Brooks to argue that focusing intensely on one or two wildly important goals makes it easier to decline urgent but low-value requests (email, small favors). Johnson frames his own "ultimate target"—showing up as the best version of himself to help others—as an example of a "terrifying longing" that enables saying no to distractions and moving from theory to practice.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. Over the last few plus ones, we've been hanging out with Seth Godin and enjoying some wisdom from his great book the Practice. We talked about the fact that the magic of the process of optimizing our lives and actualizing our potential is that there is no magic. We also talked about the power of practice, confidence and building streaks as we reminded ourselves to D w I s y w D Do what you say you will do, hero. Today we're going to continue our exploration of Seth's wisdom as we talk about the best reason to say no. Can you guess what it is? Here's how Seth puts it, and I quote Writer Justine Musk reminds us that in order to say no with consistency and generosities, we need to have something to say yes to. Our commitment to the practice is the source of that yes. The world expects that its request will be accepted. Seth tells us that assignments, launch dates, new projects, even favors will get a yes. It's just a small ask. The person thinks the problem is obvious. If you spend all day hitting the ball back, you'll never end up serving. He continues, should you check your email or work on your book? Deciding to answer the email counts as a yes. But it might be a yes to the wrong thing. It might be the most generous thing to do is to disappoint someone in the short run. Inbox zero is a virtuous habit, though an exhausting one. Like all forms of responsiveness, it favors the short term over the long run, the urgent over the important. And it comes with a juicy deniability, a way to spend an hour or two without having to own too much. Yes and no. Those are two of the most important words in any language. Let's take a tour through our library of notes for some parallel wisdom. Here's how Stephen Covey puts it in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He says you have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage, pleasantly, smilingly, non apologetically, to say no to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger yes. Burning inside. The enemy of the best is often the good. And here's how the four disciplines of execution guys put it in their great book. I quote, the first discipline is to focus your finest efforts on the one or two goals that will make all the difference. Instead of giving mediocre effort to dozens of goals, execution starts with focus. Without it, the other three disciplines won't be able to help you. Check those out in the notes. Simply put, discipline one is about applying more energy against fewer goals. Because when it comes to setting goals, the law of diminishing returns is as real as the law of gravity. End quote. Now, Cal Newport references those guys and David Brooks in his great book Deep Work, where he tells us, and I quote Cal, as the authors of the four disciplines of execution explain, the more you try to do, the less you actually accomplish. They elaborate that execution should be aimed at a small number of wildly important goals. This simplicity will help focus an organization's energy to a sufficient intensity to to ignite real results. He continues by saying, for an individual focused on deep work, the implication is that you should identify a small number of ambitious outcomes to pursue with your deep work hours. The general exhortation to spend more time working deeply doesn't spark of a lot of enthusiasm. In a 2014 column titled the Art of Focus, David Brooks endorsed this approach of letting ambitious goals drive focused behavior, explaining, if you want to win the war for attention, don't try to say no to the trivial distractions you find on the information smorgasbord. Try to say yes to the subject that arouses a terrifying longing and let the terrifying longing crowd out everything else. I could go on, but I'll leave it at that and bring it back to Seth's wisdom and the importance of the practice. Here's the question. What's your ultimate target? Mine is simple. I want to show up as the best, most heroic version of myself so I can support you in showing up as the best, most heroic version of yourself. I have, to use David Brooks's phrase, a terrifying longing to connect with and express that best version of myself. And when I say yes to that wildly important goal, it becomes a lot easier to say no to all the trivial distractions of life. Let's remember to say yes to the ultimate game so we can say no to the seductive distractions. Here's to moving from theory to practice to mastery.
Together today, 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.
