Brian Johnson reflects on driving home from his son Emerson's chess championship, where Emerson played 27 hours over three days. Johnson uses this to consider the invisible people who sacrifice sleep and comfort so others live easier lives, urging listeners to notice them and offer gratitude.
Questions this episode answers
The 90th annual Southwest Chess Championships.
Started at 2:30 pm and ended about 6:30 pm (a four-hour match).
Approximately 27 hours of chess over three days.
Second place.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic one. The last couple 1s we talked about some pre match butterflies and pounding heart wisdom Emerson and I chatted about on the drive Home from the 90th annual Southwest Chess Championships. Vroom, vroom. I'm excited. Let's go. Today I want to chat about one more idea from that trip. Let's get to work. So Emerson's last game started at 2:30pm it ended about 6:30pm and that four hour match brought his total chess played for that day to over 8 hours. To go with the 8 plus hours of chess played the prior day. To go with the 11 plus hours of chess played on the first day for a staggering total of 27 hours of chess played over three days. I'm astonished by these kids mental endurance. And I must say that one of the things I'm most proud of with my wingman duties is is the fact that we dominate his in between and pre match protocols to make sure his energy is optimized such that he gets stronger as the tournament goes deeper. At one point that weekend I joked with him about the fact that he travels with his chef. I went to Whole Foods and made all his meals, which of course are all about eliciting elite performance. He travels with his chef, his mental toughness coach and his personal trainer, me. Let's go. But that's not quite the point of this plus one. This is after connecting with the tournament directors to confirm he got second place and thanking them for all the hard work they put in to make the weekend awesome. We hit the road at about 6:40pm ETA home 9:00pm Perfect. As we were driving, Emerson saw a sign that said something about the highways being worked on between 8pm and and 5am he asked why they'd work on them so late. I asked him why he thought that was the case. He deduced it was because less people drive at night so it would be easier to do the maintenance work. I told him that he was correct. Then I told him that a lot of people, mostly dads, would come out at night and leave their families so they could make our lives just a little more convenient. Then they'd have to sleep during the day and do it again the next night, inconveniencing themselves so we could experience a little less inconvenience. Then he said, so they're nocturnal? And I said well no, they change their rhythms but they're not nocturnal. And over the long term that lifestyle switch can cost them dearly in their health. Then I said they're willing to sacrifice themselves to make our lives better. I want you to think about them. When we're driving on these roads, it's really easy to take this road and everything else in our lives for granted. But we're only able to make this drive and do everything else we are blessed to do because of other people doing their best to serve us. And that's today's plus one. I repeat, it's really easy to take everything and everyone in our lives for granted. Let's remember to take it all as granted. If you feel so inspired the next time you're driving down the highway, or on a subway, or wherever you are, pause for a moment. Imagine the countless anonymous human beings who worked so hard to make your life so easy. Then send them some love and gratitude. Repeat all day, every day, especially today.
