Brian Johnson records a short Heroic +1 episode from Salt Lake City reflecting on travel, family, and how small hotel rituals (the folded toilet-paper triangle) can serve as trigger cues for gratitude and ethical recommitment. He links the moment to thinkers (Emerson, Seneca, Einstein, George Leonard) to recommend using mundane experiences as prompts to remember others’ service and to give back.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. I'm typing this in Salt Lake City. I flew in from Toronto last night. I'm heading to Park City in a few hours for an event I'm speaking at. And as I've joked a few times, I've traveled more in the last three months than I had in the prior three years. And I love it. Of course I miss being away from the wifey and kids. The moment I take off, it's always amazing to me how much I miss the noise of a full house. And when I'm in the too quiet stillness of a hotel room, that quiet is nice for about five seconds. All right, maybe five minutes. Then I want to hear the buzz of my family. Now, there are a few reasons I'm enjoying traveling so much. Actually, before we go there, to be clear, I didn't used to like to travel at all. The old hermit me very much enjoyed being safely insulated in my bubble wrap with perfect schedules and zero interruptions to that perfect schedule. But the new me loves to travel for a few reasons. First, I channel my inner Emerson. That kid loves, and I mean loves to travel. Everything is an amazing part of an adventure when we go on our little road trips. So I keep him in mind when I travel. Plus, I've been blessed to spend some time with extraordinarily inspiring people, so that makes travel and that much more enjoyable as well. And, and. And I like to channel my inner stoic and remind myself of the fact that, as Seneca once said, the wise man does nothing reluctantly. If you're going to do something, do it with all your heart. Right? But that's not quite the point of today's plus one. This is. I might have just used the hotel bathroom, and that might have required the use of some toilet paper, and that might have just been too much information. But we're keeping it real. So let's go with it. Now. You know how when you're staying at a hotel, the toilet paper often has that fancy little triangle thing folded into it at the end as a nice little gesture, showing you that the hotel staff cares and wants to make your stay great and all that. Well, channeling my inner George Leonard, who tells us that the master uses every moment as a part of his or her practice. I like to use that little folded point as a trigger cue prompt to remind myself that some anonymous human being that I'll never meet took the time to do that for me. Then I remind myself of how lucky I am to live in a world in which so many people serve me in so many ways to help make my life as blessed as it is. Then I channel my inner Albert Einstein as I bring to mind his wisdom that is always worth repeating, he told us, and I repeat every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men living in debt, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving. Then I recommit to playing my role as humbly yet heroically well as I can. And that's today's plus one. Let's use everything in our lives as an opportunity to remind ourselves just how blessed we are as we go all in on doing our best to give back in equal measure to all that we have been blessed to receive. It's day one. We're all in. Let's go little P.S. yes, toilet paper rolls have taken on an oddly pervasive part of my life and our teachings. Check out the this +1 I link in this note on Emerson and his toilet paper rolls and another plus one on Eleanor and her domination of those flying toilet paper rolls. For more.
