Brian Johnson shares how deliberate routines create heroic performance, using his son Emerson's chess pre-match protocol of walking, 33 burpees, and a one-minute voice-memo meditation. Emerson won 3-0 after following these rituals, and maintains a 217-day chess-tempo streak. Johnson argues that building your own protocols matters more than passive entertainment.
Questions this episode answers
33 burpees.
7:00 PM.
3–0 (Emerson won).
217 days in a row.
6–6 (tie at halftime).
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic one. In our last one we chatted about Emerson's enthusiasm. More specifically, I celebrated Emerson Aurelius Johnson's enthusiasm by quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson's wisdom on the subject. Note that Emerson quote is one of the handful I've memorized and recited to myself way over a thousand times. I typed it out from memory. Here it is again. Ralph Waldo once said, enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might, put your whole soul into it and stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful and you will accomplish your objective. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. Now, I started that plus one by sharing how Emerson and I spent our morning FaceTiming Mommy and Eleanor, then getting some AM sun, then doing a quick AM opening series with a few burpees, then getting some ice for the ice bath I'll be taking soon. But I didn't quite accurately reflect how our day began. Technically, our morning didn't begin that morning. Our morning. As you know, if you've been following along and have gone through our heroic coach program, et cetera, our morning began the night before. Here's a quick recap of how that went down. Emerson's third and final match of the day yesterday began at 7pm we dominated our pre match protocol which always all caps, always includes a quick walk and 33 burpees. And 95% of the time it includes listening to a one minute voice memo meditation Mommy created called Emerson's Chess Declarations that has a series of declarations set to rocky music. It's awesome. Now after that quick protocol, Emerson walks into the match ready to dominate. Chest up, chin down, breathing in through the nose, down into his belly. Exhale slightly longer than his inhale with a smile. Switch has been flipped. Command posture activated. Check out that plus one. Let's go. Now, once I dropped him off for his match, I went back to our hotel room and had to figure out how I was going to watch both of the heroic teams that were playing that night. We had Notre Dame playing in their season opener at Texas A and M, which I would have gone to if I wasn't wingmanning it for EMERSON and Toronto FC at home against D.C. united. So I've got the Notre Dame football game up on the hotel TV screen, which is probably the third time I've watched anything on a TV screen this year. And I've got the TFC game on Apple TV on my computer. Perfect. Fast forward it's 9pm Toronto FC lost a tough one. Notre Dame is tied 6 to 6 in a tough game at halftime and Emerson walks into the room. My heart skips a beat in anticipation of the results as it has every single one of the 100 plus tournament games he's played so far and he says, I won. To which I say, dude, congratulations. 3 0. Let's go. Then he sees that the game is on. He says, oh cool, Notre Dame's playing. To which I say, yeah. Then I immediately turn the game off and I told him and that's not important right now. Your big game is. I continue by saying something along the lines of sports are awesome. It's fun to see people performing at a high level, it's fun and cheering on your favorite team, but ultimately they're showing you what you can do. And this weekend we have way more important things to do than watch anyone else compete. Let's work our PM protocol and get you to bed so you're ready to dominate tomorrow. Then I asked him to tell me all about the game he just played. He walked me through the moves, replaying the game in his head and sharing the big moves. As always, I got about 60% of what he was saying and I celebrated with 101% so enthusiasm. And that's how this morning began, with a deliberately well executed PM protocol. As we remembered that today started yesterday and that's today's plus one. Let's remember that we are the heroes of our own stories as we celebrate those who show us how it's done and most importantly, commit to the protocols that will help us do the same. It's day one. We're all in. Let's go. P.S. my heart just skipped a beat as I looked at the clock and saw the countdown to his next matches. On time to go execute the protocol. PPS Notre Dame 1 they're tough. Season opener go fighting Irish. PPPS we didn't check the results of the game until after I had committed to my heroic protocol and done a few minutes of meditation. And Emerson had done his protocol of doing at least one chess tempo puzzle for the day to keep his streak alive. He's at 217 days in a row. Let's go.
