Brian Johnson contrasts philosophers who catalog ideas versus those who live them, drawing on Stoics and figures like Socrates and the Buddha. He argues the real work is applying wisdom to daily life, not just studying it. His book Arete ships November 14.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Arete One degree, another micro chapter from our new book Arete activate your heroic potential451 of my all time favorite hopefully life changing ideas. One or more of them help you go to the next level. This is the second micro chapter in the fifth objective on how to master yourself. Warriors versus Librarians Moving from the Ivory tower to the arena of Life as we've discussed, Donald Robertson is one of the world's leading thinkers and practitioners of Stoic philosophy. He's written a number of great books, including one called the Philosophy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in which he traces the philosophical roots of modern cognitive behavioral therapy to ancient Stoicism. Donald tells us that the ancient philosophers weren't interested in merely understanding how to live optimally. They were committed to actually living optimally. In fact, he tells us that those ancient philosophers wouldn't recognize a lot of modern philosophers who were often exclusively focused on theoretical ideas and the comforts of their ivory towers. The old school philosophers knew it was really hard to live in integrity with our highest ideals. They told us we needed to be warriors of the mind, not mere librarians of the mind. To state the obvious, all of these +1 degrees aren't ideas to be cataloged in the libraries of our minds. These are ideas to be lived in the moment to moment experiences that determine our destiny. So what's one idea you've merely cataloged in your mind that you need to take into the arena of your life? Let's do that today. P.S. as we've discussed a number of times, the metaphor of the warrior winning the battle between their higher and lower selves is present throughout the ancient traditions. Let's revisit some wisdom from Socrates and Rumi and bring the Buddha in to share his perspective as well. Socrates put it this way, I desire only to know the truth and to live as well as I can and to the utmost of my power. I exhort all other men to do the same. I exhort you also to take part in the great combat which is the combat of life and greater than every other earthly conflict. The Buddha tells us, and I quote him, one who conquers himself is greater than another who conquers, who conquers a thousand times, a thousand men on the battlefield. And Rumi offers, the lion who breaks the enemy's ranks is a minor hero compared to the lion who overcomes himself. And I repeat, even Gandhi's Bible, the Bhagavad Gita was set on a battlefield. Let's win the battle between vice and virtue. Let's be heroic warriors of the mind. Let's move from theory to practice to mastery together today. I hope you enjoyed that. Arete one Degree from my new book. Arete, Activate your heroic potential. The book will be shipped on November 14th right before black Friday in time to make it the perfect holiday gift perhaps. I wanted to let you know that we have some special giveaways if you think you might like to pre order the book and and even more goodies if you think you might want to give the book away this holiday season. Here's the deal. Pre order one copy and get a free advanced reader copy of the ebook today. Pre order three copies and get a free advanced copy of the ebook and the audiobook and a limited edition Arete coin that we'll send to you. Pre order 10 copies of the book. Bless you and get all of that plus in autographed advanced hardcover reader copy sent to you immediately inside the fancy Arete VIP box, which is packed with other goodies including this Arete T shirt, a Heroic t shirt, and 10 free annual heroic memberships for your gift recipients. You'd be able to give them a book and and a year's worth of Heroic 4 Free. If you pre order 25 copies, you'll get all that plus a free ticket to our launch event party in Austin November 10th through 12th and you'll get a personal voice memo. Thank you and a high five from me if you're feeling inspired to order over 50 copies of the book. We've been blessed to have a lot of CEOs and corporations do that. We'll give you a huge discount. Just let us know all of this. You can learn more about at Heroic U.S. book Heroic U.S. book of course you can order the book on Amazon. Barnes and Noble Independent bookstores will be everywhere. You can buy a book, Hudson's airport stores, etc. And let us know of course when you've done that and purchased a copy or three or ten or more if you feel inspired to do so. @ heroic US book. I appreciate you and I hope you love the book. I'm super excited about it, super proud of it, and I hope it helps you and your families transform your.
