Brian Johnson's son Emerson reached a 1600 chess rating in a year, putting him in the top 12% of US players. Now he's chasing 2000 in three months. Johnson walks through the growth mindset work behind it and asks you to name one wildly important goal for the next three to twelve months and the single skill you need to dominate.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic one. In our last plus one we chatted.
About how Emerson turned a loss into a learn, which I think will lead.
To the biggest wins in the next.
Phase of his chess career.
Now, I actually just got a little emotional typing that for two reasons. First, his ability to instantly shake off.
A loss and alchemize it into a.
Lesson learned, then get joyfully on with.
His life is incredible. Note this is a direct result of Alexandra and I striving to embody wisdom.
From Carol Dweck's brilliant thinking on the subject of the growth mindset. My top two all time parenting books, her self theories and mindset. Check them out parents. I say again, I highly encourage you.
To check those notes out. They're linked in this plus one.
Second.
Now after that game, we were buzzing.
At 11pm that night as I told him how much I appreciated his ability to alchemize losses into wisdom and how.
I thought this particular distinction he just made was going to be the most.
Catalytic for his growth.
So a little more context than the practical wisdom.
Emerson has been playing chess for a.
Little over a year and in chess.
Tournaments for almost exactly a year.
He gained skills quickly. CR1 effort counts thrice. And with a 1600 US chess rating, he's currently ranked just outside of the top 111 year olds in the country.
Now to put that in perspective, he's.
Better than 88.1% of all US rated chess players and 94.9% of all junior players.
As we discussed in one of our very first ones on his chess journey.
His initial goal was to become a candidate master. You get there by getting to a 2000 US chess rating. We thought it would take him a few years and that night after his loss, he decided he wanted to get there in three more months.
Now, frankly, I didn't know if that.
Was a realistic goal, but I loved.
His enthusiasm and figured I'd chat with.
His coach the next day to see what he thought. What I did do was leverage that.
Incredibly ambitious goal to get clarity on what he would do to have the best shot at hitting that target. And that's where his goosebumps new commitment to training his tactical ability to calculate came in. We'll chat about our chat the next.
Morning on the science of motivation in our next one.
For now, spotlight back on you. What's your super inspiring, wildly important near term, let's call it 3612 month goal.
That'S firing you up.
Of course you want to whoop it and all that to make sure you're.
Really ready to go for it. And for our purposes for today, focus.
On how great it would feel to achieve that incredible goal. Then tell me, what's the one thing you know you need to dominate to give yourself the best shot at achieving that ambitious goal? You got it?
