Short motivational piece by Brian Johnson reflecting on lessons from David Goggins, Marshall Linehan, Winston Churchill, and Steve Chandler about enduring hardship, taking responsibility, and stopping self-sabotaging imagination. Johnson emphasizes personal agency — 'you are the warden of your life' — and ends with a practical prompt to identify and let go of one 'crazy town' behavior.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic one. In our last plus one, we had some fun. At least I did. Going through hell with Marshall Linehan, Winston Churchill and David Goggins. As you may recall, Linehan told us, if you want to get out of hell, you have to get through the fire to the other side. While Churchill told us, if you're going through hell, keep going. And Goggins told us, when you're climbing a mountain or involved in any difficult task, the only way to free yourself from the struggle is to finish it. So why complain about it when it gets hard? Now, as I was searching for that Goggins gem, I stumbled across another brilliant piece of wisdom from him. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Let's get to work. In never finished, Goggins tells us, and I quote him again, have the courage and mental endurance to do whatever it takes to start knocking down those walls. You are the warden of your life. Don't forget, you hold the keys. I repeat, have the courage and mental endurance to do whatever it takes to start knocking down those walls. You are the warden of your life. Don't forget, you hold the keys. And that reminds me of a brilliant piece of wisdom from my friend and former beloved coach Steve Chandler in Time Warrior. Check out those notes he tells us. I. I keep daydreaming. A scene I'd like to put in a book or a movie. A madman. Me, he says, why not? Lives in a mental ward. Me, he says, it fits. Each day they let this man into the recreation room. He's in his pajamas. He sits down at the circular table. The attendant gives him a big blank pad of paper and a box of crayons. He takes out the crance and draws the head of a monster. He stares at the monster, screams and runs out of the room. Chandler says the whole thing looks funny to the attendant. It looks, shall we say, insane. The poor madman is scaring himself to death. And crazy as that looks, we ourselves do that each day. We use our crayons, our imagination, to scare ourselves instead of to create. End quote. And that's today's plus one. I say with a smile, let's put the crazy crayons away. And don't forget, you hold the keys to your freedom. Actually, before we go, let's get a little more practical. What specifically can you do to escape the metaphorical mental war? Seriously, Pause for a moment and reflect. What's one thing you know is a bit of a crazy town behavior. You engage in a little or a lot too often that, you know, needs to go. No stress. We've all got at least a little crazy in us. How about we let those crazy crams and crazy behaviors go today?
