You Are Heroic with Brian Johnson

In our last +1, Navy SEALs Jocko Willink and Leif Babin told us that leadership is all about EXTREME Ownership. No excuses. No blaming. Ever. They tell us that, ultimately, there are no bad teams per se, only bad leaders. To bring the point home, they tell us a story about guys in boats. Imagine Navy SEAL training. You're already exhausted from weeks of basic training. Now it's time for Hell Week. One of the most brutal aspects of the training is when the aspiring SEALs are split into "boat crews"—each with seven guys. Each team gets an old-school World War II-era inflatable boat that weighs 200 pounds. They need to carry this boat up and over 20-foot-high sand berms and run with it for miles. Then they get to paddle it out to the ocean, dump it over so everyone's out and freezing wet and then paddle it back in. And... They're always competing with everyone else. If you lose, you have to go through extra, bonus brutal stuff while the winners get to take the next race off. (The instructors constantly remind everyone: "It pays to be a winner!") So, with that in mind, imagine Boat Crew II. These guys win every single race. They're simply crushing it. And, although they're physically hammered, they're actually smiling throughout the process. Then we have Boat Crew VI. These guys are LOSING every single race. To put it mildly, they are simply NOT crushing it. And, as you can imagine, they're not too happy about it—cursing and blaming one another for all their problems. So… Each crew has a leader. Boat Crew VI's leader is convinced that they're losing because his team sucks. He's certain that Boat Crew II is simply made up of the best guys and his team isn't. Now, our wise instructor knows that there's no such thing as a bad team, just a bad leader. So, he devises a little experiment. He commands the leaders to swap teams. The leader from the always-winning Boat Crew II would now switch places with the leader from the always-losing Boat Crew VI. What happens? Well, the worst boat crew suddenly became the best. They went from losing nearly every race to winning nearly every race. As Jocko and Leif remind us: There are NO bad teams. Only bad leaders. Today's +1. Let's shine the spotlight on you. Whether it's at home or at work, do you ever think you're on a "bad" team? Guess what… You're the problem. (Hah. Seriously.) Quit blaming and criticizing and start taking EXTREME OWNERSHIP for the situation. Find solutions. Make it better. Lead. Win.

In our last +1, we talked about the Cal Newport-inspired "Shut-down complete!" First, quick check in: You win that game? Get this: Seneca was talking about the same thing 2,000 years ago. As you may know, Seneca was born around the time Jesus was born. He was one of history's leading Stoic philosophers. In addition to being one of the wealthiest people of Rome and a statesman plus advisor to emperors, he was also a playwright and is considered the creator of the essay. In one of his great books called On the Shortness of Life, Seneca talks about the importance of giving our minds time to rest. Specifically, he says: "Our minds must relax: they will rise better and keener after a rest. Just as you must not force fertile farmland, as uninterrupted productivity will soon exhaust it, so constant effort will sap our mental vigour, while a short period of rest and relaxation will restore our powers. Unremitting effort leads to a kind of mental dullness and lethargy." He tells us that back in the good ol' days of the Roman senate, they couldn't introduce anything important after the tenth hour. Checking our math, we'll note that the sixth hour was for rest (and, as we discussed, is the origin of "siesta"). That was at noon. So, our 10th hour? That was 4pm. The ancient Roman senate didn't allow anything new to be introduced that would tax their brains after 4pm. If that policy was good enough for the Roman senate, I say it's good enough for our lives! (Hah.) Again, we've gotta give our minds time to rest. End your days at a reasonable time. Turn your brain off. Restore your power. Rise better and keener after a solid rest!

Mark Twain tells us that twenty years from now we will be more disappointed by the things we didn't do than by the things we did do. So, he says, we should throw off the bowlines and sail away from the safe harbor—catching the trade winds in our sails. Get this: Science agrees. In The Myths of Happiness, Sonja Lyubomirsky walks us through the fact that we are surprisingly resilient in the face of adversity. And, we consistently overestimate how bad we'll feel in the future if something goes wrong. This is one of her "myths" of happiness. In fact, this is such a common phenomenon that scientists actually have a name for it. They say we have poor "affective forecasting" abilities. So, back to our quote to go for it. If you go for it and fail, odds are you'll bounce back faster than you think. But… If you don't go for it, you run the risk of torturing yourself with an infinite number of scenarios where it could have worked out. Enter: Regret. So… Do you have any dreams that you need to pursue? Here's to sailing away from the safe harbors—knowing we have what it takes to bounce back from the inevitable storms (and occasional shipwrecks)! Twenty years from now, let's look back with a smile at all the things we had the courage to do.

Once upon a time, no British cyclist had ever won the Tour de France. Over 100 years of trying, and, precisely, zero wins. Then a guy named Sir David Brailsford stepped in and created Team Sky. He said that a British cyclist would win the Tour within five years. People thought he was crazy. Until they won it in two years. Then, for good measure, they won four of the next five races as well. How'd he do it? Marginal gains. He looked for all the tiny little places where he could Optimize. Things like making sure the riders uniforms were always washed in the same skin-friendly detergent for a little more comfort. Things like making sure the riders always slept on the same exact mattresses every night to give them the best shot at a good night of sleep. Things like making sure the hotel rooms were always properly vacuumed to reduce potential infections. TINY little things. Any one gain wouldn't do a whole lot, of course. But, as we know, when you aggregate and compound enough of those tiny little incremental optimizations MAGIC happens. In this case, Tour de France victories. As Brailsford puts it (via Matthew Syed in Black Box Thinking): "I realized early on that having a grand strategy was futile on its own. You also have to look at the smaller level, figure out what is working and what isn't. Each step may be small, but the aggregation can be huge." Guess what? The same rules apply to our lives. A grand strategy, although important, is futile on its own. We need to go granular and figure out what's working and what isn't. So… Today's +1. What's working for you? Do more of it. What's NOT working for you? Do less of it. Specifically: Do you have a better day when you begin your day in a certain way? Do you have more energy when you eat less of x and more of y? Do you feel better when you exercise or go to bed by a certain time? What other data can you collect? TEST!!! Get feedback. Look honestly at what's working and at what's not and dial it in. FIND THE MARGINAL GAINS. Not complicated. Easy to overlook. But super powerful. Echo: When we aggregate and compound marginal gains over an extended period of time we get EXTRAORDINARY gains. In cycling, that's what separates you from the pack and leads to Tour de France victories. In life, that's what separates us from our old selves so we can actualize our potential. Here's to marginal gains! +1. +1. +1.

Continuing our theme of sharpening our saw and resting before we get tired, let's figure out how to avoid burnout. Tal Ben-Shahar wrote a great book on how to quit being a perfectionist. He tells us that the root cause of fatigue, anxiety, depression and burnout in the corporate world "is not hard work; the problem is insufficient recovery." Think about that for a moment. The problem isn't that we WORK too hard per se. It's that we don't RECOVER enough. That's a really powerful distinction. Which, of course, begs the question: Are YOU recovering enough? Tal recommends we think about recovery on three levels: Micro + Mid + Macro. Micro-level recoveries include things like taking a 15-minute break every 60 to 90 minutes. Mid-level recoveries include things like making sure you have a shut-down complete that helps you get 7-9 hours of sleep every night and that you take at least a day off every week. Macro-level breaks include taking 2-4 weeks off every year. Let's do a quick inventory. How are we doing? Micro? Mid? Macro? Personally, I'm pretty good at the Micro- and Mid-level breaks. And, I'm pretty terrible at the Macro-level. (Hah. Needs work!) How about you? Where are you rocking it? Celebrate that. And, where can you Optimize just a little more? Get on that. Remember: It's not that we work too hard. It's that we don't recover enough! Here's to having fun going hard and an equal amount of fun recovering deeply.

We're officially on a roll with the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. We've covered Habit #1: Be Proactive and Habit #2: Begin with the End in Mind. Today? Habit #3: Put First Things First. Here's the short story: Covey tells us that some things matter and other things don't. Highly Effective People know the difference and they "Put First Things First." As Goethe said: "Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least." Covey shares a handy-dandy four-quadrant model to help us get clarity on what's really important. He organizes activities by Urgency and Importance. So, something can be Important or not and Urgent or not. In Quadrant I we have things that are both "Urgent and Important." These are fire drill-like activities. Unfortunately, way too many activities fall into this category. We need to do a better job of reducing the amount of stuff that shows up here or we'll be constantly stressed and burned out. In Quadrant II we have things that are NOT Urgent but ARE Important. This is our magic bucket. It's where our real impact occurs. Unfortunately, most people are spending all their time reacting to stuff all day every day. They don't spend enough proactive time doing what really matters. In Quadrant III we have Urgent but Not Important stuff. These are really just interruptions. We want to identify and reduce. In Quadrant IV we have Not Urgent and Not Important stuff. This is pure time-wasting stuff. Surfing the Internet, checking your phone for notifications every 5 seconds. Spend enough time here and you'll get fired. So… If we want to "Put First Things First" what do we need to do? Very simple (but not easy): We need to prioritize the Quadrant II activities. How? Well, here's one easy way: Go back to Habit #1 of being proactive and go back to +1 #201 of being Creative BEFORE you're Reactive. You simply CAN'T check your email (or news feeds or social media notifications) first thing in the morning and expect to be as Effective as you'd like. P E R I O D. Do you? Today's question: What little thing can you do to put first things first today? Get on that, +1 style!

When Peyton Manning was released from the Indianapolis Colts after fourteen seasons, a number of teams recruited him. He picked the Denver Broncos. Now, when he decided to go with the Broncos, he didn't say to himself, "I hope this works out alright." He decided to PROVE HIMSELF RIGHT. There's an epically huge difference between those two perspectives. In one, you kinda-sorta hedge and never really go all in. It's a good way to protect yourself from the risk of being wrong but it's also a really good way to be mediocre. When you make a real decision, you, by definition, cut off all the other options and go ALL IN. Then you're not interested in hedging. You're interested in winning. So, you go to work, HUSTLING to make sure you prove yourself right. Today's +1. Quick check in: What's important to you right now? Like super important. If you could wave a wand and make THIS wildly important thing happen, what would it be? Got it? You willing to really dream? Fantastic. Now, are you hedging or are you going all in antifragile style? Go prove yourself right.

Legend has it that when Michelangelo stepped up to a block of marble, he could see the finished statue in his mind's eye. His job was simple: Get rid of what was in the way. That's a pretty powerful image. Let's apply it to our lives. Step back from your current life for a moment. Fast-forward 5-10 years. Look within the block of marble that is you and your potential. SEE the best version of you sitting within that block of marble. Can you see it? You at your best. Now… What's in the way of you expressing that heroic version of you more and more consistently? What little habits do we need to chip away at to reveal the most beautiful version of you hidden within that marble? And, what's the one little habit we're going to let go of today to reveal just a little more of the awesome? Fantastic. Here's a chisel. Let's do this! How? +1. +1. +1.

William Shakespeare once told us (via Polonius in Hamlet): "This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man." For some reason, as a 15-year old in high school, I decided THAT would be the very first quote I ever wrote down and committed to memory. I can still vaguely see my handwriting on a little index card in my mind's eye. I laugh with joy as I think of that awesome younger version of me thinking that was a quote worthy of my attention. "This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man." To thine own self be true… Are you? Emerson echoed this wisdom centuries later when he said: "Trust thyself. Every heart vibrates to that iron string!" Trust thyself… Do you? Today's +1. Let's live the wise words of our dear friends Will and Ralph just a little more today.