New Releases

A look at the past, present, and future of Heroic Public Benefit Corporation and how we intend to fulfill our mission to help 51% of humanity flourish by 2051.

An overview of how to forge a heroically confident mind, so you can forge excellence, activate your potential, and change the world with us.

This is our fourth Note on one of Mark Divine’s books. Mark is a retired Navy SEAL Commander. He also has twenty-five years of experience as an entrepreneur. In this book, he teaches us how to be Uncommon. Over the last decade, Mark has become a dear friend, soul brother, and big investor in and supporter of Heroic. So... When he told me he had this book coming out, I was fired up to receive an advance copy. I read it in basically a single sitting. It’s fantastic. It’s packed with Big Ideas. I’m fired up to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

Areté. It’s the one-word answer the Stoics would give you if you asked them how to live a good life, the one-word summation of our philosophy at Heroic, and the title of Brian Johnson’s book featuring 451 ideas/chapters to help us activate our Heroic Potential. As you know if you’re familiar with Brian and his iconoclastic style, the book is a quick-reading, conversational, knock-your-socks-off-with-practical-wisdom masterpiece.

Caroline Adams Miller is one of my favorite human beings on the planet. And... This book is one of my ALL-TIME favorite books. In fact, it’s at least tied for first as my all-time favorite positive psychology book. Caroline has a remarkable ability to make the basic science of well-being SUPER PRACTICAL and the density of TRULY PRACTICAL, SCIENTIFICALLY GROUNDED wisdom in this book is astonishing. Gary Latham wrote the foreword. As you may know, Dr. Latham (and his colleague Dr. Edwin Locke) are THE WORLD’s preeminent authorities on the science of goal setting. His two-page foreword in and of itself is amazing. He tells us: “This book is a ‘must read’ because it brings science to life—your life.” I agree. I highly recommend you check it out. As you can imagine, the book is PACKED with Big Ideas. It’s going to be tough to focus on just a handful of my favorite Big Ideas, so let’s get straight to work!

I’m not sure exactly where I saw this book referenced. But, when I saw the title I figured it would be a good addition to our ever-growing collection of Notes on mental toughness books so I got it and here we are. Steve Siebold founded Mental Toughness University in 1986. He’s the author of a number of books and has worked with elite performers around the world for decades. As per the title, this book is PACKED with “177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class”/ “The Thought Processes, Habits, and Philosophies of the Great Ones.” I’m excited to share some of my favorite Big Ideas so let’s jump straight in!

Tim Kennedy is a FASCINATING, inspiring human being. Imagine blending David Goggins and Jocko Willink and Nims Purja together then throwing them into a UFC ring and reading about their lives with a BRUTALLY honest magnifying glass on ALL the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s hard to put into words how compelling the book is but it’s REALLY good. Laugh-out-loud funny. Humbling. Inspiring. If you (or a loved one) enjoy great military and/or sports biographies, I think you’ll love it as much as I did. Although it’s a memoir, not a self-development book, it’s packed with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in.

I love Alden Mills. I’m not sure how we connected but I’m very happy we did. I read his first book, Be Unstoppable, years ago. I read it by myself first, then I read it with Emerson. Then I read his second book Unstoppable Teams and we even produced a class on it with Alden called Unstoppable Teams 101. This book is PACKED with great stories about (and Big Ideas from!) his Navy SEAL training days and his time as a Navy SEAL Platoon Commander along with great stories/Ideas from his entrepreneurial days as the Founder/CEO of an Inc. 500 fastest growing company AND as a devoted father of four boys. I’m excited to share a few of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

I got this book while I was reading Alden Mills’s great book, Unstoppable Mindset. Alden referenced Dr. Zinsser and wisdom from this book a bunch of times so, midway through reading his book, I Amazoned this one. Thanks to the miracle that is our modern world, the book arrived the following evening. I started it the next morning and finished it that day. It’s FANTASTIC. I think it’s now at least tied for first as THE best mental toughness book I’ve ever read.

Maurice Ashley is a Chess Grandmaster, a chess commentator, a national championship coach, and an author. In 1999, at the age of 33, he became the first African American Chess Grandmaster in the game’s history, and in 2016 he was inducted into the US Chess Hall of Fame. This book is packed with wisdom on everything from how to embrace the power of mistakes (and the inevitability of losing!) to improving every day through the power of focus and endless learning. I’m excited to share some of my favorite Big Ideas, so let’s jump straight in!

Admiral James Stavridis is one of the great naval leaders of our time. He spent more than thirty years in the US Navy, rising to the rank of four-star admiral. He was Supreme Allied Commander at NATO. He also holds a PhD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he recently served five years as dean. This book is “a master class in decision-making under pressure through the stories of nine famous acts of leadership in battle, drawn from the history of the United States Navy, with outcomes both glorious and notorious.” The book is packed with great stories and Big Ideas. I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

I got this book after reading Admiral Mike Manazir’s great book Learn How to Lead to Win. It's a pretty obscure book but the good Admiral loved it so I got it. And I’m happy I did. It’s a super short, quick-reading book on, as per the sub-title, “21 Ways to Bring the Best Out of Yourself and Others.” It’s fantastic. As you’d expect, the book is packed with Big Ideas. As always, I’m excited to share some of my favorites we can apply to our lives TODAY so let’s jump straight in!

Deion Sanders is the only player in sports history to play in a Super Bowl and World Series. He’s an NFL Hall of Famer and a two-time Super Bowl Champion. More recently, he’s dedicated his life to redefining coaching and leadership as “Coach Prime.” After leading Jackson State University to two SWAC Championships he took over the head coaching job at the University of Colorado. This book is like having a conversation with a wise, playful, super high energy iconoclast. It’s packed with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in.

Jordan B. Peterson spent a couple decades as a clinical psychologist and a professor at Harvard and the University of Toronto before publishing his first book 12 Rules for Life which has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. He’s reached millions of people via his YouTube channel and podcasts. His 1999 book Maps of Meaning revolutionized the psychology of religion. The New York Times described him as “The most influential public intellectual in the Western world right now." While Peterson can be considered polarizing and controversial, the wisdom in this book is profound. As you'd expect, it's PACKED with Big Ideas and we're barely going to scratch the surface in this Note. I’m excited to share a handful of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

David Horsager is a business strategist, entrepreneur, professor and author who researches and speaks on the bottom-line impact of trust. His clients range from Toyota, Verizon, and the New York Yankees to FedEx, Nationwide, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. As per the inside front flap of the book, David tells us that the foundation of genuine success is TRUST. In the book, he walks us through the 8 Pillars of Trust. As you’d expect, the book is PACKED with Big Ideas and, as always, I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

James Altucher is an entrepreneur, active angel investor, writer, podcaster, stand-up comedian, and chess master. This book is FANTASTIC—perfectly capturing his eccentric, iconoclastic style while challenging A LOT of the cultural norms we think are fixed in stone which, in fact, ARE NOT. As per the sub-title, “Skip the Line” is all about “The 10,000 Experiments Rule and Other Surprising Advice for Reaching Your Goals.” As you’d expect, it’s PACKED with Big Ideas and, as always, I’m fired up to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

Greg Harden is one of the world’s greatest peak performance coaches. He spent over 30 years building champions at the University of Michigan where he worked with 400 future professional athletes, 50 NFL first-round draft picks, and 120 Olympians from over 20 countries. Harden has worked with both Tom Brady and Michael Phelps—two of the greatest athletes of all time! In this great book, he walks us through the most life-changing Big Ideas he teaches his peak performers to help them go to the next, NEXT level while showing us how we can do the same. I loved the book and highly recommend it. Let's jump straight in!

This is our first note on Urban Meyer, one of the most successful NCAA football coaches in history. It’s kind of like a mash-up of elite football coach Pete Carroll’s Win Forever and elite CrossFit coach Ben Bergeron’s Chasing Excellence in that, like Bergeron, he shares his leadership lessons in the context of a single season but only, like, Carroll, he does it on the football field. It’s a FANTASTIC, hard-hitting book packed with wisdom and Big Ideas. If you’re into sports, leadership, and/or mental toughness books (or all three of those!), I think you’ll love it.

Matt Higgins is a FASCINATING human being. He was raised in poverty by a single mom, dropped out of high school at sixteen, then wound up getting his law degree and became the youngest press secretary to the mayor’s office in New York City history. Then he helped lead the effort to rebuild the World Trade Center site before becoming an executive for the New York Jets. THEN he became a guest shark on Shark Tank, an executive fellow teaching at Harvard Business School, and has invested in some of America’s most beloved brands through the investment firm he co-founded. In this book, he tells us how he did it while sharing a TON of inspiring stories about others who went ALL IN on their dreams. It’s fantastic. I highly recommend it. The sub-title of the book is “Toss Plan B Overboard and Unleash Your Full Potential.” That, of course, reminds me of the sub-title of OUR book: Areté: Activate Your Heroic Potential. The book is PACKED with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

I got this book immediately after seeing Tom Morris’s strong recommendation of it in his new book Stoicism for Dummies. It’s FANTASTIC. I can still *vividly* remember reading his Letters from a Stoic nearly 25 years ago (on a boat in the Mediterranean!) not too far from where Seneca wrote the letters 2,000 years ago. This book is now one of my all-time favorite books on Stoicism. It made me fall in love with Seneca. In fact, as you know if you’ve been following along, I’ve often said that Epictetus is my favorite teacher and Aurelius is my favorite leader but... Seneca is a fascinating blend of BOTH of their BEST qualities. I think he’s now my favorite Stoic. The book is PACKED (!) with Big Ideas. We’ll barely scratch the surface of its wisdom before we run out of space/time but I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s get to work!

John Wooden is one of my all-time favorite Heroes. As you know if you’re a sports fan, he’s considered THE greatest coach of the twentieth century. His UCLA Bruins won a staggering 10 NCAA National Championships in 12 years. They also had an 88-game winning streak and won 38 straight NCAA tournament games. Wooden only had ONE losing season in his entire 41-year coaching career. And, that losing season came in his FIRST season coaching high school basketball. As you’d expect, this book is PACKED (as in PACKED!) with Big Ideas. My copy of the book is absurdly marked up and we will only scratch the surface of all the wisdom in it so, if you feel so inspired, I HIGHLY recommend you get a copy today. With that, let’s get to work.

As you know if you’ve been following along, Tom Morris is one of my ALL-TIME favorite teachers. As I mentioned in the SIX other Notes we’ve created on his great books, Tom has two PhD’s from Yale—one in Philosophy and the other in Religious Studies. He was a beloved philosophy professor at Notre Dame for 15 years. This book is fantastic. It isn’t for “Dummies” though. Tom and his co-author, fellow academic philosopher Gregory Bassham, do a great job of rigorously covering the history and practical application of Stoicism while injecting plenty of humor along the way. It’s arguably THE most thorough overview of Stoicism you’ll find. I highly recommend it if you want a deeper dive. As you’d expect, the book is PACKED with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share a few of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

Ed Mylett is, as per the inside flap of the book, “a highly successful entrepreneur, performance coach, bestselling author, and one of the world’s most inspirational public speakers.” This book is the inspiring and practical distillation of 30 years of his accumulated wisdom. The thesis of the book—that you might just be “ONE More” thought/idea/action/habit/relationship away from FUNDAMENTALLY changing your life reminds me of Jim Rohn’s idea about combination locks. More about that in the Note. The book features 19 chapters on everything from “One More Identity” (chapter #1!) and “One More Dream” (#7) to “One More Goal” (#9) and “One More Habit” (#12). It’s fantastic. As you’d expect, it’s PACKED with Big Ideas. As always, I’m excited to share a handful of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

George Mumford is an incredibly humble, Heroically wise human being who beautifully embodies the wisdom he shares. This is the second Note we’ve done on one of his great books. The first was on The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance. As we discussed in that Note, George was Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant’s mindfulness coach. Phil Jackson brought him in to help take the Chicago Bulls to the next level then did it again when he was coaching the Los Angeles Lakers. As per the introduction, this book is all about how to “unlock” your inner greatness. It’s fantastic. It’s packed with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share a handful of my favorites so let’s jump straight in.

Dr. Rob Gilbert has been teaching sports psychology since 1979. And, he’s been dominating a daily inspiring message for OVER 30 YEARS. This book, that was recommended to me by my dear friend Brian Cain, is a SUPER conversational, quick-reading look at how to, as per the sub-title, “Get Mentally Primed to Perform Your Best” by, as per the sub-sub-title, “Using Inspirational Stories, Practical Sports Psychology Tips and Over 120 of the Greatest Motivational Sports Quotes. It’s packed with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share a handful of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

Tim S. Grover is the preeminent authority on the science and art of achieving physical and mental dominance. He has worked with THE most elite basketball players in history. In this book, he shares his fierce wisdom in the context of stories about Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant as he RELENTLESSLY makes the point that “Winning” (with a capital “W”) is, shall we say, not for the faint of heart. If you’re feeling inspired to feel the INTENSITY of an ALL IN human being, I think you’ll love it. As you’d expect, the book is packed with Big Ideas. Let’s get to work.

Nirmal "Nims" Purja is a celebrated Nepali climber who holds a number of mountaineering world records. He served in the British Armed Forces as a Nepalese Gurkha and then as a solider in the Special Boat Service, an elite special forces unit of the Royal Navy. He holds the record for fastest ascent of all 14 mountain peaks that are 8,000+ meters above sea level (as captured in the documentary, 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible). This book is packed with Big Ideas and inspiring stories. I'm excited to share a few of my favorites so let's jump straight in!

Rick Rubin is an iconic music producer. He’s worked with some of the most successful musicians in the world—from Adele, Tom Petty, and Johnny Cash to the Beastie Boys, Jay-Z, and LL Cool J. He’s also the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings and former co-President of Columbia Records. And, he’s a Transcendental Meditation practitioner who writes with the same lucidity as Yuval Noah Harari whose preferred flavor of meditation happens to be Vipassana. This book is the distillation of the wisdom he’s gained working on himself and his craft over the last forty years. It’s PHENOMENAL. I highly recommend it. From the minimalist cover to the short, pithy micro chapters (both of which inspired my book Areté), the book itself is a work of art. It’s packed with profound wisdom on how to create great art and how to make your life your ultimate masterpiece. I’m excited to share some of my favorite Big Ideas so let’s jump straight in.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a FASCINATING human being and this is a fantastic book. I basically read it in one sitting one fine Sunday in between supporting Emerson during one of his recent chess tournaments. I watched Arnold’s inspiring documentary on Netflix so when I saw he released this book, I immediately got it, read it, and here we are. I highly recommend the book. Unless you’ve been in seclusion in the Himalayas for the last fifty years, you know who Arnold Schwarzenegger is. The young Arnold dominated the bodybuilding world then he became a leading man in Hollywood before serving for eight years as California’s 38th governor. In this book, he tells us about the seven tools he encourages us to use to create a life of deep meaning and purpose and to, in short... BE USEFUL. The book is packed with Big Ideas. I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s get to work.

This is the seventh book in Darrin Donnelly’s Sports for the Soul series. We’ve covered all of them so far. As I said in the previous Notes, I basically read the first six books in a single week. They are all AWESOME. In addition to brilliantly integrating ancient wisdom, modern science and practical tools in a grounded yet inspiring way, Donnelly has a gift for weaving that wisdom into a great sports story—which is why I’m such a big fan and highly recommend the books for you and your sports-loving friends and family and colleagues. This book features a professional golfer who is struggling to make it on the PGA Tour. He has the opportunity to spend time with one of the greatest golfers of the era who gives him some life-changing wisdom. It’s FANTASTIC. Super inspiring, quick-reading. Pure gold. Get a copy here. As you’d expect, the book is packed with Big Ideas. As always, I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

In Greatest Year Ever 101, we’ll help you activate your Heroic potential so you can fundamentally and PERMANENTLY change your life as we make this year the greatest of your life!

In Part II of Greatest Year Ever, Brian shows us how we can use the Heroic app to activate our Heroic Potential and make this TRULY the greatest year of our lives.

General Jim Mattis is the former Secretary of Defense and one of the most formidable strategic thinkers of the twenty-first century. He wrote this book with Bing West, a former assistant secretary of defense and combat Marine. This book is, as per the back cover, “a clear-eyed account of learning to lead in a chaotic world” in which Mattis “recounts the foundational experiences and lessons he learned over four decades and in three wars. It is a journey about learning to lead at every level, with insights equally applicable to the military, to business, and to individual growth.” I got this book on the recommendation of a new, dear friend who happens to be a long-time student (and Heroic Coach) who also happens to be a commanding officer in the U.S. military. It’s an absolutely FANTASTIC memoir packed with wisdom on how to lead—which is why it has nearly 5,000 5-star reviews. The book reminds me of two other memoirs by military leaders I admire: Admiral William McRaven’s Sea Stories and General Colin Powell’s It Worked for Me. It also reminds me of Phil Knight’s memoir Shoe Dog and Ray Dalio’s Principles. And... For related books on leadership, check out our Notes on General Stanley McChrystal’s Leaders: Myths and Reality plus Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Leadership in Turbulent Times. As you’d expect, this book is packed with Big Ideas. I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

Muhammad Ali was a magnetically charismatic heavyweight champion turned humanitarian. Wikipedia tells us that he was nicknamed “The Greatest” and that “he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century and is often regarded as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.” He wrote this book with his daughter Hana Ali in 2004. He was 62 at the time. He died at the age of 74 in 2016. It’s a fantastic autobiography in which we learn about the struggles he faced as a Black man living in the segregated South and the courage and commitment with which he strived to live a life of integrity and love. I highly recommend it as both a great, inspiring biography of one of the most beloved (and polarizing!) figures of the 20th century AND as a means to learn more about the challenges we continue to face in creating a just society. The book is PACKED with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

I got this book after one of the members of our Heroic community encouraged me to spend more time exploring and sharing wisdom from Black authors.

She recommended some books and told me that I’d LOVE Eric and his wisdom.

Thanks, Miata! You were right! :)

Eric Thomas is a FASCINATING human being.

As per his bio on the back flap, he is “part coach, part preacher, all grind.”

He’s one of the world’s best-known motivational speakers. Better known as ET, he’s inspired millions of people with his creative style and high-energy messages.

His raw authenticity is incredibly compelling and this book is fantastic. (Get a copy here.)

The book is PACKED with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share some of my favorites, so let’s jump straight in!

I'm typing this at 3:10pm CT outside Terminal 8 at the Austin airport.

The Wifey and kids dropped me off an hour ago and I just watched a sweet “We love you, Daddy!” video from them a minute ago. 🤗 🥰

I’m waiting to board Delta Flight #2725 to New York en route to a Top Secret destination in Europe where I’ll be training some of the most elite athletes in the world.

It’s going to be awesome.

In our last several +1s, we’ve been chatting about Emerson and his chess journey and how we have worked hard to preserve his intrinsic motivation by encouraging him to trust himself as he forges excellence by following his bliss.

For the record…

Once upon a time early on in Emerson’s chess journey (shortly after he got clear on the fact that he wanted to get REALLY good!) I made the mistake of trying to get him to create TOO much externally-imposed structure with his chess training.

In our last couple +1s, we spent some time with Rick Rubin, Joseph Campbell, and Emerson Aurelius Johnson.

Yes.

Emerson’s middle name is Aurelius.

Technically he doesn’t have a middle name on his birth certificate but he loves Aurelius and that’s effectively his middle name until we make it legally official. 😆

In our last +1, we talked about my morning ritual of checking out my Oura scores then committing to my Heroic protocol then soaking my mind in some inspiring virtue quotes then sharing those quotes on our social platform.

My #1 quote for that morning was a Rick Rubin gem.

As you may recall, in The Creative Act (which is a GREAT book, btw—check out the Notes!), Rubin tells us that…

Every morning I do pretty much the same thing—whether I’m in my bubble wrap at home or on the road.

I get up, check out my Oura scores (I’m an 88/89 today) and commit to my Heroic protocol.

Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap.

My intention is clear. I’m going to do my best to show up as my best in my energy, my work, and my love.

I’m typing this from a bathroom in a hotel in Dallas.

It’s 7:21am.

Emerson is still asleep in the king-size bed we shared last night. I’m his wingman for the boys-only chess tournament weekend and making sure he gets a GREAT night of sleep before his Sunday games is my #1 job right now so…

He’s 3-0 so far in the tournament—those three wins have come in the form of 1 win against a kid whose rating was a couple hundred points lower than his and a couple learning-wins via a couple of kids whose ratings were a couple hundred points higher than his.

It’s been another awesome weekend. I love my boy and I love these trips.

In our last several +1s (here, here, and here), we had some fun chatting about the excessive celebration penalty the Heroic gods blessed me with after I, apparently, got a little too excited about my protocol domination and Oura scores.

Aren’t those Heroic gods clever in finding ways to get us to go next level in practicing our philosophy?!!

In our last couple +1s, we had fun chatting about some Stoic practices I got to put to work in response to the Heroic gods blessing me with an excessive celebration penalty. (Hah.)

That always cracks me up when I imagine the Heroic gods laughing as they issue me a yellow card for being a bit too self-congratulatory in that moment.

I can literally see the ref in a recent Toronto FC Major League Soccer game issuing one of their opponents a yellow card after ripping his shirt off scoring his first goal.

In our last +1, we talked about the Heroic (Stoic!) gods’ wonderfully clever sense of humor.

As you may recall, they noticed just how fired up I was about my bubble wrap domination of my protocol that led to some decent Oura Readiness scores.

And…

They decided to give me an excessive penalty celebration in the form of getting hammered with a nice little flu bug that immediately brought my Readiness to an all-time low (37! 😲 ) which gave me a wonderful opportunity to practice my philosophy while cultivating some humility and remembering just how precious our life and health is.

Not too long ago, I posted a little note on Heroic social celebrating an incredible stretch of SUPER DEEP work days as I got ahead on content.

I also celebrated the fact that I can easily dominate my Oura scores from within the bubble wrap of my zero tech inputs, perfectly controlled days, when I do go deep.

In our last +1, we continued our discussion of how to make deposits into our psychological bank accounts to forge the INTENSE TRUST in ourselves to KNOW we have what it takes to show up as our best when it matters most.

We had some fun with Emerson and HIS Top 10 Hero Bars and I encouraged you to have fun doing the same with a little loved one as well.

In our last +1, we continued our extended series of +1s on my new The Confident Mind-inspired Heroic Journaling process that includes making deposits into my “psychological bank account” via the past, present, and future.

I spent some time talking about some of my own personal Hero Bars, as I tried to capture how I spend SIXTY SECONDS (nearly) every morning quickly replaying a highlight reel of my PAST successes—deepening my absolute (!) certainty that I have what it takes to show up and DOMINATE my CURRENT mission.

In our last +1, we continued our discussion of Heroic Confidence Journaling and decided to create a series of +1s on the subject rather than one massive +11 (or +101!).

Let’s continue.

First, quick check in.

Did you take the few minutes to capture your Top 10 list of things you are MOST proud of in your life?

If so, great work.

In our last +1, I started to tell you about how I’ve changed my journaling since reading The Confident Mind.

Then…

My context-setting prelude redefining confidence became a +1 in and of itself.

So…

Today we’ll talk about how my journaling has changed.

After reading The Confident Mind by Nate Zinsser, I changed the way I journal in the morning.

Here’s the short story.

As you know if you’ve been following along, every single morning (!) I share my Oura scores with two of my favorite people on the planet: Brandon Guyer and Sean Casey.

For curious souls: This morning I was an 86 Readiness, 92 Sleep.

Now…

I started typing this onboard a Delta plane getting ready to head back home to Austin from Norfolk, Virginia via Nashville Tennessee.

My flight last night was canceled.

Which, of course, provided the PERFECT opportunity to practice our philosophy.

In our last +1, we spent some time with Captain Fisheye and ChatGPT as we had fun exploring the origin story of the modern-day salute.

Then I connected that practice to the modern science of creating micro moments of awesome which form a critical part of enhancing our well-being and strengthening our modern social fabric.

We talked about the SCIENCE behind this practice in our Notes on Barbara Fredrickson’s Love 2.0–which is AT LEAST tied for first as THE most life-changing book I’ve ever read.

I’m typing this a week after Michael and I spent some time in Virginia.

We had the privilege of rolling out Heroic with Naval Special Warfare and our East Coast F/A-18 Training Squadron.

As always, it was a sacred honor to spend time with these men and women who protect the freedoms on which our flourishing is so dependent.

In our last +1, we spent some time hanging out as I took my socks off.

Yes.

We’re using every moment of our lives as an opportunity to practice our philosophy.

Today we’re going to talk about socks.

Socks?

Yep.

Socks.

John Wooden would be proud.

Let’s get straight to work.

The other day I was having a chat with a new friend who happens to be the head coach of one of THE most prestigious college football programs in the country.

We were chatting about how we plan to roll out Heroic for his team (and the team behind the team!) for the upcoming season.

That was a lot of fun. 🤓

Have you used ChatGPT yet?

I hadn’t downloaded the app until about a week ago—focusing on my preferred flavor of AI of Ancient Intelligence vs. the newer form of Artificial Intelligence. 🤓

And…

After playing around with the app over the last couple weeks, let’s just say I’m a believer.

I’m typing this the night before we kick off our first Heroic Workshop Instructor training.

120 Heroic Coaches from 110 cities, 13 countries (and 33 US states!) are joining us for our inaugural training in Austin, Texas.

Note: We’ll be doing a European training in Athens in November (it’s gonna be awesome!) and a second North American training in Arizona in October (that will be awesome as well 😉). Sign up or learn more.

I’m typing this from seat 6A on Southwest Airlines flight 480 that’s departing in 5 minutes from Tampa en route to Austin.

My morning was dominated.

In our last series of +1s, we’ve been having fun exploring our relationship to data and the science that shows how important it is we use that data wisely.

It’s funny because the family called me right after I typed that.

We chatted about the USSOCOM Awards ceremony and how inspiring it was.

In our last couple +1s, we talked about my trip to Tampa to spend some time with some of THE most elite special forces warriors in the world and the fact Oura thought I didn’t have a great night simply because my sleep data was a little less than what it wanted to see.

I mentioned how I approach that data and connected it to some wisdom from renowned researcher Ellen Langer.

In our last +1, we talked about the fact that Oura couldn’t see through my raw sleep data to recognize the fact that the prior night was, in fact, one of the most inspiring nights of my life.

We briefly chatted about Admiral McRaven’s electric speech and then I mentioned what I do when my Oura data isn’t optimal.

I promised to talk about the science behind why I do that.

Here it is.

I’m typing this from the balcony of my hotel at 7:43 a.m. in the morning on Friday, May 10th, 2024.

It’s a beautiful morning and I’m overlooking the bay in St. Petersburg.

Oura tells me I got 5 hours and 13 minutes of sleep last night (a 76 Sleep Score) and that my Readiness is a 73.

The little title to my Readiness Score is “Focus on what’s important” and the copy (I’m pretty sure Oura recently hired a new copywriter as these messages keep getting wittier!) says “Seems like you didn’t have the best of nights, but you’ll be fine.”

In our last +1, we spent some more time with Caroline Adams Miller, mining some wisdom from her great book on the science of Creating Your Best Life.

Today I want to chat about one more idea from her great book.

We’re going to look at how to TRIPLE your success.

Let’s get straight to work.