Optimize New Releases

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.

Tom Sterner is one of my favorite writers and thinkers. This is the third Note we’ve created on one of his great books. We started with The Practicing Mind and then featured Fully Engaged. This is a quick reading, 120-page book (that I read in a couple hours before the family got up on Monday morning) all about, as per the sub-title, how to create “Emotional Freedom through Deliberate Thinking.” It’s fantastic. I’m excited to share a handful of my favorite Big Ideas so let’s jump straight in!

I got this book after I saw General Stanley McChrystal’s blurb on the back of Ryan Holiday’s Lives of the Stoics. I read it in one 8.8-hour Deep Work-filled day. It’s fantastic. McChrystal uses Plutarch and his profiles of some of history’s most prominent figures as his inspiration and focuses on thirteen leaders in six pairs plus one standing alone. Almost all leadership books are prescriptive in nature. This book is not. Rather than make us believe that there’s a nice, simple recipe for leadership, McChrystal, Eggers and Mangone present us with the “myths” of leadership and the MUCH MESSIER “realities” of leadership. After the profiles of the thirteen leaders, the authors present the three myths of leadership and their new definition of leadership. We end the book with the sober recognition of just how complex, dynamic and context-specific good leadership is. It’s a challenging, important book that’s difficult to distill into a nice and tidy and practical 6-page Note but I’m excited to share some of my favorite Ideas as we all continue to step up into our own idiosyncratic expressions of Heroic leadership. So... Let’s get to work!

Did you know that there’s a “Science of Spirituality”? Yep. There is. It’s fascinating. And, Lisa Miller is the pioneering researcher who created the field. This book is the distillation of her decades of work to help us apply her research to our (Heroic!) “Quests for an Inspired Life.” Lisa is also the founder and director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, the first Ivy League graduate program in spirituality and psychology. And, she is the New York Times bestselling author of The Spiritual Child and a professor in the clinical psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University. As you’d expect, the book is packed with Big Ideas. I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

This is Mel Robbins’ second book. We featured her first book called The 5 Second Rule which is A W E S O M E! When I saw she had written this one, I was excited to get it. It is also A W E S O M E! If you’re familiar with Mel, you know she’s one of the leading voices in personal development and transformation. She’s changed millions of lives with her books, podcast, and online courses. In fact, Mel coaches more than 60 million people online every month and videos featuring her work have more than a BILLION views, including her TEDx Talk called “How to stop screwing yourself over” which is one of the most popular of all time. One of the reasons she’s so beloved is because she’s so incredibly real. This book features the High 5 Habit for which the book is named AND a dozen other life-changing tools AND at least that many stories about her own (Heroic!) challenges and how she’s used these tools to flip the switch and create a life of deep meaning and joy. The book is packed with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share a handful of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

I love Seth Godin. Although we’ve only featured one of his other books so far (The Icarus Deception), I’ve read a number of others and I have been deeply inspired by him and his style and his fierce commitment to DOING.THE.WORK. This book is, essentially, a collection of over 200 Big Ideas all about, as per the sub-title, “Shipping Creative Work.” How do we best do that? We master “The Practice.” For our purposes, we’re going to focus on the ultimate creative work we are each universally called to do: Making our LIVES a masterpiece. How do we do that? As we discuss ALL.THE.TIME, we close the gap between who we are capable of being and who we are actually being by moving from Theory to Practice to Mastery Together by making TODAY a masterpiece. Let’s explore some Big Ideas on how to go about closing that gap TODAY!!!

The Last Lecture is an inspiring handbook for life written as a follow-up to a viral talk by Randy Pausch. Randy was a Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. When it became terminal, he gave his “last lecture.” The talk was recorded. It went viral. And this book was written with Jeffrey Zaslow as a follow-up. Over 20 million people have now watched that talk and, if you’re one of them, you know just how magnetically inspiring Randy is. The book features fifty-three micro chapters—each telling a different story from Randy’s life. It’s packed with wisdom and I’m excited to share some of my favorite Big Ideas so let’s jump straight in!

This is our sixth Note on Darrin Donnelly and the final book from his "Sports for the Soul" series. We've featured the entire series. This book features a fourth-string quarterback on the worst college football team in the conference whose life changes the day he meets his new head coach who turns the program around by helping him and his teammates forge unstoppable confidence. It’s awesome. And, as you’d expect, it’s packed with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

This is our fifth Note on Darrin Donnelly and the fifth of six books from his "Sports for the Soul" series. We'll be featuring the entire series. This book is a fable about a high school coach who’s doubting whether he made the right decision to stay in the small town in which he grew up and coach the same football team his father coached for decades. The most important theme: Follow your heart. Trust yourself and your authentic path. Do what YOU are here to do. Do YOUR duty. Play YOUR role as well as you can. THAT is what it means to be truly Heroic. And, that’s what this book is all about. I’m excited to share a few of my favorite Big Ideas so let’s jump straight in!

This is our fourth Note on Darrin Donnelly and the fourth of six books from his "Sports for the Soul" series. We'll be featuring the entire series. Each of the books in the series features a Hero meeting a Guide. This book features a boxer who’s doubting his decision to try to become a professional fighter. What’s he need to do if he wants a shot at the heavyweight championship? He needs to conquer his fear. More specifically, he needs to conquer the SEVEN fears that are holding him (and all of us!) back from actualizing our potential. Let’s jump in and explore some of my favorite Ideas we can apply to our lives TODAY.

This is our third Note on Darrin Donnelly and the third of six books from his "Sports for the Soul" series. We'll be featuring the entire series. In this inspirational fable, we meet “Bobby Kane, a minor league baseball player who, at the age of 31, is coming to terms with the fact that his dream of making it to the majors” might be coming to a disappointing end. Then... He meets a wise manager who helps him develop the relentless optimism that helps him... spoiler alert... make his dreams a reality. Bobby, of course, represents ALL of us who face doubts on our Heroic quests. Now...it's time to chat about some of my favorite Big Ideas so let’s jump straight in!

This is our second Note on Darrin Donnelly and the second of six books from his "Sports for the Soul" series. We'll be featuring the entire series. This book is a fable that features an NCAA basketball coach named Coach Flanagan in his 43rd and final season writing letters to his grandchildren about how to develop grit in their lives via fifteen different rules. Coach Flanagan is a blend of John Wooden’s old-fashioned morals, Mike Ditka’s no-nonsense persona, Lou Holtz’s can-do optimism and strict discipline, and Vince Lombardi’s no-excuses, high expectations, never-back-down attitude. In other words, he’s awesome! The book is PACKED with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

This is our first Note on Darrin Donnelly and the first of six books from his "Sports for the Soul" series. We'll be featuring the entire series. This book is a fable about a college football coach going through hard times who is lucky enough to spend time with five of the most legendary sports coaches in history: John Wooden, Buck O’Neil, Herb Brooks, Paul “Bear” Bryant, and Vince Lombardi. Those coaches each share ONE Big Idea to help him navigate his challenges and fulfill his potential. I’m excited to share some of my favorite Big Ideas from this one so let’s jump straight in.

This is our fifth Note on one of Yogananda’s great little books/booklets. For now, it’s time to Awaken Your True Potential. Yogananda reminds me of a spiritually-centered mix of other thought leaders of the era—including guys like Orison Swett Marden, Napoleon Hill, and Dale Carnegie. He brings the same intensity with a focus on awakening to our TRUE potential—connecting to and expressing the Divine within. 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!

This is our first note on a book by Michael Easter. Michael Easter is an award-winning journalist, a contributing editor at Men’s Health magazine, columnist for Outside magazine, and professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. In this fantastic book, he tells us that we’re facing a COMFORT CRISIS. Want to Reclaim Your “Wild, Happy, Healthy Self”? EMBRACE DISCOMFORT. The book is packed with Big Ideas on how to do exactly that and I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

This is our third Note on one of Michael Singer's books. Michael Singer is one of my new, favorite spiritual teachers. The book has a chapter-essay on each of his three Laws: The Law of Karma, The Law of Will, and The Law of Love. It’s packed with Big Ideas and I’m excited to explore a handful of my favorites, so let’s jump straight in!

This is our fourth Note on one of Yogananda’s little books/booklets. As I immerse myself in Yogananda’s wisdom, it’s been fascinating to see the remarkable clarity and consistent coherence of his perspective AND the force with which he communicates it. Yogananda’s SPIRITUALITY is astonishingly PRACTICAL. It’s time to enjoy some of my favorite Big Ideas from this great little booklet. Let’s jump straight in!

This is our third Note on one of Yogananda’s books/booklets. This is a tiny little booklet. As the title and sub-title suggest, it’s all about how to live fearlessly by bringing out your inner soul strength. Or, as we’d like to say: How to forge antifragile confidence by high fiving your inner daimon. It’s packed with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

This is our sixth note on one of Steven Pressfield's books. Steven Pressfield is one of my favorite writers and human beings. His books, including this one, are both inspiring and beautifully pithy. If you’re a fan of his work, you’ll love this book. I’m excited to share a handful of my favorite Big Ideas, so let’s jump straight in!

This is our first note on one of Donald Miller's books. In this book Donald Miller integrates wisdom from Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. And, as you’d expect seeing that this is a book about a modern Hero (that would be YOU!) on a mission, Donald also touches on Joseph Campbellian themes throughout. The book is PACKED with Big Ideas and I’m excited to share some of my favorites so let’s jump straight in!

This is our second Note on one of Yogananda’s books. This book is a collection of articles that appeared in Yogananda’s magazines in the 1920s and 1930s. Yogananda reminds me of an Indian, often more spiritual version of old-school Western teachers like Orison Swett Marden, James Allen, Ernest Holmes, Dale Carnegie, and Napoleon Hill. If you’re interested in seeing what a yogi who inspired Steve Jobs has to say about success, I think you might enjoy the book as much as I did.

This is our first note on one of Yogananda's books. One of my new favorite teachers, Michael Singer, said that Yogananda has provided him with an "unending flow of inspiration." I think you'll feel that inspiration too! Although The Law of Success is only a TINY little booklet, it’s PACKED with wisdom that I'm excited to share with you now...so let's jump straight in!

This is our sixth (!) Note on one of Tom Morris's books. As you know if you’ve been following, Tom Morris is one of my all-time favorite authors and at least tied for first as my favorite living philosopher. In this book, Professor Morris challenges us to reconsider what it means to be a citizen and an “everyday patriot” in the modern world—committed to upholding the virtues of our highest ideals in our everyday lives. I’m excited to explore a handful of my favorite Big Ideas, so let's jump straight in.

This is our first note on a book by Wim Hof, who you may know as "The Iceman." He holds multiple world records for his feats of endurance and exposure to cold. And, as you may not know, the effectiveness of his methods—which are now practiced by millions—have been validated by eight university research studies. This book is a great way to learn more about just how powerful his method integrating cold, breath and the power of our minds can be.

This is our fourth note on one of Joe De Sena's great books. Joe De Sena is the founder of Spartan and one of my favorite human beings on the planet. In this note we explore De Sena's 10 Rules for Resilience. It's packed with Big Ideas that will help us collect "Resilience Data Points", make a mark on the world, and respect fear as normal so that our children may do the same. Aroo!

This is our sixth note on one of Ryan Holiday’s books and this is the second book in Ryan Holiday’s virtue series. We covered the first one, Courage Is Calling and now we'll explore the second: Discipline is Destiny. This book has three parts: In Part I, we explore discipline of The Exterior (The Body). In Part II, we explore discipline of The Inner Domain (The Temperament). In Part III, we explore discipline of The Magisterial (The Soul). It’s packed with Big Ideas. Courage is calling. Discipline is destiny. Let’s go, Hero!

This is our second note on one of Michael Singer's books. Michael Singer is one of my new favorite teachers and, after reading this book, I immediately picked up the first two books he wrote—nearly FIFTY years before he wrote this one. In this book, Singer shares a ton of big ideas that will help us truly surrender to what is, get perspective on our lives, and practice embracing the present moment so that we can get our own lives in harmony with reality. Let's go!

Brian Cain is one of the world’s greatest mental toughness coaches whose client list includes four Major League Baseball Cy Young Award winners, eight UFC world champion mixed martial artists, World Series and Super Bowl Champions and MVPs, Olympic medalists, and countless other elite athletes and coaches. In this note, we explore how you can "intentionally invest 1% of your day into yourself and become a better version of you today than you were yesterday." How will YOU get 1% better TODAY? It's Day 1, Hero.

Brian Cain is one of the world’s greatest mental toughness coaches whose client list includes four Major League Baseball Cy Young Award winners, eight UFC world champion mixed martial artists, World Series and Super Bowl Champions and MVPs, Olympic medalists, and countless other elite athletes and coaches. In this book, we'll walk through Brian Cain's 10 Pillars of Mental Performance Mastery so that we can use them to DOMINATE THE DAY and give the world all we've got.

This is our fourth note on one of William Damon's books. Professor Damon is one of the world’s leading scholars on human development across the lifespan. He’s also an incredibly good human being. In this book, William Damon helps us create a “coherent narrative” for our lives by, as per the sub-title, “Exploring Your Past to Make Peace with Your Present.” It’s FANTASTIC. We'll explore the three primary aspects of a 'life review' and a ton of other Big Ideas. Let’s jump straight in!

This is our fifth note on one of Ryan Holiday’s books. As I told my wife Alexandra after reading the first part of this book “Ryan is truly an INCREDIBLE writer.” As in, an ASTONISHINGLY compelling writer. He has truly mastered his craft—which is why he’s one of the world’s bestselling living philosophers whose books have sold more than four million copies. The book has three parts: Part I on Fear; Part II on Courage; and Part III on The Heroic. It’s packed with Big Ideas. Let’s explore a few my favorites now as we strive to show up with more Wisdom, Self-Mastery, COURAGE, and Love—not someday but TODAY.

This is the third Note we’ve created on Admiral William H. McRaven’s great books. We started with Make Your Bed—a short, brilliant, inspiring manual all about “Little Things That Can Change Your Life... And Maybe the World” that was inspired by McRaven’s commencement address at the University of Texas at Austin that went viral. Then we featured his autobiography called Sea Stories which is all about the wisdom he gained from his nearly four decades in special operations. This is his latest book. Of course, when I saw the title I KNEW I had to read it. And, here we are.

We’ve featured two of Gary Taubes’ other great books: Why We Get Fat and The Case Against Sugar. If you or a loved one have struggled with reaching your optimal weight while trying to follow the conventional wisdom that all you have to do is eat less and exercise more, I think you, too, will enjoy Taubes’s thoughtful perspective on just how flawed our current thinking is regarding the cause of obesity. Hint: It’s not an “energy balance” issue; it’s primarily a HORMONAL issue. The book is PACKED with Big Ideas. As in, jumbo packed. Hope you love the Note!

Heidi Grant Halvorson is one of the world’s leading motivational psychologists.

She runs the Motivation Science Center at Columbia’s Business School and wrote a great book we’ve featured called Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals.

She ALSO wrote THE most popular blog post in Harvard Business Review’s history. It’s called “Nine Things Successful People Do Differently.”

I highly recommend it and I encourage you to check it out.

Heidi ALSO wrote a great little book in which she expands on the ideas in that that blog post. Notes coming soon and, if you’re feeling it, get the book here.

Today I want to take a super-quick look at those NINE things successful people do differently.

I’m absolutely loving connecting with our Heroic Masters in our daily coaching sessions at 1:01 p.m. Central time.

There’s something magical about getting together as a community to move from Theory to Practice to Mastery TOGETHER every.single.day.

Yesterday I got to spend some time connecting with Fernando, a Hero from Mexico.

His challenge was creating bright lines around his social media usage so he could use it as a tool for his business without becoming a tool for social media companies to make their money hacking his attention.

Grandma and Grandpa got the kids Fitbits for Christmas.

And…

After Mommy’s first attempt to get them synced up to her phone didn’t work, they wound up finding a home in our kitchen drawer and we didn’t get them working until well into the new year.

Then…

I busted them out and got the app working on my batphone.

And…

The next day Emerson sprang out of bed to check on his sleep (he got 9 hours and 40 minutes!) and started tracking his steps.

This morning I was trading texts with one of our Heroic Coach I grads who has become a dear friend and text buddy.

Hi, Heather!! 👋

We were chatting about some exciting stuff going on with Heroic (and other potential longer-term exciting stuff!) when she sent a picture of her ADORABLE daughter Sofia and said that she just did an act of loving painting Sofia’s nails. (Target swipe! 🎯 )

I might have replied to that note by sending her a picture of my foot (HAH!) and letting her know that just the day before I had performed my own act of love (Target swipe! 🎯) by letting Eleanor paint my nails. 🦶 🖌️ 🤓

Today we’re going to wrap our little tour through some of the wisdom in Seth Godin’s great book The Practice.

As you may recall, we started by reminding ourselves of The ULTIMATE Practice. (Remember: The magic is that there IS NO MAGIC!) Then we talked about practice-confidence and building streaks as we reminded ourselves to DWYSYWD, Hero before we looked at the difference between Talent and Skill and talked about the best reason to say “NO!” (Hint: Have a bigger “YES!!”)

Now…

It’s time to talk about the power of one little word.

It has three letters.

It might just be THE most powerful word we can POSSIBLY add to any statement as we develop a new skill.

That word is…

“YET.”

In our last +1, we learned how to politely and unapologetically say “NO!” to the smorgasborg of distraction by saying “YES!!” to what we KNOW we are here to do.

Today we’re going to continue our exploration of wisdom from Seth Godin’s great book, The Practice, as we focus on the difference between TALENT and SKILL.

Over the last few +1s, we’ve been hanging out with Seth Godin and enjoying some wisdom from his book The Practice.

We talked about the fact that the magic of the process of optimizing our lives and actualizing our potential is that THERE IS NO MAGIC.

We also talked about the power of practice-confidence and building streaks as we reminded ourselves to DWYSYWD, Hero!!

Today we’re going to continue our exploration of Seth’s wisdom as we talk about the best reason to say, “NO!”

Continuing our exploration of some Big Ideas from Seth Godin’s great book The Practice, let’s talk about how to build confidence in your self and in your practice-protocol.

This is a very simple idea.

So simple that you might nod your head and agree and then completely forget about it.

Let’s not do that.

Here’s the wisdom from Seth.

He tells us: “Build streaks. Do the work every single day. Blog daily. Write daily. Ship daily. Show up daily. Find your streak and maintain it.”

In our last +1, we talked about how to build self-confidence by focusing on The Practice of showing up as our best, most Heroic version of ourselves.

It’s not so much that we trust ourselves per se…

It’s that we trust our PRACTICE.

We know that if we do what we know is best for us consistently and long enough, good things are likely to happen. And… We know that we’re winning all day every day as we execute that protocol and deepen our trust in ourselves and our protocol.

Today I want to connect that wisdom to some other wisdom we’ve explored.

Now that we’ve taken a little tour through Brian Tracy’s great book No Excuses!, it’s time to return to Seth Godin’s wisdom from his great book The Practice.

First.

Let’s remind ourselves that…

“The magic of the creative process is that there is no magic.”

I repeat…

Again in bold this time…

“The magic of the creative process is that there is no magic.”

Want to optimize your life and actualize your Heroic potential?

There’s NO MAGIC to it.

In the last few +1s, we’ve been having fun mining some wisdom from Brian Tracy’s great book, No Excuses!

As you may recall (but I’m deliberately reminding you to help you remember—spaced repetition meets recall for the Learning 101 win, folks!), we started with a quick excursion to Someday Isle, then we reminded ourselves that we’re teleological beings and that successful people think long-term and that they also take action in alignment with those goals NOW.

Today we’re going to chat about the battle within then we’re going to head back over to Seth Godin’s wisdom on The Practice.

In our last +1, we talked about some Aristotelian wisdom (delivered via Brian Tracy and confirmed by Tom Morris and Sonja Lyubomirsky) on the fact that we are teleological beings.

Telos = Targets. 🎯

To recap: Ancient wisdom and modern science agree…

Eudaimonically flourishing human beings have clear TARGETS.

Do you?

In our last +1, we took a detour from some +1s on Seth Godin’s The Practice to enjoy a trip to Someday Isle compliments of Brian Tracy’s great book No Excuses!

We’re going to spend some more time with Mr. Tracy then we’ll go back to Mr. Godin.

As we’ve discussed, Brian Tracy is one of my favorite old-school, kick-your-motivation-into-high-gear gurus.

Back in the day—as in WAY back in the day when CDs in your car stereo system were a new, cutting-edge thing—I’d listen to his audios ALL.THE.TIME.

He asks some of THE most provocative questions and reading his books often leads to some long journaling sessions packed with insight.

Today we’re going to talk about the fact that we’re TELEOLOGICAL beings.

In our last +1, we talked about Seth Godin and his new book The Practice.

Of course, me being me and our work being what it is, I talked about the ULTIMATE practice—moving from Theory to Practice to Mastery Together TODAY.

Now…

When I wrapped that +1 up with my go-to “Not SOMEDAY… TODAY!” line, I wanted to link to a +1 on “Someday Isle.”

Then I realized we didn’t HAVE a +1 on Someday Isle yet so, before we get back to work with Seth, we’re going to spend some time with another great teacher.

I love Seth Godin.

As you may know, he’s one of the world’s most popular bloggers and business/life strategists.

Although we’ve only featured one of his other books so far (The Icarus Deception), I’ve read a number of others and I have been deeply inspired by him and his style and his fierce commitment to DOING.THE.WORK.

Seth writes in the same type of pithy style as his friend and another one of my favorite writers/ thinkers, Steven Pressfield. (Check out our collection of Notes on *his* books including The War of Art, Do the Work, Turning Pro, The Artist’s Journey, Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be, and a bunch of others.)

Today, and over the next few days, we’re going to talk about Seth’s latest book called The Practice.

Today we’re going to wrap up our quick tour through Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture.

Let’s get straight to work.

It’s time to…

Think NEGATIVELY.

In our last several +1s, we’ve been talking about Big Ideas from Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture. In our most recent +1, I shared my Last Letter to my brother, Rick. 🙏

I also encouraged you to consider writing a gratitude letter for (and sharing it with!) someone you love. Doing so for my brother in his final days was an ineffably powerful experience. (Check out this +1 to learn more about how and why to do it.)

Today I want to go back to wisdom from Randy’s great book based on the “Last Lecture” he gave at Carnegie Mellon.

We’re going to talk about the fact that Randy believed that being EARNEST is way more interesting/powerful character trait than being HIP. (I agree.)

In the last couple +1s, we’ve been talking about Randy Pausch’s powerful Last Lecture.

Today I want to talk about the Last Letter I wrote to my brother.

Quick context.

As we discussed, Randy Pausch was diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer.

So was my brother.

After doing everything I could to support my brother (and his family), after a two-year battle we knew he only had weeks then days to live.

As we discuss in this +1 on Gratitude Letters (+ Visits), expressing our appreciation to others in the form of a letter that we READ TO THEM IN PERSON can be an incredibly powerful experience for both people involved.

So…

I wrote my brother a letter of appreciation.

And I read it to him on what was, literally, his death bed. 🙏

In our last +1, we talked about Randy Pausch and his touching Last Lecture YouTube video and companion book.

I challenged you to consider what YOU would want to share with YOUR kids if YOU only had weeks to live.

Then…

I issued a much bigger challenge as I asked you if you were living in integrity with that wisdom because, of course, our kids don’t LISTEN to what we say as much as they MODEL who we are and what we do.

As you know if you are blessed to be a parent, THAT is one of the most sobering facts of parenting.

Today I want to chat more about the wisdom from Randy’s Last Lecture.

Have you seen Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture” YouTube video?

Over 21 million people have watched it and, if you’re one of them, you know just how magnetically inspiring Randy is.

If you *haven’t* seen the video yet and don’t know who Randy Pausch is, you can watch it here.

And…

Here’s the short story...

Randy was a Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. When it became terminal, he gave his “last lecture.” The talk was recorded. It went viral. He wrote a great book that extended the ideas from that talk.

That book, as you’d expect, is called The Last Lecture.

Today we’re going to wrap up our little tour through the first three books of Darrin Donnelly’s wonderful Sports for the Soul series.

As we’ve discussed, Darrin has a special ability to tell a GREAT, inspiring sports story PACKED with scientifically-grounded, practical wisdom.

It’s a rare and winning combination—which is why I’ll recommend you check out the Notes and books in the series yet again: Think Like a Warrior, Old School Grit, Relentless Optimism, Victory Favors the Fearless, Life to the Fullest, and The Turnaround.

Of course, like any great Hero’s Journey, a great sports fable needs to include a Hero who meets a Guide and has some Buddies who help him achieve the impossible.

I’ll save the spoiler alert for this minor league baseball player who makes it to the Big Leagues and does something incredible.

In our last couple +1s, we talked about dominating your environment and hitting a crazy number of Heroic Targets.

My eyes still go like this 😲 and my head still goes like this 🤯 when I imagine our Heroic friend DOMINATING 150 Targets per day.

LET’S GO, HERO!!

👏 👏 👏 !!!

Firing ME up!! 🔥

Seriously.

😲 🤯 !!!

Today I want to go back to our tour through Darrin Donnelly’s Sports for the Soul series.

We’re going to explore another GREAT idea from Relentless Optimism.

In our last +1, we hung out with Dan Millman and Stuart Wilde as we talked about the power of DOMINATING our environment.

I encouraged us to make a habit out of dominating our environment—starting with our dishes.

I also encouraged us to reclaim all those lost moments for Mastery that George Leonard talks about. (He asks: “Could all of us reclaim lost hours of our lives by making everything—the commonplace along with the extraordinary—a part of our practice?”)

Then I suggested you consider adding some Heroic Love Targets like I have:

Do Dishes As Act of Love 🎯

Do Laundry As Act of Love 🎯

Clean House As Act of Love 🎯

Dan Millman is one of my all-time favorite teachers.

I’m pretty sure that The Way of the Peaceful Warrior was the second self-development book I ever read. (Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People was the first.)

The sub-title to Dan’s book perfectly captures its power: “A Book That Changes Lives.”

It definitely changed mine.

In our last +1, we talked about creating Relentless Optimism via Targeted Thinking AND Heroic action.

In the one before that, we hung out with Michael Jordan (and SNL’s Stuart Smalley! 🤓) to talk about how to Forge Antifragile Confidence.

Today we’re going to talk about the fact that, as Darrin Donnelly puts it in Relentless Optimism, Failure Is a L-I-E.

Let’s jump straight in.

In our last +1, we started talking about book #3 in Darrin Donnelly’s Sports for the Soul series: Relentless Optimism.

Then I called an audible and we chatted about Michael Jordan and Stuart Smalley and how to Forge Antifragile Confidence.

Today we’re going to come back to Relentless Optimism.

In our recent series of +1s, we made it through some wisdom from the first TWO fables in Darrin Donnelly’s Sports for the Soul series: Think Like a Warrior and Old School Grit.

We’ll keep the momentum going with a quick look at some wisdom from this THIRD book in the series. It’s called Relentless Optimism.

First…

How great of a title is that?!

RELENTLESS OPTIMISM.

Today we’re going to wrap up our tour through Old School Grit, the second fable in Darrin Donnelly’s Sports for the Soul series.

We talked about Old School Grit then we talked about Modern Science Grit. From there we talked about the 15 Rules of Grit. Then we focused on Rule #4: Champions Finish Strong.

It’s time to talk about Rule #12: Don’t Waste a Day.

In our last +1, we talked about Darrin Donnelly’s 15 Rules of Grit from his great “Sports for the Soul” fable Old School Grit.

Today we’re going to talk about Rule #4.

Continuing our tour through Darrin Donnelly’s Sports for the Soul series, Today we’re going to talk about some more ways to cultivate Old School Grit.

In his fable about a retiring NCAA coach sharing wisdom with his grandchildren during his final March Madness, Darrin has his Hero-Guide share 15 Rules of Grit.

Here they are:

Rule #1: Don’t Accept Your Fate, Create Your Destiny.

Rule #2: You’ll Only Achieve What You Believe You Can Achieve.

Rule #3: Embrace the Pressure.

Rule #4: Finish Strong.

Rule #5: Find Something You Love to Do and Stick with It.

Rule #6: Keep Moving Forward.

Rule #7: Put the Needs of Others Above Your Own.

Rule #8: Live for a Purpose Greater than Yourself.

Rule #9: Eliminate Negative Influences.

Rule #10: Effort Trumps Talent.

Rule #11: Focus on Only the Things You Can Control.

Rule #12: Don’t Waste a Day.

Rule #13: Life Is a Series of Wins and Lessons.

Rule #14: Don’t Put Off Pursuing Your Dreams.

Rule #15: Don’t Quit. Don’t Ever Quit.

That’s Today’s +1.