Heroes!

Michael here. 👋

Welcome to December!!!

As we enter the final month of 2024, I’m reminded of a story that the brilliant business thinker Jim Collins shares in one of his classic books, Good to Great.

It’s the story of how a high school track team went from Good to Great, winning back-to-back state championships and becoming a perennial contender.

Their secret:

“We run best at the end.”

Simple. Powerful. Effective.

“We run best at the end of workouts. We run best at the end of races. And we run best at the end of the season, when it counts the most.

We run best at the end.”

How about you?!

What would the next 31 days look like if YOU were committed to ending the year “running” at your best?

Ready to find out?

We’re going to have fun dialing up the speed en route to closing the year strong, together! 🔥

Over the next week, we’ll build a foundation for the month (and next year!) by leaning on more wisdom from Jim Collins.

Plus, tomorrow, Heroic Holidays continues with brand new Cyber Monday deals (and one more week of the strength-for-two specials)!

We’re also going to have a Soul Force Score challenge for December, with a raffle for some epic prizes.

Note: No matter what your current Soul Force Score is, if you got a single point every day between now and Jan 1, you would end the year at 101! (And, everyone who DOES end the year at 101 will be entered into the raffle! More on that soon.)

PLUS more gifts, and a few fun surprises.

We’re ALL IN on YOU activating your Heroic potential.

Now let’s recap another great week!

Note: Forwarded this email? Sign up for updates and a zero-cost Heroic membership here.

1. Big Goals

This week’s first new Philosopher’s Note is on Big Goals by Caroline Adams Miller:

“Just as the Renaissance created a more evidence-based approach to many fields, I believe it’s time for us to move into learning and embracing a science-backed approach to goal accomplishment through goal setting theory (GST) and the BRIDGE (Brainstorming, Relationships, Investments, Decision-Making, Good Grit, and Excellence) framework that I’ve spent years testing and refining. Let’s do away with fantasy approaches like “The Law of Attraction” and learn how to master our environments in ways that build resilience, optimism, and grit. Let’s go from dreaming about big goals to undertaking the journey to make them a reality, regardless of how hard we must work to overcome challenges and not get a trophy at the end of the day.

I believe that every one of us is responsible for leading ourselves to our best performances in work and life. We can’t expect others to do this for us, so my goal is for every reader to learn the skills and behaviors here to develop and enjoy the fruits of a more proactive approach to life. This mindset shift will lead you to a more fulfilling and purpose-driven existence and equip you with the tools to overcome procrastination and work disengagement. By the end of this book, you will have the practical strategies for developing resilience and grit to use every day in your personal and professional lives. The timeless nature of the principles ensures that the book will remain relevant for years to come, and possibly become the new classic in the goal setting field.

Ready to go? Let’s get started!”

— Caroline Adams Miller from Big Goals

Read or listen to the full Note here! (Or pick up a copy of the book here.)

2. Heroic Chat with Caroline Adams Miller

In addition to the Notes on Big Goals, we also hosted Caroline for a session on how to move from Theory to Practice with the wisdom in her new book.

Check out the replay of that session here.

3. Stolen Focus

This week’s second new Philosopher’s Note is on Stolen Focus by Johann Hari:

“I found strong evidence that our collapsing ability to pay attention is not primarily a personal feeling on my part, or your part, or your kid’s part. This is being done to us all. It is being done by very powerful forces. Those forces include Big Tech, but they also go way beyond them. This is a systemic problem. The truth is that you are living in a system that is pouring acid on your attention every day and then you are being told to blame yourself and to fiddle with your own habits while the world’s attention burns. I realized, when I learned all this, that there was a hole in all the existing books I had read about how to improve your focus. It was huge. They have, on the whole, neglected to talk about the actual causes of our attention crisis—which lie mainly in these larger forces. Based on what I learned, I have concluded that there are twelve deep forces at work that are damaging our attention. I came to believe we can only solve this problem in the long term if we understand them—and then, together, we stop them from continuing to do this to us.

There are real steps you can take as an isolated individual to reduce this problem for yourself, and throughout this book you’ll learn how to carry them out. I am strongly in favor of you seizing personal responsibility in this way. But I have to be honest with you, in a way I fear previous books on this topic were not. Those changes will only get you so far. They will solve a slice of the problem. They are valuable. I do them myself. But unless you are very lucky, they won’t allow you to escape the attention crisis. Systemic problems require systemic solutions. We have to take individual responsibility for this problem, for sure, but at the same time, together, we have to take collective responsibility for dealing with these deeper factors. There is a real solution—one that will actually make it possible for us to start to heal our attention. It requires us to radically reframe the problem, and then to take action. I believe I have figured out how we might start to do that.”

— Johann Hari from Stolen Focus

Read or listen to the full Note here!

P.S. This new Philosopher’s Note + 700 others + a TON of other wisdom and tools to support your growth are all part of Heroic Premium.

4. Have You Shared the Top 10 PNs?

Share the easy-download link with your family and friends! → Top 10 Philosopher’s Notes

They’ll get the Philosopher’s Notes on:

  • Lessons for Living by Phil Stutz
  • Deep Work by Cal Newport
  • Happy Together by Suzanne Pileggi Pawelski & James Pawelski
  • Atomic Habits by James Clear
  • Grit by Angela Duckworth
  • Mindset by Carol Dweck
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
  • The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman
  • Building a Life Worth Living by Marsha Linehan
  • Rethinking Positive Thinking by Gabrielle Oettingen
  • Areté by Brian Johnson

P.S. You can also share Optimal Living 101 and Hero Training 101!

5. Community highlights

A few favorites from another week of moving from Theory to Practice to Mastery, Together!!!

+1. Wisdom from the week:

“Your performance at any moment during the day is primarily determined by what you did the night before—when you ate and how much you slept—because that is what sets your clock, which then primes your body and brain.”

— Satchin Panda, PhD

And this week’s Heroic +1s:

This week’s featured Meditation is Dreams Calling—a 9-minute meditation to help you connect deeply with your heart’s dreams, embrace possibility, and ignite enthusiasm for what could be. ❤️‍🔥

And…

Have questions or suggestions about Heroic, or ANYTHING we can help with?

Join us on Wednesday at 1:00pm EST / 10:00am PST for Office Hours. Or reach out to our top-rated Heroic Service team by replying to this note or sending an email to support@heroic.us.

Alright…

With Wisdom + Discipline + Love + Courage + Gratitude + Hope + Curiosity + Zest.

Heroes Unite!

Let’s do this.

Day 1.

-Michael and Team Heroic

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