You Are Heroic with Brian Johnson

How'd you like to have an undefeated mind while constructing an indestructible self? (I'll take 'em!) Alex Lickerman, MD shows us how--blending Western science with practical Eastern mysticism in his powerful book.

DC Gonzalez is one of the world's leading peak performance/mental training experts. In this interview, we'll take a quick look at why mental training is so important.

Alberto Villoldo is a fascinating blend of medical anthropologist and practicing shaman—having explored, practiced and taught these ideas for decades. Alberto walks us the healing wisdom at the nexus of ancient shamanic wisdom and modern science.

Troy Bassham is a 4 time National Champion and World Champion rifle shooter. He's also gold medalist Lanny Bashamm's son. Together they share extraordinary wisdom in their Mental Management® System.

Want to get your mind right? Lanny Bassham, an Olympic gold medalist, has been teaching the art of mental training/peak performance for decades and his book tells us just how to rock it.

You want to be superhuman? Tynan tells us it's *all* about the habits. I agree. And his book is a genius little manifesto on how to rock it.

Ryan Holiday is brilliant. So is this book. The ancient Stoics taught us how to not only accept challenges but to thrive on them. Ryan brings their wisdom to life with compelling stories of great peeps who have rocked it in the face of adversity.

Marci Shimoff is a celebrated transformational leader and a #1 New York Times bestselling author. In addition to authoring the worldwide bestsellers, Love for No Reason and Happy for No Reason, she is the coauthor of six of the top-selling titles in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and a featured teacher in the international movie and book sensation The Secret.

Michael J. Gelb is a pioneer in the fields of creative thinking, accelerated learning, and innovative leadership and author of the bestselling How To Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, Brain Power, and Creativity on Demand: How to Ignite and Sustain the Fire of Genius.

Steve Chandler's MindShift frees people from unnecessary pessimism and puts them back in touch with the source of their enthusiasm for work and life. He is the author of over 30 books, including Time Warrior and Wealth Warrior.

Tal Ben-Shahar is an author and lecturer, teaching at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya. He taught the largest course at Harvard on "Positive Psychology" and the third largest on "The Psychology of Leadership"—with a total of over 1,400 students.

Frank Lipman is the founder and director of the Eleven Eleven Wellness Center in New York City, where his personal blend of Western and many other medicines, what he calls Good Medicine, has helped thousands of people recover their energy and zest for life.

Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson is a motivational psychologist, speaker, author of SUCCEED: How We Can Reach Our Goals, blogger for Huff Post, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, SmartBrief, and Psychology Today.

Sonja Lyubomirsky is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside and author of The How of Happiness, a book of strategies backed by scientific research that can be used to increase happiness.

Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a neuropsychologist and author of Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom. He is an authority on self-directed neuroplasticity.

Alan Cohen, M.A., is the author of 24 popular inspirational books including The Dragon Doesn't Live Here Anymore and Why Your Life Sucks. He brings a warm blend of wisdom, intimacy, humor, and vision to the path of personal, professional, and spiritual growth.

Joel Fuhrman, M.D., is a board-certified family physician who specializes in preventing and reversing disease through nutritional and natural methods. He is the author of Eat to Live and Super Immunity.

David Allen is widely recognized as the world’s leading expert on personal and organizational productivity. He is the engineer of GTD, the ground-breaking Getting Things Done methodology that has shown millions how to transform a fast-paced, overwhelming, overcommitted life into one that is balanced, integrated, relaxed, and has more successful outcomes.

We've all heard that championship athletic performance is 90% mental. But that applies to EVERYTHING in our lives. Here are three ways to train your mind.

An untrained elephant grabs bananas and coconuts as it cruises thru the market. Your untrained mind does the same thing. The trick? Pick up a stick!

You want a great relationship? Fantastic. Start by dialing in your relationship with yourself! Know your #1s. And, support your Love by knowing *their* #1s.

Imagine someone following you tomorrow and keeping notes on EVERY single moment of your day--from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep. And they document it all to share with the world. Change anything?

Did you know the word mediocre comes from the Latin words medius ("middle") + ocrus ("rugged mountatin")? It literally means to settle halfway up a rugged mountain. Let's not do that. Let's embrace excellence and summit the peak of our potential!

There's a gap between your comfort zone and your discomfort zone. That's where we're able to get our incremental improvement on. Let's play there. Stretch don't snap!

What do you want? Are you willing to pay the price? Fantastic. That's the ticket. (And, if you're feelin' it, go make 1,300 three-pointers every day like Kobe.)

We all know the slow and steady tortoise beats the bunny that burns himself out. But what if there was a creatture that combined both speed AND endurance. Meet your new friend Smokey!

Did you know that you can strike a power pose and boost your testosterone by 20% in 2 minutes? While dropping your cortisol 20%? Nuts, eh? Yet it's true. Weak poses = the opposite: 10% reduction in testosterone + 15% increase in cortisol. Wow.

He's tiny. Almost invisible. But he has a HUGE mouth and he's constantly telling you why you can't win. That's Mr. Mediocrity. We need to silence him.

The Pain Paradox: Only doing the easy stuff today makes it more difficult later. Paradoxically, doing the hard stuff now makes things easier in the future. Think cows vs. buffalo! :)

Feeling anxious or bored? Here's a quick look at how you can get into flow!

Although, as per the sub-title, the book is ostensibly about “How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra),” it’s really about excelling at learning and at LIFE! Barbara Oakley is an award winning engineering teacher who used to struggle mightily with math and science. She walks us through the latest research in neuroscience and learning as she shares fascinating biographical sketches of scientific + mathematical luminaries along with wisdom from other world-class teachers. Great stuff.

If you’re looking for a smart, grounded, funny and well-written introduction to the Paleo movement, this is the perfect place to start. Big Ideas we explore include the five ages of our origins (Animal + Paleolithic + Agricultural + Industrial + Information), poisons vs. fountains of youth, the importance of meaning (and how to dial it in) and alarm clocks for bed time.

Stephen Cope is the director of the Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living—the largest yoga research institute in the Western world. In this great book, Stephen brings the Bhagavad Gita to life and helps us apply this ancient wisdom to our modern lives. Big Ideas include the four keys to living your dharma, creating the right conditions, dealing with difficulties, training elephants, and reducing yourself to zero!

Greg Krech is one of the world’s leading teachers of Japanese psychology. This book integrates three core facets of the work he has done for the last 25+ years: Morita Therapy + kaizen + Naikan. Big Ideas we explore include understanding what is within our control and what is not (hint: thoughts and feelings are not; behaviors are), how to create momentum in your life and the importance of constant incremental improvement.

You ever struggle with perfectionism? If so, it’s time to learn how to be an imperfectionist! Stephen Guise (author of Mini Habits), shows us the way. Big Ideas include being a poser, living within floors and ceilings, thinking vs. doing, pulling the lever, and cultivating result apathy.

Bernard Roth has been a Professor of Engineering at Stanford for over FIFTY (!!) years. A pioneer in the field of robotics, Bernie is one of the founders of the famed d.school at Stanford. In this great book, he brings the concepts of design thinking to life in the context of our most important design project: designing our optimal lives. Big Ideas we explore include the 5 elements of design thinking, doing vs. trying, ignoring odds, and being the cause.

This is a fantastic, old school psychology classic. Written in 1975, Albert Ellis (see Notes on A Guide to Rational Living) says it’s “One of the best self help books ever written.” Lazarus and Fay walk us through 20 of the most common mistakes that can ruin our lives and, of course, how to correct them. Big Ideas include myths about change, the 2 things we need to do to change, and optimizing our locus of control.

How do you want to die? With a calm serenity knowing you gave your best or with deep regret that you never took the risks and cultivated the discipline to show up with urgency and diligence each day to create a life of deep meaning? The answer is obvious. Big Ideas we explore on how to die empty include optimism vs. wishing, the root of mediocrity, the 3 S’s of goal setting and dealing with The Lag.

Ready to 10X your thinking and your action? Fantastic. Grant Cardone is your man. In this high intensity, LET'S DO THIS! book you'll get fired up to go out and crush it. Big Ideas we explore include how to create goals, why MASSIVE ACTION is so important, how to starve fear, why obsession is a gift not a disease and how Smokey would smoke the tortoise and the hare.

How’s your habit-building process working for you? If you’ve stalled a few (hundred?) times, Stephen Guise tells us that Mini Habits might be just the thing you’re looking for! In the Note we look at what a Mini Habit is and how to go about rockin’ it exploring Big Ideas like making habits stupid small (aka “too small to fail”), embracing Newton’s 1st law, and being aware of ego depletion as you create your chain!

Dr. Michelle Segar is the world’s leading authority on what motivates people to choose and maintain healthy behaviors. As you’d imagine, Dr. Segar has some *really* powerful ideas on, as the sub-title suggests, “How the simple science of motivation can bring you a lifetime of fitness.” Big Ideas we explore include the importance of meaning, moving exercise from a chore to a gift and embracing a learning mindset.

Why do we get fat? It’s a surprisingly simple question that surprisingly few nutrition experts answer with attention to scientific rigor. Enter: Gary Taubes, a brilliant, award-winning science journalist. In this Note we’ll explore some Big Ideas on the importance of the hormone insulin, why carbs are kinda like cigarettes and the Stanford A TO Z Study that showed low-carb diets outperforming others.

Toughness. Jim Loehr tells us that cultivating our toughness is the essence of creating healthier, happier and more productive lives. And, in this great, old-school book (written in 1993), he shows us how to go about doing that. Big Ideas we explore in the Note include how toughening happens (key: adaptive stress!!), the importance of training recovery, ultradian rhythms and emotional phones ringing.

Rory Vaden tells us we can choose one of three options: 1. We can manage our time. 2. We can prioritize our time. 3. We can multiply our time. The most successful among us learn how to MULTIPLY their time and that’s what this book is all about. Big Ideas explored include the 5 Permissions (Eliminate + Automate + Delegate + Procrastinate + Concentrate) with a focus on the most important: Eliminate!!

Ready to go wild?! John Ratey, MD, and Richard Manning are here to give us the guidebook on how to make that happen! In the Note, we explore Big Ideas ranging from wild nutrition to getting out of bad moods, getting adequate sleep and pulling levers that will change our lives!

When you appraoch a set of stairs and an escalator what do you do? If you're like 95% of the world, you hop on the escalator but Rory Vaden tells us if we want true success in our lives we need to quit looking for shortcuts and Take the Stairs! In the Note we'll look at how to quit being a Should-head, embrace the Pain Paradox and get our Visioneering on.

Steven Pressfield created a trilogy on mastering the creative process and winning our battle with Resistance. The War of Art kicked it off, this is the second installment with the final Turning Pro. In the book, Pressfield walks us thru a specific project and shows us how to deal with Resistance at each stage. Big Ideas we explore incude starting before you're ready, keep working (!), and SHIP!!

Jeff Olson is a down-to-earth, super practical (and successful) guy who believes in the power of turning simple disciplines into massive success. He calls that power “The Slight Edge.” In the Note, we’ll explore Big Ideas ranging from the anti-quantum leap and making course corrections to the habits of a slight edge master and how to create optimal plans.

Jim Loehr is one of the world’s leading sports psychologists and peak performance experts. In this great book, he tells us how all champions are able to access their Ideal Performance States, why we want to lean into challenges, how to make waves throughout out day and the first rule of toughness.

Orison Swett Marden is a brilliant old-school writer who mixed a passionate optimism in our potential with an equally passionate commitment to integrity, grit, perseverance and all things good. I like him. In this book he shows us how to make our life a masterpiece by becoming the captain of our own ships, doing first-class work, and finding an hour a day to optimize as we achieving true success.