TMPhilosophersNotesMore Wisdom in Less Time

Brian Johnson’s

“Aristotle also knew how to create a self through movement.

He once said this: “Whatever we learn to do, we learn by actually doing it; men

come to be builders, for instance, by building, and harp players by playing the

harp. In the same way, by doing just acts we come to be just: By doing self-

controlled acts, we come to be self-controlled; and by doing brave acts, we become

brave.”

This book contains 100 moves you can make...”

~ Steve Chandler from 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

100 Ways to Motivate Yourself.

I’m not sure how I found this book but I’m glad I did!

Steve Chandler’s awesome and this book kinda reminds me of my book! One quick, inspiring,

Big Idea after another that helps us get our practical wisdom on and go out and rock it.

I’ve mined a few of my favorite Big Ideas for you and, if you’re feelin’ it, I think you’ll really enjoy

the whole book!

For now, let’s jump in! :)

WHERE’S YOUR FOCUS?“There was an interesting motivational talk on this subject given by former Dallas Cowboys

coach Jimmy Johnson to his football players before the 1993 Super Bowl: “I told them that if I

laid a two-bv-four across the room, everybody there would walk across it and not fall, because

our focus would be that we were going to walk that two-by-four, But if I put that same two-by-

four 10 stories high between two buildings only a few would make it, because the focus would be

on falling. Focus is everything. The team that is more focused today is the team that will win this

game.”

Johnson told his team not to be distracted by the crowd, the media, or the possibility of losing,

but to focus on each play of the game itself just as if it were a good practice session.

The Cowboys won the game 52-17.”

Love that.

This is a theme we come back to in these Notes—specifically in John Eliot’s Overachievement and The Now Habit.

In Overachievement, Eliot tells us: “I have found that the top players in every field think differently when all the marbles are on the line. Great performers focus on what they are doing, and nothing else... They are able to engage in a task so completely that there is no room left for self- criticism, judgment, or doubt; to stay loose and supremely, even irrationally,

100 Ways to Motivate YourselfChange Your Life ForeverBY STEVE CHANDLER · CAREER PRESS © 2004 · 223 PAGES

THE BIG IDEASWhere’s Your Focus?Put it on full engagement.

Intention Deficit DisorderYou got it?

PurposeThe anti-depressant.

Creation vs. ReactionSame letters, different mojo.

CourageComes from doing.

The NewsIs not news.

Prove the Pessimist WrongAttorneys & bouncers in your head.

Taking Ourselves LightlyHow else will we fly?

Replace WorryWith action.

Emotions & ActionsFeelings follow behavior.

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“The development and use of willpower is the most

direct access to happiness and motivation that I’ll ever

have.”~ Steve Chandler

self-confident; to just step up and do what they’re good at, concentrating only on the simplest nature of their performance.”

Neil Fiore’s The Now Habit is an extraordinary book. If you experience challenges with

procrastination, I highly recommend it. He uses the same metaphor of walking over the board.

Fact is, if you’re focused on all the things that can go WRONG with a project, odds are you’re

going to be paralyzed.

Here’s how Fiore puts it: “To better understand how you learned to procrastinate, I invite you to use your imagination and to accept for a few minutes a metaphor in which the test, job, or task in your life is to walk a board. Situation A. The task before you is to walk a solid board that is thirty feet long, four inches thick, and one foot wide. You have all the physical, mental, and emotional abilities necessary to perform this task. You can carefully place one foot in front of the other, or you can dance, skip, or leap across the board. You can do it. No problem. Take a minute to close your eyes, relax, and imagine yourself in that situation. Notice how you feel about this task. Are you scared or blocked in any way? Do you feel any need to procrastinate? Fear of failing or making a mistake cannot be an issue here, but you might find that you delay starting out of a need to assert your independence and to resist being asked to do even a simple task such as walking a board. Situation B. Now imagine that the task is just the same, to walk a board thirty feet long and one foot wide, and you have the same abilities; only now the board is suspended between two buildings 100 feet above the pavement. Look across to the other end of the board and contemplate beginning your assignment. What do you feel? What are you thinking about? What are you saying to yourself? Take a moment to notice how your reactions in this situation differ from those you had in situation A. Notice how rapidly your feelings about the task change when the height of the board changes and the consequences of falling are greater.”

So... What are you focused on?

If you’re finding yourself all freaked out and procrastinating, see if you can change your focus

from the *results* of your project to simply being fully engaged in what you’re up to!

As we learned in our Notes on the Bhagavad Gita, “The awakened sages call a person wise when all his undertakings are free from anxiety about results.”

INTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER“Once we get the picture of who we want to be, “definitely planned work” is the next step on the

path. Definitely planned work inspires the energy of purpose. Without it, we suffer from a weird

kind of intention deficit disorder. We’re short on intention. We don’t know where we’re going or

what we’re up to.”

“Intention Deficit Disorder.”

Love it. :)

What are you up to? What are your goals and what plans have you developed to achieve them?

Get clear and go rock it, yo! Don’t want to fall into the dreaded Intention Deficit Disorder, now

do we?! :)

PURPOSE: THE ANTI-DEPRESSANT“It is impossible to work with a definite sense of purpose and be depressed at the same time.

Carefully planned work will motivate you to do more and worry less.”

Are you feeling depressed? Know that, as Chandler says here, it’s *impossible* to work with a

definite sense of purpose and be depressed at the same time.

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“It’s hard to stay motivated when you’re confused.

When you simplify your life, it gathers focus. The more you can focus your life, the more motivated it

gets.”~ Steve Chandler

““We are each of us angels with only one wing,” said

the Italian artist Luciano de Crescenzo, “and we can only fly embracing each other.””

~ Steve Chandler

As we know, happy people have goals and projects! I’ve quoted this passage from Sonja

Lyubomirsky A LOT. But, I’m gonna do it again b/c it brings the point home so nicely: “In 1932, weighed down by the sorrows and agonies of his self-absorbed and aimless clients, an Australian psychiatrist named W. Béran Wolfe summed up his philosophy like this: ‘If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden, or looking for dinosaur eggs in the Gobi Desert.’ He was right. People who strive for something personally significant, whether it’s learning a new craft, changing careers, or raising moral children, are far happier than those who don’t have strong dreams or aspirations. Find a happy person, and you will find a project.”

What’s YOUR project?

CREATION VS. REACTION“You can create your own plans in advance so that your life will respond to you. If you can

hold the thought that at all times your life is either a creation or a reaction, you can continually

remind yourself to be creating and planning. “Creation” and “reaction” have the same letters in

them, exactly; they are anagrams. (Perhaps that’s why people slip so easily out of one and into

the other.)”

“Creation” and “reaction.” I never knew they had the exact same letters in them. Perhaps that’s

why it’s so easy to slip out of one and into the other! :)

As you know if you’ve read many of these Notes, moving from a reacting Victim into a proactive

Creator is a H.U.G.E. part of what Optimal Living is all about.

Where are you hanging out these days?!

COURAGE COMES FROM DOING“Emerson once said, “The greater part of courage is having done it before,” and that soon

became true of my speaking in public. Fear of doing it can only be cured by doing it. And soon

my confidence was built by doing it again and again.”

What a great line: “The greater part of courage is having done it before.”

Emerson also tells us (see Notes): “God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.”

Plus: “Always, always, always, always, always do what you are afraid to do.”

And: “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.”

Powerful stuff.

So, what are you afraid of?

Know that, as Chandler says: “Fear of doing it can only be cured by doing it.”

And, of course, go do it! :)

THE NEWS IS NOT NEWS“The news is not the news. It is the bad news. It is deliberate shock. The more you accept it as the

news, the more you believe that “that’s the way it is,” and the more fearful and cynical you will

become.

If we realized exactly how much vulgar, pessimistic, and manipulative negativity was deliberately

packed into every daily newspaper and most television shows and Hollywood movies, we would

resist the temptation to flood our brains with their garbage. Most of us are more particular about

what we put in our automobile’s gas tank than we are about what we put in our own brain every

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“The primary idea was this: One hour of planning saves three hours of execution.”

~ Steve Chandler

“If you’re watching too much television and you know it, you might find

it useful to ask this one question: “Which side of

the glass do I want to live on?””

~ Steve Chandler

“G.K. Chesterton used to say, “If a thing is worth

doing, it’s worth doing badly.””

~ Steve Chandler

night. We passively feed ourselves with stories about serial killers and violent crime without any

conscious awareness of the choice we’re making.”

This is Big.

Chandler used to work for a newspaper and shares stories about the deliberate efforts of the crew

to feature *the* most shocking stuff. Unfortunately, that’s what sells. But let’s not pretend that

just because it’s so heavily featured in our news outlets that it’s a fair description of what’s really

going on in the world.

So, let’s be a little more discriminating about what we put into our minds, eh?

And, remember this: “Make your own news. Be your own breaking story. Don’t look to the media

to tell you what’s happening in your life. Be what’s happening.”

PROVE THE PESSIMIST WRONG“Start to argue against your first line of reasoning. Pretend you’re an attorney whose job is to

prove the pessimist in you wrong. Start off on building your case for what’s possible. You’ll

surprise yourself. Optimism is by nature expansive—it opens door after door to what’s possible.

Pessimism is just the opposite—it is constrictive. It shuts the door on possibility. If you really

want to open up your life and motivate yourself to succeed, become an optimistic thinker.”

Optimism. As you know by this stage, it’s Principle #1 to Optimal Living 101.

This reminds me of Alan Cohen’s great Idea in his equally great Why Your Life Sucks (see

Notes): “Imagine two lawyers in a courtroom inside your head. One is arguing for your possibilities and you achieving your goals. The other is arguing for your limits and why you don’t deserve what you want. Who will win? The lawyer whom you pay the most. The way you pay these lawyers, however, is not with money; it is with your attention.”

Cohen has another great Idea from that book that’s worth sharing here as well: “Your real enemies are the self-defeating thoughts, paltry expectations, and beliefs that you must live at less than full throttle. You will experience as much pain as you are willing to accept. You do have control over how much you hurt. Pain happens; suffering is optional. You can choose thoughts that bring you relief rather than imprisonment. To find your freedom, stand at the doorway of your mind and monitor your thoughts. Notice which ones lift you and which ones drag you down. Then, like a bouncer at an exclusive party, admit only those on the invitation list and send the others back where they came from. Fate is not a net cast over you by capricious fortune; it is a garden you cultivate by the thoughts you attend to. Shift your attention and you will shift your life.”

Here’s to hiring the Optimist Lawyer and her friend the Optimist Bouncer. :)

TAKING OURSELVES LIGHTLY“G.K Chesterton used to say that “taking things lightly” was the most spiritually advanced thing

you could do to improve your effectiveness in life.

“After all,” said Chesterton, “it’s because God’s angels take themselves so lightly that they are

able to fly.””

Love that image!!

Reminds me of Rule Number 6 from The Art of Possibility (see Notes): “Two prime ministers are sitting in a room discussing affairs of state. Suddenly a man bursts in, apoplectic with fury, shouting and stamping and banging his fist on the desk. The resident prime minister admonishes him: “Peter,” he says, “kindly remember Rule Number 6,” whereupon Peter is instantly restored to complete calm, apologizes, and withdraws. The politicians return to their

“Groucho Marx once said he found television very educational. “Every time

someone turns it on,” he said, “I go in the other room to read a book.””

~ Steve Chandler

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“As Emerson asked, “Why should the way I feel

depend on the thoughts in someone else’s head?””

~ Steve Chandler

conversation, only to be interrupted yet again twenty minutes later by an hysterical woman gesticulating wildly, her hair flying. Again the intruder is greeted with the words: “Marie, please remember Rule Number 6.” Complete calm descends once more, and she too withdraws with a bow and an apology. When the scene is repeated for the third time, the visiting prime minister addresses his colleague: “My dear friend, I’ve seen many things in my life, but never anything as remarkable as this. Would you be willing to share with me the secret of Rule Number 6?” “Very simple,” replies the resident prime minister. “Rule Number 6 is ‘Don’t take yourself so g—damn seriously.” “Ah,” says his visitor, “that is a fine rule.” After a moment of pondering, he inquires, “And what, may I ask, are the other rules?” “There aren’t any.””

Hah!

Are you taking yourself a little too seriously?

If so, lighten up and fly will ya?! :)

REPLACE WORRY WITH ACTION“Replace worry with action. Don’t worry. Or rather, don’t just worry. Let worry change into

action. When you find yourself worrying about something, ask yourself the action question,

“What can I do about this right now?”

And then do something. Anything. Any small thing.

Most of my life, I spent my time asking myself the wrong question every time I worried. I asked

myself, “What should I be feeling about this?” I finally discovered that I was much happier when

I started asking, instead, “What can I do about this?””

This is a REALLY, REALLY Big Idea.

Seriously. It’s hard to overstate how Big it is.

Are you worried about something right now?

See if you can shift that worry into constructive action by asking yourself what you can DO about

it! And then, of course, do it! :)

I love the way Dale Carnegie puts it in his classic How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (see

Notes): “George Bernard Shaw was right. He summed it all up when he said: ‘The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not.’ So don’t bother to think about it! Spit on your hands and get busy. Your blood will start circulating; your mind will start ticking—and pretty soon this whole positive upsurge of life in your body will drive worry from your mind. Get busy. Keep busy. It’s the cheapest kind of medicine there is on this earth—and one of the best.”

And, perhaps my favorite wisdom on this subject is from David Reynolds’ AWESOME book

Constructive Living (see Notes) where he says that, regardless of how we’re feeling, the most

empowering question we can ask is: “Now what needs to be done?”

He tells us: “The mature human being goes about doing what needs to be done regardless of whether that person feels great or terrible. Knowing that you are the kind of person with that kind of self- control brings all the satisfaction and confidence you will ever need. Even on days when the satisfaction and confidence just aren’t there, you can get the job done anyway.”

And, here’s a little more practical mojo from Chandler to help us rock it: “I once came up with

a system for action that helped turn my worrying habits completely around. I would list the five

things that I was worried about-perhaps they were four projects at work and the fifth was my

son’s trouble he was having with a certain teacher. I would then decide to spend five minutes on

each problem doing something, anything. By deciding this, I knew I was committing myself to 25

“If something is worrying you, always do something

about it. It doesn’t have to be the big thing that willmake it disappear. It can

be any small thing. But the positive effect it will have on you will be enormous.”

~ Steve Chandler

“The next time you’re worried about something,

ask yourself, “What small thing can I do right now?” Then do it. Remember not

to ask, “What could I possibly do to make this

whole thing go away?” That question does not get you

into action at all.”~ Steve Chandler

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minutes of activity. No more. So it didn’t feel at all overwhelming.”

EMOTIONS & ACTIONS“American philosopher William James put it very clearly: “We do not sing because we are happy,

we are happy because we sing.”

Most of us believe an emotion, such as happiness, comes first. Then we do whatever we do, in

reaction to that particular emotion. Not so, insisted James. The emotion arises simultaneously

with the doing of the act. So if you want to be enthusiastic, you can get there by acting as if you

were already enthusiastic. Sometimes it takes a minute. Sometimes it skips a beat. But it always

works if you stay with it, no matter how ridiculous you feel doing it.”

In Constructive Living, David Reynolds puts it this way: “Behavior wags the tail of feelings... We do, then we feel.”

To be clear, this isn’t simply a pom pom self-help pick-me-up. It’s actually one of the 12

scientifically-proven ways to boost our happiness described by Sonja Lyubomirsky in her great

book The How of Happiness. She tells us to “Act like a happy person.”

Try it out. Next time you’re feeling the funk, see if you can snap out of it long enough to run a

little experiment. Get up from whatever you’re doing, shake yourself out and ask yourself, “What would a super happy version of me do right now?”

And then, of course, DO IT. Stick with it for 10-15-30 minutes and lemme know how that goes.

If you’re like me, you’ll find that feelings do, in fact, follow behavior! :)

If you liked this Note, you’ll probably like…

Constructive Living

The Now Habit

Overachievement

The How of Happiness

About the Author of “100 Ways to Motivate Yourself”STEVE CHANDLER

Steve Chandler is a consultant, trainer, author,and keynote speaker whose clients

include over 100 Fortune 500 companies. Learn more about Steve and all the

great stuf he’s up to at www.SteveChandler.com!

About the Author of This NoteBRIAN JOHNSON

Brian Johnson is a lover of wisdom (aka a “Philosopher”) and a passionate

student of life who’s committed to inspiring and empowering millions of people

to live their greatest lives as he studies, embodies and shares the universal truths

of optimal living. He harts his job.

Brian Johnson,Chief Philosopher

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“When we leave this world, we will ask ourselves one

question: What’s different? What’s different because I was here? And the answer

to that question will be the difference that we made.”

~ Steve Chandler