Optimize With Brian Johnson | More Wisdom In Less Time

In our last couple +1s, we had some fun at the hospital with our Stoic friends Seneca and Epictetus.    Recall Epictetus’ wisdom that sometimes good philosophy feels more like a trip to the hospital than a spa. (Ouch!)   Seneca echoes this wisdom in Letters from a Stoic where he says, “Be harsh with yourself at times.”   Now, of course, this does NOT mean that we need to go around like that albino monk from The da Vinci Code mutilating ourselves. (Yowsers!)   But…    It DOES mean that, at times, with a base of (and, ultimately, OUT OF a deep sense of) self-compassion, we need to give ourselves a Zen stick to the head and wake up from the bad habits that might be dragging us down.   As with the virtuous mean chat we had awhile ago, there’s a virtuous mean here.    TOO MUCH harshness is destructive — we’ll develop a sense of self-loathing that Aristotle would consider a vice of excess.    TOO LITTLE harshness on the other hand, and we run the risk of being a bit too self-contented. That would