Areté

Areté Plot Summary

Introduction

I remember watching my ten-year-old son before his chess tournament. His posture wilted as he whispered, "I don't want to go." When I asked why, his mother leaned in and softly explained, "He doesn't think he'll win." We took a walk along our property trail, and I knelt down to look him in the eye. "You know that voice in your head telling you all the reasons not to go? We ALL have that voice," I explained. "And if you run your life making decisions based on what that voice tells you, you will NOT create the life you want. PERIOD." His eyes widened as he absorbed this truth. I showed him the tattoo on my forearm: ARETÉ – an ancient Greek word meaning "expressing the best version of yourself moment to moment to moment." This concept of Areté lies at the heart of human potential and forms the foundation of our journey together. The ancient Greeks understood what modern science now confirms: the ultimate game of life is to flourish by living with virtue. When we close the gap between who we're capable of being and who we're actually being, we experience what the Greeks called eudaimonia – a deep sense of fulfillment that comes from expressing our highest potential. This isn't about perfection but about consistently showing up as our best selves. Throughout these pages, we'll explore practical wisdom from both ancient philosophers and cutting-edge research to help you activate your heroic potential and transform ordinary moments into extraordinary opportunities for growth.

Chapter 1: The Call to Areté: Awakening Your Heroic Potential

I was standing in the locker room of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, about to take command of Fighter Squadron 31, the Tomcatters. The previous commanding officer had been relieved of duty, and morale was at rock bottom. As I prepared to address my new team for the first time, I realized something profound: I was the Chief Morale Officer. My attitude would set the tone for everyone else. When I walked into that room, I made a conscious choice to embody confidence, optimism, and strength – not because I felt those things in that moment, but because that's who I needed to be for my team. I stood tall, spoke with conviction, and projected the energy I wanted to see reflected back. Within weeks, the squadron's performance began to transform. Not because circumstances had changed, but because our collective identity had shifted. This story illustrates a powerful truth: who we become determines what we achieve. Rather than letting our feelings drive our behaviors, we must let our identity drive our behaviors. Most people follow this progression: FEELINGS → Behaviors → IDENTITIES. "I don't feel like doing this awesome behavior, so I don't do it, and as a result, I don't have an empowered identity." This is a great way to ensure you never sustainably activate your heroic potential. The heroic formula reverses this: IDENTITIES → Behaviors → FEELINGS. "I have committed to being the sort of person who does these things, so I DO them whether I feel like it or not, and interestingly, I often wind up feeling GREAT afterward while becoming the person I was always destined to be." In The Alter Ego Effect, Todd Herman reveals that people dressed as Air Force pilots will literally see better in vision tests. Your identity shapes not just how you feel, but how you physically perform. Who are you at your heroic best? If you could wave a wand and activate that best version of yourself, who would you be? Energy-wise, Work-wise, Love-wise? These versions of you at your best are what we call your "Identities." Start with who you want to become, then identify the virtues that version embodies, and finally, determine the specific behaviors you need to practice consistently. The journey to awakening your heroic potential begins with this fundamental shift in perspective. It's not about waiting until you feel heroic to act heroically. It's about choosing your heroic identity first, acting in alignment with that identity, and allowing your feelings to follow. This is the essence of areté – expressing your highest potential moment by moment, regardless of circumstances or emotional states.

Chapter 2: Forging Antifragile Confidence Through Life's Challenges

"BRING IT ON!" Phil Stutz, my spiritual godfather, taught me this powerful mantra for facing fear. Most people prefer to stay within their comfort zones because, by definition, it's uncomfortable outside them. But here's the deal: your infinite potential exists on the other side of your comfort zone. When you exit your comfort zone, you feel fear, doubt, and anxiety. Those feelings are actually tickets to your destiny. Instead of avoiding that discomfort, we need to reverse our desire and learn to love it. The next time you feel even an inkling of fear, practice saying to yourself, "BRING IT ON!" When we invite challenges into our lives, we move from what researchers call a "threat response" to a "challenge response," fundamentally changing our physiology. Another approach comes from Harvard researcher Alison Wood Brooks. She discovered that when facing stress, saying "I'm excited!" works far better than trying to calm down. Anxiety is a "high-arousal state" while calmness is a "low-arousal state." It's almost impossible to shift directly from anxiety to calm, but you can channel that energy into excitement. The third mantra is "OMMS" – Obstacles Make Me Stronger. Joe De Sena, founder of Spartan Race, tells us to become "immune to obstacles." The obstacle course is simply a physical representation of the mental, emotional, and creative obstacles we face every day. When properly framed, obstacles literally make us stronger. This mindset shift is the foundation of antifragile confidence. Etymologically, confidence means "with intense trust" – not that everything will go perfectly, but that it doesn't matter what happens because you know you can handle whatever arises. This intense trust is earned by doing what you say you will do, just like trust in any relationship. When you consistently approach rather than avoid challenges, you develop the emotional stamina to bounce back from setbacks quickly and grow stronger with each obstacle you face. The beauty of antifragile confidence is that it doesn't require perfect conditions or guaranteed outcomes. It thrives precisely because of uncertainty and challenge. Like a muscle that grows stronger through resistance training, your confidence develops through deliberately facing what scares you. Each time you walk through a fear door, you expand your capacity to handle future challenges with greater ease and grace.

Chapter 3: The Big Three: Mastering Energy, Work, and Love

I was driving a U-Haul from the east coast to Los Angeles in 1999, listening to Tony Robbins's Personal Power II CDs after winning a business plan competition. Tony had a framework called "Categories of Improvement," similar to Stephen Covey's "Roles and Goals." I diligently tried to master each area of my life but quickly found myself overwhelmed. There were so many areas I wanted to optimize! Fast-forward fifteen years, and I encountered Sigmund Freud's insight that a good life is essentially about two things: Work and Love. A choir of angels sang at that moment! "Work and Love." YES! That's it. Only... if we have a hard time getting out of bed because of poor lifestyle choices, we'll struggle to give our best to either Work or Love. Therefore, we need to start with ENERGY and then focus on Work and Love – and voilà, we have our Big 3: Energy, Work, and Love. Get those right, and we're at least 80% there. Energy is the foundation. Look inside almost every cell in your body and you'll find mitochondria – the powerhouses that produce energy. The health of these little organelles plays the leading role in your overall health and well-being. We'd die in seconds if our mitochondria stopped working. With hundreds to thousands of mitochondria in nearly every one of our forty trillion cells, we have as many as a quadrillion mitochondria in our body – about 10% of our total body weight! For Work, we need to move beyond merely deep work to what I call "Genius Work." The Romans called our inner guiding spirit our "genius." When we create the conditions to consistently connect with and express that best version of ourselves in our work, we're doing Genius Work. The equation is simple: Genius Work Produced = ENERGY × Time Spent × Intensity of Focus. Love begins with self-love (Love 0.0) – identifying the #1 thing you do when you're at your best and making it non-negotiable. Then comes Love 1.0 (family), Love 2.0 (micro-moments of connection with others), Love 3.0 (encouragement), Love 8.0 (love for our work), and Love ∞.0 (loving everything). The most powerful form is what I call "comcourage" – having courage together, injecting courage into the lives of those around us as we face challenges heroically. By focusing on these three fundamental areas – Energy, Work, and Love – we create a framework for excellence that simplifies our efforts while maximizing our impact. Rather than trying to optimize dozens of life categories simultaneously, we concentrate our attention on the vital few that matter most. This focused approach allows us to make meaningful progress where it counts, creating a virtuous cycle where improvements in one area naturally enhance the others.

Chapter 4: Identity and Virtue: Becoming Your Heroic Self

Alan Cohen tells us to quit being a hardaholic—making everything harder than it needs to be. One way to deal with this tendency is to ask ourselves a simple question: "What if this was easy?" What if it was easy to do the thing you keep telling yourself is so hard? With true, wise confidence, we know we'll face obstacles, of course. But what if it was a lot easier to do the things we want to do than we're making ourselves believe? This perspective shift can transform how we approach our daily disciplines. Jim Rohn tells us that our success in life is all about the "two easies." We need to make sure we're dominating the little things that are simultaneously easy to do AND easy not to do. For example, it's easy for me to leave my phone in another room when I'm hanging out with my family. Obviously, it's not particularly hard to leave the phone in my office. But it's also really easy NOT to do that. The same principle applies to choices I make in my energy and work. I can go to bed when I say I will go to bed. I can meditate for a minute or more when I wake up. I can choose to be creative before I'm reactive. None of these things are that hard to do. All day, every day, we're faced with a choice: Easy to do or easy not to do. Two easies. Plus one degree or minus one degree. This understanding leads us to what I call "emotional stamina." When you feel your worst, that's precisely when you need to be most committed to your protocol—those daily disciplines that keep you at your best. And interestingly, the same principle applies when you're feeling great: The better you feel, the MORE committed you need to be to your protocol. That's how we make the highs sustainably higher and the lows significantly higher—without going off the rails in either direction. Daily disciplines become most powerful when they're consistent. Tynan, in his book Superhuman by Habit, calls missing two days in a row "habit suicide." If you miss a day (it happens), make getting your habit back on track your number one priority for the following day. Remember: "It's OK to suck. It's not OK to skip." Even if you have what you think is a terrible meditation or workout or writing session, it's way better to suck than to skip. The path to becoming your heroic self isn't about dramatic transformations but about consistent alignment between your identity and your actions. By focusing on the small, daily choices that are easy to do but also easy not to do, you gradually build the character that supports your highest aspirations. Your heroic self emerges not through occasional moments of greatness but through the accumulated impact of thousands of seemingly insignificant decisions made day after day.

Chapter 5: The Hero's Protocol: Daily Practices for Excellence

It was 5:30 AM. I had promised myself I would start my new morning routine – meditation, journaling, and exercise before checking email. But as I reached for my phone "just to check the time," I found myself scrolling through messages. Forty-five minutes later, I realized I'd broken my commitment before the day even began. This pattern had repeated for weeks, and I felt my confidence eroding with each failure. That evening, I had a coaching session with Phil Stutz. When I shared my struggle, he taught me something life-changing: "The worse you feel, the MORE committed you need to be to your protocol." He explained that most people do the opposite – when they feel off or overwhelmed, they abandon the very practices that would keep them centered and capable. This insight was my ticket to invincibility. The next morning, I placed my phone in another room before bed. When I woke up feeling resistance, I remembered Phil's words and doubled down on my commitment. That single day of following through created momentum. Within weeks, my morning protocol became non-negotiable, and my entire day transformed as a result. This is the essence of creating a hero's protocol – a set of daily practices that keep you connected to your best self. The key is turning theory into practice through what I call "Masterpiece Days." These are days where you optimize your AM and PM "bookends" – how you start and end your day – and then systematically install high-leverage behaviors throughout your day. The most powerful approach is Targeted Thinking. When facing any challenge, ask yourself: "What do I want?" This provides a target for your mind. Once you have clarity, the next question is simple: "Now what needs to be done?" Then, most importantly, go do what needs to be done. This process moves you from victim to hero, from complaining to creating. Remember that speed is a force. Our confidence erodes the longer we wait to take action once we know what we need to do. The solution? Close the gap between conception and action. Do it now! This practice of consistently doing what you say you will do builds the intense trust in yourself that is the foundation of true confidence. The hero's protocol isn't about perfection but about progress through consistent practice. By establishing clear routines that support your highest aspirations, you create a structure that makes heroic action more accessible, even on difficult days. These daily practices serve as anchors that keep you connected to your best self, regardless of external circumstances or internal resistance.

Chapter 6: Dragons and Diamonds: Transforming Obstacles into Strength

"No pressure, no diamonds." These words from Steven Kotler hit me like a thunderbolt during our interview. If we truly want to activate our heroic potential, we need to be willing to exit our comfort zones and viscerally know that our infinite potential exists on the other side of our comfort zone. This truth was vividly illustrated when I took my son Emerson to the Texas State Chess Championships. After winning six matches in a row, he was heading into the final match that would determine if he'd be the state champion. As we walked to the venue, we passed a family playing violins for donations. Emerson asked if we could give them money, and he handed the mother $20. The woman looked at him with an open heart and said, "Bless you. Thank you so much." I asked Emerson, "How did that feel?" He said, "It felt amazing." I then asked, "Think about how you felt winning all those chess games today. What felt better – winning those games or helping this family?" Without hesitation, he said, "This felt WAY better." To which I replied, "Exactly. Remember that. Helping people is why we do what we do." This moment revealed a profound truth: our greatest joy comes not from avoiding challenges but from embracing them in service to something greater than ourselves. The dragons we face – whether in chess tournaments, creative endeavors, or personal growth – are not obstacles to our happiness but opportunities to discover our strength and purpose. When you encounter inevitable dragons on your heroic journey, those intense feelings of "OMG! What have I done to my life?!" and the desire to run back to your comfort zone are normal! In fact, these moments of terror are often "reverse indicators." They aren't signs that something is wrong but that something is right. You're right where you need to be to grow: outside your comfort zone. Like the process of making a pearl, where an irritant becomes the nucleus around which beauty forms, our challenges become the core around which we build our strength. The mollusk coats the irritant with thousands of layers of nacre over years, slowly creating something precious. Similarly, we release our own "strong and iridescent" wisdom as we face life's irritants, creating luminescent pearls of character and capability. The dragons we encounter aren't punishments but invitations to discover depths of courage, creativity, and compassion we might never access in more comfortable circumstances. By reframing obstacles as opportunities for growth, we transform what could be sources of suffering into catalysts for our evolution. The diamonds of our character are formed precisely under the pressure that we often try to avoid.

Chapter 7: Soul Force: The Ultimate Power of Everyday Heroes

I was standing at the edge of a cliff, looking down at the churning water below. It was a popular spot for cliff jumping, but at forty feet high, it seemed impossibly daunting. My heart raced as friends encouraged me to jump. I had two choices: step back into safety or forward into growth. In that moment, I realized this was about more than just a cliff jump. It was about the fundamental choice we all face countless times each day: +1 or -1. Step forward into growth, or back into safety. How we feel at the end of each day is largely determined by these micro-moments of decision. Aggregate and compound those moments into days, weeks, months, and years, and you have your destiny. I jumped. The free fall was terrifying and exhilarating. When I surfaced, I felt more alive than I had in months. Not because cliff jumping is inherently virtuous, but because I had chosen growth over comfort, courage over fear. I had activated what I call Soul Force – the energy that emerges when we align our actions with our highest values. Soul Force is the ONE thing that ALL of your heroes have in common. Gandhi named it. Martin Luther King, Jr. talked about it in his "I have a dream" speech. It's the force that changes the world. And it's the one thing WE ALL have in common with our heroes. We just need to activate it. The formula is simple: When you get your Energy Focused on What's Important Now CONSISTENTLY, you activate your heroic potential and tap into the infinite power of Soul Force. This is how we win the ultimate game of life and fulfill our destiny. Not through grand, one-time heroic acts, but through the consistent choice to step forward into growth, moment after moment, day after day. Remember that a hero, etymologically, doesn't mean "killer of bad guys" or "tough guy." It means "PROTECTOR." A hero has strength for two. And the secret weapon of the ancient hero was LOVE. It's love that fuels our commitment to do the hard work to have strength for two. It's love that gives us the courage to act in the presence of fear. It's love that gives us the discipline to do what needs to be done whether we feel like it or not. Soul Force represents the ultimate expression of human potential – the energy that emerges when we align our actions with our highest values consistently over time. It's not a mystical power reserved for the special few but a natural capacity within each of us, waiting to be activated through courageous, consistent action. By focusing our energy on what truly matters and making the daily choice to step forward into growth rather than back into safety, we tap into this infinite wellspring of power that transforms not just our own lives but potentially the world around us.

Summary

The journey to heroic excellence is not about achieving perfection but about closing the gap between who we're capable of being and who we're actually being. Areté – expressing the best version of yourself moment to moment – is the path to eudaimonia, that deep sense of fulfillment that comes from living in alignment with our highest potential. This journey begins with embracing life's challenges rather than avoiding them, forging antifragile confidence that grows stronger with each obstacle. The ultimate game of life is won by optimizing our Big 3 – Energy, Work, and Love – while embodying our heroic identity through consistent virtuous action. When we start with who we want to become rather than what we want to achieve, we create a powerful engine for transformation. The most important algorithm to internalize is this: "The worse you feel, the MORE committed you are to your protocol." This is your ticket to invincibility. By practicing Targeted Thinking, embracing challenges as opportunities for growth, and activating your Soul Force through consistent focused energy, you become the hero we've been waiting for – not someday, but today.

About Author

Loading...

Brian Johnson

Brian Johnson is the Founder & CEO of Heroic Public Benefit Corporation. He’s 50% Philosopher + 50% CEO and 101% committed to helping create a world in which 51% of humanity is flourishing by the year 2051. As a Founder/CEO he’s raised $25M+, made crowdfunding history, and built and sold two social platforms. As a Philosopher/teacher, he’s helped millions of people from around the world, trained 10,000+ Heroic Coaches from 100+ countries and created a protocol that science says changes lives. He lives in the country outside Austin, Texas, with his wife, Alexandra, and their two kids, Emerson and Eleanor.

Read more