In our last +1, we had fun with the “I Love You!” game.

Oh… Wait…

I found something for you!!!!

One sec… Where’d it go?!

Oh! Here it is!!

🤟🤟🤟

LOVE YOU! 😍

(Ahem.)

So…

Today I want to go back to the favorite part of my PM Bookend. Emerson and I are reading.

We’re now on to a great series of books on history. It’s a four-part series called The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child.

Volume 1 features Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor. We’re currently finishing up Volume 2: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance.

The whole series has been great so far. It’s been super fun to revisit history and introducing Emerson to the story of our world. (Parents: Highly recommend it!)

Today I want to chat about one of the most salient themes of history and apply that wisdom to our modern lives.

Short story.

When we step back and study history, one of the things that most quickly jumps off the page is how regularly civilizations rise and fall.

From the ancient Egyptian and Chinese and Assyrian and Indus Valley and Phoenician and Babylonian and Persian and Roman Empires to the more recent yet still ancient Byzantine and Islamic and Mongol and Ottoman and Moghul and Mayan and Aztec and Incan Empires…

What do we see?

Empires rising and falling…

Rising and falling…

Saving the longer chats about the details to that process, Today I want to talk about one of the essential ingredients to the RISING part of an Empire—that time when a civilization really flourished.

What struck me most as Emerson and I traveled through history was the internal coherence that had to exist within a civilization for it to become a significant empire. The endless skirmishes had to stop and the warring factions had to be united. A strong leader had to step forward and create a set of laws that everyone would follow—creating peace and prosperity that allowed the civilization to flourish.

And, well, that’s Today’s +1.

Want to flourish?

Create internal coherence.

Step up and end the internal battles. If all your energy is being spent dealing with internal conflict, there’s none left for the good stuff.

Let’s write the “If… Then…” algorithmic “laws” that make our prior best our new baselines.

Practically speaking, got any internal battles waging between your Optimus-best self and your not-so-Optimus-best self?

(One more time: Of course you do. You’re human.)

What’s one new algorithmic law you can pass to help your benevolent Optimus You Empire flourish?

Today a good day to get on that?

P.S. 🤟

The Optimus You Empire #1049

How to Create a Flourishing Civilization

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