Overview
- We’re Obsessing: About how to create astonishing value (with astonishing velocity).
- Verissimus: Donald Robertson and his new graphic novel on Marcus Aurelius and Stoicism.
- Contemplating the Ideal Sage: (+ You) and Learning Cycles (and a few celebrations!)
- Keep the Celebrations Coming! Here’s that short form again.
Astonishing Value and Astonishing Velocity
Our current (and constant!) obsession is to create astonishing value (with astonishing velocity!) and do everything we possibly can to help you get your Soul Force to 101 so that we can change the world together.
Over the past several weeks, we’ve been pushing features and content to the new Heroic app at a faster and faster cadence: including the Soul Force score, accountability reminders, Optimize +1s, and Philosopher’s Notes.
And…
As hinted about in prior updates, we’re REALLY excited about some of the initiatives that we’ll be launching and sharing in the coming weeks and months, including:
- A live event (Hint: Add Dec 9-11th in Los Angeles, California to your calendar!) to help you end 2022 strong and prepare to make 2023 the best year of your life.
- A single, integrated Heroic app experience. (Note: Yes, we’re planning for account-level data like favorites, completed, etc. to will be preserved.)
- A simplified membership offering at all levels. (Goal: Bringing clarity to the current confusion and creating a membership that has you unequivocally say “this is THE best out there.”)
- New Philosopher’s Notes (🥳 🎉 !!!), along with other new programs and content surprises.
- And much more…
We’ll continue to update you on new features, upcoming milestones, what to expect, and the impact on app functionality via these Weekly Briefs. (Which will also soon start to be archived on the site for reference.)
Stay tuned!
Donald Robertson and Verissimus: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius
Earlier this week, Donald Robertson joined our Coach community for another AMAZING Luminary Guest Faculty Session.
(Coaches, you can check out the recording of that most recent session here, along with Donald’s first session with us here.)
Donald is another one of our favorite modern thinkers. We’ve got Notes on two of his phenomenal books, How to Think Like a Roman Emperor and The Philosophy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and a whole host of +1s inspired by his work (including Warriors vs. Librarians).
His newest book, Verissimus: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius is a graphic novel written by Donald and illustrated by Zé Nuno Fraga. (Grab a copy from your favorite local bookstore, or on Amazon here.) It was astonishing how the illustrations really helped stoic ideas, as well as Marcus Aurelius himself, to come to life in a powerful, profound way.
In addition to chatting about Verissimus, Donald shared a treasure trove of training and tools with our Coaches for helping apply stoicism to our lives, including “The View from Above,” strategies for creating cognitive distance, and more.
Contemplating the Ideal Sage (+ You)
Continuing on the Donald Robertson theme, in the Note on How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, Brian highlights the Big Idea Contemplating the Ideal Sage(+You) and references ideas that are captured in the +1 Learning Cycles.
Here’s the lead quote:
“Your first step is to write down the virtues exhibited by someone you respect. Listing the qualities you most admire in another person, just as Marcus does in the first book of The Meditations, is a simple and powerful exercise. …
In addition to the virtues of real people, the Stoics were also known for contemplating the hypothetical character of an ideal Sage, or wise person. There are several passages where Marcus appears to be doing this. These descriptions inevitably seem a bit more abstract and grandiose. For example, he says that the perfect wise man is like a true priest of the gods, at one with the divine element of reason within himself. He is neither corrupted by pleasure nor injured by pain, and he remains untouched by insults. The true Sage is like a fighter in the noblest of fights, dyed deep with justice. With his whole being, he accepts everything that befalls him, as assigned him by Fate. He seldom concerns himself with what others say or do unless it’s for the common good. He naturally cares for all rational beings, as though they were his brothers and sisters. He is not swayed by the opinions of just anyone, but he gives special heed to the wise who live in agreement with Nature. Marcus is trying here to describe human perfection to himself and to envisage an ideal Sage who completely embodies the Stoic goals of life.
In addition to asking ourselves what qualities the ideal wise person might have, we can ask what qualities we might hope to possess in the distant future. For instance, what sort of person would you hope to be after having trained in Stoicism for ten or twenty years?”
And Brian’s riffing
One of the core practices is to, as per the passage above, think about and WRITE DOWN the virtues you admire in others.
You can also contemplate the virtues of your vision of an ideal Sage.
And… My favorite: You can imagine the virtues YOU, as the ideal version of YOURSELF might have after a decade or two of consistent practice.
…
Reflect on your ideal self and those virtues you intend to embody every morning. Write them down. Imagine your ideal self interacting with people Today. Who are you? How do you show up? That’s essentially what Marcus did.
And that’s basically EXACTLY what we do every single day in our AM Heroic Commitment practice in the new app!
That AM Commitment (followed by coming back to the app to swipe-to-hit and celebrate each Target) is a big part of how the app is helping each of us move from THEORY to PRACTICE so that we can express the best, most Heroic versions of ourselves more consistently, creating Masterpiece Days day-in and day-out.
On that note, well done on creating YOUR Masterpiece Day, Mustafa! (And on your Ironman 70.3!)
I am almost done with the theory part of Optimize Coach Level 3. I did a Triathlon as a race for my big challenge. It was awesome. I am now also a member of Heroic so I use to app for my masterpiece days. Since I use the app, hitting the targets became a new experience. I love it.
And well done (plus thank you, 🙇♂️ !) Claire!
I have two words LIFE CHANGING. I’m telling everyone I know about it. Thank you ALL for this wonderful work you are doing. I am changing as a person, becoming more of the person I always just expected I would be, but am now realizing takes some intentionality to become. It’s been surprising how the simplest things done routinely (algorithmically) can change your life.
And that brings us to…
Celebrate with Us!
We LOVE hearing your stories!
Use this short form to share a note and any recent wins you’ve had with us, and it will go straight into one of our team slack channels (Brian gets a printed copy,) where we celebrate your success and get the opportunity to hit our shared team target “Connect to Those You Serve” in the app.
THANK YOU again to everyone who has shared so far!
We’re excited to continue astonishing you and look forward to doing everything we can to help you express the best, most Heroic version of yourself.
Let’s change the world.
One person at a time.
Together.
Starting with you and me and us.
TODAY!
-Michael and Team Heroic
P.S. Links again!
- We’re Obsessing: About how to create astonishing value (with astonishing velocity).
- Verissimus: Donald Robertson and his new graphic novel on Marcus Aurelius and Stoicism.
- Contemplating the Ideal Sage: (+ You) and Learning Cycles (and a few celebrations!)
- Keep the Celebrations Coming! Here’s that short form again.
