Brian Johnson

“Sitting on a planet spinning through vast outer space for a handful of years—in the broadest sense, this is the human predicament. Earth has been here for 4.5 billion years, yet each

“Sitting on a planet spinning through vast outer space for a handful of years—in the broadest sense, this is the human predicament. Earth has been here for 4.5 billion years, yet each of us is limited to roughly an eighty-year ride on the planet, give or take a few years. We were born onto the planet, and we will leave it when we die. That is simply the truth. What is not such a hard and fast truth, however, is what our few years on Earth are like. Undoubtedly, the planet can be a very exciting experience. It can bring enthusiasm, passion, and inspiration at every turn. When it unfolds that way, every day can be a beautiful adventure. Unfortunately, life on Earth rarely unfolds exactly as we want it to, and if we resist, our experience can be quite unpleasant. Resistance creates tension and anxiety, and it makes life a burden.

To avoid this burden and be able to fully embrace life, wise ones throughout the ages have taught the importance of accepting reality. Only by accepting reality can we work with the flow of life as it passes by and create a better world. All of science is based on studying reality, learning her laws, and then working with those laws to improve our lives. Scientists can’t deny reality; they must fully accept reality as the starting point of their endeavors. To fly, we must fully embrace the law of gravity, not deny its existence. The same is true in the spiritual realm. Teachings such as surrender, acceptance, and nonresistance form the basis of a deeply spiritual life. But these concepts can be difficult to grasp. In Living Untethered, we are embarking on a journey into the sheer reasonableness of acceptance and the great gifts it promises: freedom, peace, and inner enlightenment. Acceptance is best understood as nonresistance to reality. Try as you may, no one can make an event that has already happened not have happened. Your only choice is to accept the event or resist it. During our journey together, we will explore how and why you make this decision. But first you have to understand who is within that has the power to decide.”

-Michael Singer from Living Untethered

“Name someone truly great without self-discipline. Name one calamitous undoing that was not, at least in part, rooted in a lack of self-discipline

“Name someone truly great without self-discipline. Name one calamitous undoing that was not, at least in part, rooted in a lack of self-discipline.

More than talent, life is about temperament. And temperance.

The people we admire most and will explore in this book—Marcus Aurelius, Queen Elizabeth II, Lou Gehrig, Angela Merkel, Martin Luther King Jr., George Washington, Winston Churchill—inspire us with their restraint and dedication. The cautionary tales of history—Napoleon, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, King George IV—stun us with their self-inflicted destruction. And because each of us contains multitudes, sometimes we see both excess and restraint in the same person and can learn from both.

Freedom requires discipline.

Discipline gives us freedom.

Freedom and greatness.

Your destiny is there.

Will you grab the reins?”

~ Ryan Holiday from Discipline Is Destiny

“The headlines about kids struggling with everything from obesity to mental illness to addictions angers me. According to the Centers for Diseas

“The headlines about kids struggling with everything from obesity to mental illness to addictions angers me. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five American kids is obese. Fifteen percent of college students are taking antidepressants. The kids are not alright. But the kids are not the root of the problem; they’re the victims of indulgent, spoiled, mindless, soft parenting and a society that would rather spend money selling them vaping tools and video games than making PE a priority in schools. And it’s the kids who suffer the consequences. Parents have been complicit with our society’s corporatized, commodified laziness (gaming chairs, baby iPad cases ... it’s all BS).

We can—and must—create a tougher generation, starting with our own kids, starting with ourselves. We have to stop discussing issues, writing blogs, and joining more PTA subgroups, and we have to start taking real action. And that action begins with us—the parents. We can’t expect our children to be healthy and resilient humans if we aren’t. The incredible, important, and unrelenting job of being a parent isn’t best accomplished by following a checklist of how-tos. It’s by living and breathing the kind of human that you want your child to be, and then parenting and leading from that same position. …

As we have witnessed through the pandemic, courage and healthy conditioning are about all that we can count on. But I promise you, with some hard-won lessons, inviting some healthy failure and turning losses into life lessons, you can prepare yourself and your kids for anything. You can transform yourself from child to warrior, and you can help the people around you do the same. You can start by making your bed and throwing down some burpees. Stop blaming the screens and start showing up and choosing the hard thing. Don’t know how? Well, that’s the point of this book.”

~ Joe De Sena from 10 Rules for Resilience

“Would you like to have more energy, less stress, and a stronger immune system? Would you like to sleep better, improve your cognitiv

“Would you like to have more energy, less stress, and a stronger immune system? Would you like to sleep better, improve your cognitive and athletic performance, boost your mood, lose weight, and alleviate your anxiety? What if I told you that you can achieve all these things and so much more by unlocking the power of your own mind? And that you can do it in only a few days? ...

The secret to a lifetime of health and happiness is within your grasp. You can safely practice the Wim Hof Method by yourself, at your own pace, and within the comfort of your own home. No pills, injections, vitamins, supplements, equipment, or specialty diets of any kind—all you need is yourself and a desire to unlock your body’s hidden potential. This book is your guide.

Are you ready? In the pages that follow, I will share the story of my journey, from a small Dutch village in which I was born to the world stage I now occupy. I will explain the ins and outs of my method, the philosophy that underpins it, and the science that supports it. And I will present examples of practitioners who have used the method to radically transform their lives. In doing so, my hope is to inspire you to retake control of your body and life by unleashing the immense power of your mind. It’s all there for you, and there’s no time to waste.

Let’s go.”

-Wim Hof from The Wim Hof Method

“I chose the phrase ‘The Everyday Patriot’ as the title of this book for several reasons. The word ‘patriotism’ and its derivative ‘patrio

“I chose the phrase ‘The Everyday Patriot’ as the title of this book for several reasons. The word ‘patriotism’ and its derivative ‘patriot’ have unfortunately become controversial in our time, due to primarily being misused. I’ve devoted my life as a public philosopher to reclaiming certain concepts like success, happiness, wisdom and virtue from various modern misunderstandings and bringing them back to their ancient and best meanings for our present and future. I hope to do that now with the idea of patriotism. …

Proper patriotism is an inner determination and commitment to act for the good of our country and all who live within it, together with an outer world pattern of ongoing action that delivers real value to the larger world. It’s a beneficial involvement in the life of our nation, with a lively concern for what we can contribute beyond its borders, in making our positive difference to the common good on however small or great a scale. ...

We’re angry about something and ill-disposed to others who don’t share our views. We marinate in irritation or even fury as we blame ‘those people’ for our troubles. And this has created a terrible unhealthiness in our nation that has to be overcome quickly and decisively by as many of us as possible. There are serious problems we need to solve, and if we don’t address them soon and create more positive ways forward for our collective endeavor here in America, we may lose the chance to do so at all. But that will require lots of us coming together in a committed mindset that wants to take healthy and crucial actions at all levels of our national life. We need to release whatever is holding us back, let go of the negatives that have sadly come to define our time, and enter into a new culture of positive patriotism throughout the land that’s based on the founding values and ideals of our distinctive nation. That’s what this book is all about, and how to do it together.”

~ Tom Morris from The Everyday Patriot

“Is there a power that can reveal hidden veins of riches and uncover treasures of which we never dreamed? Is there a force that we can call upon to give health, happiness, and spiritual enlightenment? The sain

“Is there a power that can reveal hidden veins of riches and uncover treasures of which we never dreamed? Is there a force that we can call upon to give health, happiness, and spiritual enlightenment? The saints and sages of India teach that there is such a power. They have demonstrated the efficacy of truth principles that will work for you, too, if you give them a fair trial.

Your success in life does not altogether depend on ability and training; it also depends on your determination to grasp opportunities that are presented to you. Opportunities in life come by creation, not by chance. You yourself, either now or in the past… have created all opportunities that arise in your path. Since you have earned them use them to the best advantage.

If you use all available outward means, as well as your natural abilities, to overcome every obstacle in your path, you will thus develop the powers that God gave you—unlimited powers that flow from the innermost forces of your being. You possess the power of thought and the power of will. Utilize to the uttermost these divine gifts!”

~ Paramahansa Yogananda from The Law of Success

“Is there a power that can reveal hidden veins of riches and uncover treasures of which we have never dreamed? Is there a force that we can call upon

“Is there a power that can reveal hidden veins of riches and uncover treasures of which we have never dreamed? Is there a force that we can call upon to give health, happiness, and spiritual enlightenment? The saints and sages of India have taught that there is such a power. They uncovered truths that we have overlooked or forgotten, and these truths will work for you, too, if you give them a fair trial.

Your success in life does not depend only upon natural ability; it also depends upon your determination to grasp the opportunity that is presented to you. Opportunities in life come by creation, not by chance. They are created by you, either now or at some time in the recent or distant past. Since you have earned them, use them to the best advantage. You can make your life much more worthwhile, now and in the future, if you focus your attention on your immediate needs and use all your abilities and available information to fulfill them. You must develop all the powers God gave you, the unlimited powers that come from the innermost forces of your being.”

~ Paramahansa Yogananda from How to Be a Success

“As I understood more about the powerful characteristics of heroes in literature and in movies, though, I became curious about whether embodying some of those characteristics would

“As I understood more about the powerful characteristics of heroes in literature and in movies, though, I became curious about whether embodying some of those characteristics would create a better life experience.

Living like a hero (which is nothing like you might think—heroes are anything but strong and capable; they are simply victims going through a process of transformation), entered me into, unknowingly, something called logotherapy, a therapy created by a Viennese psychologist named Viktor Frankl. I will explain much more about logotherapy in this book.

Entering into logotherapy changed my life for the better. I went from being sad to being content. I went from unproductive to productive. And I went from having certain fears of close relationships to being able to enter into and enjoy those relationships. Mostly, though, I went from feeling life was meaningless to experiencing a deep sense of meaning.

About ten years into living this way, I created a life plan and daily planner that helped me turn all of those helpful ideas into a system. And that’s what this book is all about. It’s about living like a hero so you can experience a deep sense of meaning. The book teaches a simple-to-use system allowing anybody to live a life that delivers a deep sense of meaning.

If you have struggled with a feeling of futility, or if you are tired of the story you’ve been living, or if you are having to start over and create a new reality for yourself, I hope you find this book to be helpful.”

~ Donald Miller from Hero on a Mission

“We all know how hard it is to write a book, make a movie, or create a new business. Powerful forces line up against us—obstacles to entry, rivals, competitors, fin

“We all know how hard it is to write a book, make a movie, or create a new business. Powerful forces line up against us—obstacles to entry, rivals, competitors, finances, funding, the difficulty of the craft itself.

But the most formidable antagonist of all resides inside each of our own skulls. I’m talking about that negative force I call Resistance with a capital R.

How do we defeat this monster that lives inside all of us and never tires, never loses strength, never takes a day off, and is endlessly ruthless and protean and subtle and clever and diabolical in the ways it can set snares for us and bring our most noble and brilliant aspirations to nothing? How do we get past this force called Resistance and set ourselves on the path to achieve our dreams?

The title of this book, as we said, is Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be.

That, in nine words, is my answer. It’s the simplest and most direct way to get up in the morning and do our work . . . and to lie down at night feeling at peace with ourselves, knowing for this one day at least we have defeated our demons and moved twenty-four hours closer to living the True Self and Best Self we were born to be.

Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be may sound glib and superficial at first, but believe me, its implications are profound and its applications universal. We’ll start, in this book, with the purely physical interpretation—‘ass,’ meaning body, our flesh-and-blood presence. But as the chapters unfold, we’ll take the subject deeper and deeper, into the psychological, the emotional, the metaphorical, and even the spiritual dimensions of the principle.

Let’s begin.”

~ Steven Pressfield from Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be