Brian Johnson is a philosopher who has written a book on “optimal living, creating an authentically awesome life and other such goodness.” In one of his recent newsletters Brian talks about wisdom.
This is what he says…
“Tal Ben-Shahar, one of the world’s leading Positive Psychologists and teacher of one of the most popular classes in Harvard University’s history, tells us that we already have all the wisdom we need.
He points to individuals who have near-death experiences or life threatening illnesses who suddenly (and permanently) change their lives—creating meaning and happiness that hadn’t been there before that moment.
Essentially, they always *knew* what to do, but they weren’t actually doing it till life gave them a kick in the butt.
He has this BRILLIANT exercise to help us tap into the wisdom that’s already percolating in our consciousness. It goes something like this: You’re 110-years-old. NASA (or Richard Branson’s Virgin Time Travel 😉 just invented a time machine. It can take you back to THIS moment so your 110-year-old self has 30 minutes to chat with your current you.
What do you tell yourself ? What are the most important truths/lessons/big Ideas you’d want to share in that 30 minutes?
What if you only had 5 minutes? What would you share? What if you only had 60 seconds? What’s THE most important message you’d want to share?!”
If I had 5 seconds, I would say to consider the words of Joseph Campbell when he said, “follow your bliss.”
