Understanding the concept of ARETÉ — the Greek word for virtue and the pursuit of excellence in fulfilling one's purpose. In the hustle of everyday life, it's easy to become disconnected from our deepest aspirations and potentials. Brian Johnson, the founder and CEO of Heroic and author of ARETÉ, recently sat down with life coach Myrna Young to discuss tapping into our inner hero, overcoming fears, and living a more purposeful life. Drawing from a wealth of philosophical studies and personal experience, Johnson shares actionable steps toward self-improvement that promise to ignite our heroic fires.
Pursuit of Excellence: Understanding the concept of ARETÉ — the Greek word for virtue and the pursuit of excellence in fulfilling one's purpose.
Overcoming Fear with Courage: The role of bravery in confronting life's challenges and the necessity of courage for personal growth.
Daily Masterpieces: The importance of tackling self-improvement and excellence daily to create a cumulative impact on our broader life goals.
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The ancient Greek concept of ARETÉ is a rich and potent term referring to the pursuit of excellence aligned with our purpose. Johnson has embodied this term, making it the north star of his life's work. He discusses with Myrna the notion that the pursuit of excellence must begin with the recognition that ARETÉ is attainable and deeply rooted in ancient wisdom and affirmed by modern science.
“It's the essence of my life's work,” Brian states, as he explains the fundamental importance of reducing the gap between our potential and our actions. When we operate below our capabilities, feelings of regret and dissatisfaction creep in. In contrast, living with ARETÉ fills the void with fulfillment and passion.
Johnson advises individuals to take some time away from distractions like Netflix and social media to reflect on who they aspire to be. He suggests visualizing our future selves and identifying moments in the past when we felt truly alive and fulfilled. Connecting these two points provides a clearer picture of what we can become.
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One of the supervening messages from Johnson's discussion is the critical role of courage. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the will to act despite it. Johnson reinforces this through a personal anecdote about his son's reluctance to participate in a chess tournament due to fear of defeat.
“The win there was going,” Johnson notes, marking the importance of the act of trying over the outcome. This illustrates the significance of instilling bravery as a value—not just in ourselves but in our successors.
The act of overcoming our inner doubter, that voice in our heads that beseeches us to play it safe, is essential for growth. Breaking through the fear barrier is a cornerstone of ARETÉ that Johnson passionately upholds: stepping into our challenges is how we kindle our inner hero.
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Making Today a Masterpiece: The Cumulative Effect of Daily Excellence
One of the objectives Johnson outlines in ARETÉ is the principle of making today a masterpiece. The idea is to focus on being our best selves in present moments, which sequentially contribute to a more significant, fulfilling future.
“Make today a masterpiece. Not someday, today,” Brian advises. He emphasizes this by advocating for an incremental improvement approach—stretching ourselves by just a minuscule percentage, repeatedly, can lead to accomplishing seemingly impossible goals.
This philosophy aligns with Johnson's comment about teaching his son to focus on continuous learning and improvement, rather than solely on winning. By prioritizing our growth and learning from every experience, we tread a path toward mastery in our personal and professional lives.
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In retrospect, Brian Johnson’s conversation with Myrna Young is a vivid tapestry intertwining the ancient concept of ARETÉ with practical life lessons and philosophies. Readers are left with an empowering message of harnessing inner potential, facing fears with unyielding courage, and building a life of greatness through the accumulation of daily acts of excellence.
Johnson’s tale of his son’s chess tournaments serves as a microcosm of a broader narrative — that our greatest learnings and developments stem from our willingness to confront that which intimidates us. The acknowledgment that personal growth is a result of a steady, intentional, and courageous commitment to betterment is a takeaway that holds profound implications for anyone seeking meaning and vibrancy in their life.
By embodying the principles of ARETÉ such as wisdom, discipline, love, and courage, bolstered by gratitude, hope, curiosity, and zest, we don't just approach life — we sculpt it, day by day, into a masterpiece. Brian Johnson’s insights serve as a reminder that the heroic resides not in the extraordinary but within the reach of our daily choices and courage to stretch just a little further into our greatness.
What “The Matrix” the movie was trying to show is that we're inside of a game, we're, consciousness, inside of the, game of life. And so, our reality is a merging of the, game of life, outside the body. When Noe realized he could control the game he says, why don't I change it? Why don’t I change the rules? Why don't I change the way I interact with it? Why don't I populate it? And that is where he's able to start to control his reality, and create his own matrix. We can all do the same thing.
Alana Aviel is a guide to Mastering the Creation of your Reality. Alana Aviel of AKIATA is an Oracle, Channel, Teacher, and Spiritual Guide/Activator working primarily in the Quantum Realm. Following a powerful near-death experience, Alana has humbly stepped fully into her service as a guide and teacher in the Akasha and assists in total obliteration of old paradigm patterns and limitations to being. Her work focuses on identifying the cues of one’s reality and activating our natural powers as the creator of our Reality to live an aware and empowered life.
Alana: I was in a motorcycle accident where I was in a coma and have a severe brain injury. It was actually the conclusion of one, soul's journey, and the initiation of my soul's journey. So that was the start of my adventure. And it's what's called a, walk-in soul, experience. So where one soul kind of says, okay, I'm ready to conclude my journey here on Earth, and it creates an opportunity for another soul to kind of hop in and continue the journey.
Myrna: Take us on a chronological journey.
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Near Death experience and a walk in soul
Alana: Yeah, so most people are born you know, they're a baby they live a life they grow up they have school, they have childhood memories, maybe some trauma, all those experiences. And you know, when we understand the, near-death experience, somebody kind of hops out of the game for a minute and comes back right? What I'm saying is I'm actually a different soul continuing the journey of the person who created this body. So, I don't have childhood memories. I don't have a point of reference. That was a story of a soul that preceded me and I kind of came in midstream.
Myrna: Wow. In the, near-death experience, a new soul walks in. I have never heard this before.
Alana: This is what some people call a, walk-in soul. But for me, the most powerful kind of contrast is, I don't come with the context of a life experience that most people have, most people have childhood memories. They have, you know, trauma that you can inquire or, you know, an impact about beliefs or an impression of, you know, things that they learned in school, because I kind of came in midstream, I have the benefit of some of the memories that Alana kind of left me.
Myrna: What was the experience that the original soul left that a new soul came in? You mentioned something about a motorcycle accident.
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The soul agreement and game of life
Alana: In 2007 the original Alana experienced severe head injury, in a motorcycle accident and was in a coma for a good amount of time. And I would say that was the time that we kind of changed places you could say during that coma, whatever her soul had chosen was saying okay, this is going to be the conclusion of my adventure here on this earth game. I'm sure that she and I created a, soul agreement, that I would pick up where she left off. And so I woke from the coma, started to understand, oh, this is the new life experience. These are some of the rules. These are some of the ways that she lives. These are some of the things that she did, these are some of the people that she knew, and I kind of just picked up the roll from there and carried on.
Myrna: How does a, walk-in soul, take us to the, matrix?
Alana: Yeah, so, you know, we use this term, matrix, or we use this term like the, game of life. Basically, it's an experience inside of, consciousness. And the interesting thing is people identify the, matrix, or the ego as the limitations, the obstacles, the challenges, the lack or the struggle of trauma, those types of things, right. And sometimes people identify the matrix as this force outside of us, like the government or you know, all of these other limitations; but in reality, what you need to see is the limitations are how our subconscious designs our, game of life.
The matrix or, game of life, is to be played based on what our soul identifies as wanting to experience inside of, consciousness. And so, when I talk about limiting suffering, it can be as simple as changing the way one identifies inside of consciousness. Because the way that we identify inside of, consciousness, will define the experience that we have.
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Myrna: Well, you know, that 99.9% of people don't even know, what is consciousness. We just show up play the, game of life. We're in the matrix and you know, it's tumbling us around and we're reacting to outside stimulus. But consciousness is a big word. And even though I'm in the space of, awareness and, consciousness, and, trying to create my own reality. I know that I'm not at the top of the game. So, when you are saying that we're limited in our, consciousness. Explain for the layman what that means.
Alana: So there's four ways to experience reality. And as you said, 99% of people have that perspective that life happens to them that they're kind of a victim to circumstances. So, they are at the entry level of the, game of life. When people have an awakening, they start to experience a level of consciousness where they start to realize, I'm actually the observer in the game. I'm able to transcend these limitations and look at them with a different context, a more divine perspective. All of a sudden they are able to take themselves outside of that victim-hood and say, wait, there's something else going on here.
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The matrix illustrates how to play the game of life
And that's what the movie “The Matrix Movie” kind of illustrates. He takes the red pill or the blue pill and all of a sudden, he realizes the game isn't what he thought it was. Similar thing happens when people have an awakening. So, the stage that comes after the observer, is we're starting to notice okay, I can see the way this works a little bit differently. It's not necessarily happening to me, but I'm participating in it in a way that I can't quite explain. Then we get to manifesting what we want in this, matrix.
I know a lot of people who are really getting on to the idea of manifesting using affirmations, using depth of beliefs to create inside their experience. So now you're not only just observing life, but you're playing as a creator. In my experience, I can create my prosperity through my belief, I can create my relationships in a different way through my belief, now I understand myself, and we really have kind of left the victim hood and started to be more of a creator. When you play the, game of life, as a creator, it’s like putting their heart, their skin, their dreams, and their imagination into action.
And then once you really get to a place where you are merging with, divine consciousness, which can be known to some people as enlightenment, you know, we've had a lot of ascended masters that have set this example Buddha, Jesus all the other ones, right. This is where reality can be perceived as being created in real time, exclusively from our mindset. And so, this is where everything in our experience is a manifestation of the mind.
Myrna: Sure, so from what I remember of the, matrix, you know, there was a body, sitting in a chair, and he took the pill and he was going to the Oracle and the Oracle said that he was the One. But that reality of the matrix didn't actually affect the body. Right? Because there's one time he got shot in the matrix and he was sitting a chair still alive. So, help us play the game where we're in a matrix, which is the, quantum field, and then we're in our body. How does that work?
Alana: Well, I mean, there's a lot of layers to it. The first thing that I find is most valuable for everybody is we're all the guy. We are all the One. So everybody is in their own unique matrix. What “The Matrix” the movie was trying to show is that we're inside of a game, we're, consciousness, inside of a game. And so, our reality is a merging of the, game of life, outside the body. When he realized he could control the game he says, why don't I change it? Why don’t I change the rules? Why don't I change the way I interact with it? Why don't I populate it? And that is where he's able to start to control his reality, which is what we're talking about.
And he's able to watch himself participating in real time, which is like what manifesting is, you know, you set your intention or what Dr Joe Dispenza talks about and “Becoming Supernatural” you can heal yourself, but only because you made yourself aware of your capacity to do so. So, my cheat code that the matrix illustrates so beautifully is that our mindset is everything. How we identify is everything. We identify ourselves as always running after our next paycheck. The paychecks are going to keep running away from us. If we identify ourselves as somebody where money is running to us, money will run to us.
The game of life, this movie The Matrix, that's a clue, the book The Secret, that's a clue. And there's so many clues that are kind of naturally built into the game. And one of my favorite ways to understand the clues is to look at the life of children. Because children know how to play the, game of life. They haven't picked up the muck that kind of makes us forget. And so, what do they do? Kids play dress up, they use their imagination. They pick up a block, it becomes a car, right? Kids know how to play the, game of life, and then we pick up beliefs and the baggage from society. And just increase our degrees of forgetting until we find it again.
Myrna: How we can get in touch with you if you're on social media. Tell us your handles.
Alana: Yeah, beautiful. My handle on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/akiataetheric/ and Tiktok is @akiatsetheric. If they follow me I share a lot of juicy mind bending ideas and concepts. But most importantly I have this experience called the mirror dimension. And if you go to mirror-dimension.com You'll find my membership there we meet weekly to learn how to read your reality. It's really easy, accessible, low-cost program for people to come in and start to learn about themselves to learn about the conscious experience playing a, game of life, learning all the cues.
I find it very important for us to include unpacking people's personal experiences as demonstrations of what does this clue mean? What did that challenge what was that challenge trying to say? So, we workshop in real time in the mirror dimension to learn how to be better creators in our reality. It's a really incredible workshop style experience for people to come and learn and grow.
Rules game of life, # 1 Know where you want to go. A lot of us have goals, but we focus on all of them at the same time and that is why most of us never accomplish any of them.
There is a Guyanese proverb that says that you can be a “Jack of all trades, master of none.” That means if you have all these trades, you can never be great at any.
The captain of a ship knows he can only dock at one port at a time. A quarterback in a football game knows the goal of the drive is to get to the end zone and score a touchdown. Once he has accomplished one touchdown then he starts planning for the next touchdown. Rules of the game, both the Captain and the quarterback knows to, focus on one thing, at a time.
So, the first rule of success in the, game of life, is knowing where you want to go. You set one goal and, focus on one thing, concentrate all your energies on that goal first, then after you accomplish that goal then you move on to the next goal.
Let’s say where you want to go is to save $20,000 for a down payment on your first home. That is the direction you want to go in, you shouldn’t have that goal of saving $20,000 and another goal of let’s say getting your Master’s degree at the same time. Chances are you will accomplish neither. Since you should, focus on one thing, at a time. First focus on your down payment and then after you move into your home, then you could focus on getting your Master's degree.
In the, game of life, your reward is in direct proportion to your service. So how will you earn this $20,000? You have to provide a service to get it. Don’t dream of winning the lottery.
We just watched the Super Bowl game. Let’s look at Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes as an illustration of having one primary goal and working only on that goal. Patrick Mahomes is rewarded handsomely for his service for his ability to score touchdowns. He is paid millions and I mean millions because of this ability. He has studied his craft and become the best and his knowledge of the game and how to achieve his goal of getting to the end zone, makes him valuable to any team. He concentrates of one drive at time, that is his, focus is on one thing. One touchdown at a time, one game at a time with the end goal of a championship.
So, you need to do the same. What skills do you need to have to accomplish your primary goal today? What do you have to do to become the best at what you do. Since service is in direct proportion to reward, how will you increase your service?
These are the, rules game of life, know where you want to go and, focus on one thing, at a time. This message is for me as well. I am speaking to myself. I have lots of goals and I was working on all of them at the same time and that is why I wasn’t gaining traction. I have 6 goals and I was concentrating on all of them. Now that I understand the, rules game of life, I have picked one goal and am focusing all my attention on this goal. I already work on improving my skills every day. I already learn something new every day. Since my rewards is in direct proportion to my service, I am confident that my rewards will come. I know if you build it, they will come.
Remember the quote from Alice in Wonderland “if you don’t know where you are going then it doesn’t matter where you end up.”
So become one of the 5% of the population who know the, rules game of life, they know where they are going and is working the playbook, setting up plays, celebrating first downs and getting to the end zone. You must have singular focus, you must know that people are out to stop you, and you must know where they are and avoid a collision. Patrick Mahomes played through an injury, you must know that you will have challenges and problems on your way to your goals, successful people succeed in spite of their challenges.
Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of 5 min Fridays with coach Myrna
