“Arate.

It all starts with Areté. As we know, the word directly translates as “virtue” or “excellence” but has a deeper meaning—something along the lines of “expressing our highest potential.””

I have found Brian Johnson in the year of 2014. A year after my Mum died. At that moment we were living in New Zealand and I was feeling a little lost. I was teaching yoga with Peter Sanson and working part time in a health shop called Chantals. I loved my everyday life but still I felt I would like to find a bigger purpose for my life.

I always felt that teaching is one of my calling and I loved to talk with the people in the shop, and uplift them with a compliment or an inspiring quote which I wrote on the wall of the shop. There was fresh flowers, healty food and good coffee offered. Care and attention for all those who came in.

But still something was missing. So I let my creativity came alive and had designed my Art Deco Aprons because I was inspired by the spirit of Napier the “Art Deco Capital of New Zealand” and sold these beautiful handmade aprons in the shop.

But still something was missing. So one day I went home and typed into Google “What is my purpose?”. As I pushed the search button I looked up and intended that the answer I’d get would take me to my next best self.

And that is what had happened! A video came up on youtube which was recorded by Brian. It was I guess an old nokia. A picture is a bit blurry as it showed his notebook with his ideas on how to find one’s purpose in life. I instatly felt that I had found something very unique. As I was listening him the black cloud uplifted from my heart.

He proposed two questions in the end of his video, which really changed the corse of my life!

One questions was: “What is that one thing that if I start doing it right now will influence positively my life?”

With the help of this question I’d discovered how much I love writing. After I watched the video I went out and bought a beautiful notebook and on the first page I wrote this question. As a result I took a vow that I will start to fulfill one of my dream of being a published writer bit by bit, step by step by starting a blog (called 5 minutes of oasis) and write a post no longer then a few sentences about the beauty of life.

This blog set me to an inner journey of discovery. I have been writing that moment on every day. Its been a while by now and since then I self-published some of my writing. I collected from my notebook my best pieces of wisdom and published a book of quotes. Then I wrote a children’s book and a novel based on a dream I had on Waiheke Island a stormy night after we moved from Ostend to Orapiu in 2007.

Brians other question of: “What is that one thing that if I stop doing it right now will influence positively my life?” was my constant companion for years. I always find a new answer to this question.

If I need inspiration I just look up how is Brian’s doing because since I have been following him, he is walking his talking. It is amazing to see how he has been building up his empire of wisdom space. His idea was to build up a resorce of collection of great wisdom from all wisdom writer of the world. And then he made his PhilosoperNotes which was about the shortened version of books with highlighted big ideas, in a pdf and video format.

He had a website called optimize around the year of 2019 when he was offering a 300 day long apprenticeship in positive pyshology. I was at class 4 and enyojed each day of that training. Then Brian had dreamt even bigger and now he is up to pursue this dream of his. With the help of many we have established a new platform called HEROIC whic is about how can we reach the highest level of our human potential.

If you love great app-s check his one out. If you love to start your day with positiv thoughts download the app. If you are ready to take a leep in your personal development apply for a heroic training.

Get inspired and stay inspired by become a hero yourself!

Check out this beautiful offer of Brian!

See you next time, until then never fail to ask good questions!