99.9% Of Successful People Do This | Robert Greene (Realist Speech)

I think that we're actually animals that we have an animal nature and that we have to become human and we become human by overcoming some of these deep-rooted animal forces within us these forces within us that we can't control such as the fact that we can't control our own emotions our own anger our own frustration or if we feel Envy but we're caught up in the emotions of other people I call those forces primal forces human nature and they can create sort of negative patterns of behavior the dark side of what we see in the news etc and we all have them ingrained in us because with the way we evolved millions of years ago served a very definite purpose for our survival as a species but the savannas of East Africa is not the offices in Silicon Valley or a 21st century America the world isn't the same we are not built to adapt to this new technological environment we're in we still have that lizard brain those animal parts of our nature so for instance law number one is about how we're basically irrational creatures we think that were rational but really our emotions governess we feel something before we ever have an idea of thinking we have to become rational through this process that I lay out in my book so I don't need to say that we're negative because humans are obviously incredible look at what we've created it's an array giuse if you think about who we were millions of years ago where we are now we're obviously capable of incredible achievements were also the most brilliant social animal on the planet we're capable of cooperating and working on teams to a level that no other animal has ever reached so there's obviously another side to the story but to become greater to become truly human we have to overcome these forces that I lay out so for instance we are built to constantly compare ourselves to other people we're always thinking of what the other person has and how we are in relation to them are we getting as much attention as that other person you start off when we were are we getting more attention than our siblings from our parents so we're continually comparing ourselves in rank and power and status to the people around us and this is deep force within us and it's constant every day every moment you don't realize that what you're going through that and social media it completely exacerbates this tendency in human nature another is the contagiousness of emotions which is extremely powerful we tend to think of ourselves as autonomous human beings that were independent that we I feel affection or anger or frustration on my own we don't realize how deep we are affected by the emotions of the people in a group this is the viral effects emotions are extremely contagious before the invention of language we humans had to be able to communicate to one another through just picking up the moods of other people and if there was a threat to our group or our tribe the ability to feel fear and anger together bonded us and helped us survive but that doesn't serve much function in the world today where viral emotions could be very dangerous in there we see a lot of that on social media I'm really worried about people nowadays but now my worry is that people are so immersed in their smartphones in their technology that they don't understand people they're not observing people and this has been documented in studies that young people for instance levels of self-absorption and narcissism had been growing steadily since the 1970s we are the preeminent social animal the planet our survival depends on how we relate to other people whether we understand them on some level and I find a lot of people are increasingly in the world are really bad at observing just basic elements in human psychology the position I'm in now I'm a consultant to a lot of very powerful famous people I'm not gonna mention any names people fly me out to consult the CEOs political people who are very powerful in even in other countries and the number one problem I find that they have is an inability to understand the people they're dealing with they hire the wrong partners they hire the worst assistance when dabbe ruining their lives these are people who are technically brilliant they understand their field they understand marketing etc but they don't understand basics about people around them and they make terrible hires are they very absolutely the wrong person for them in their lives their emotions or you know their personal relationship to bring them down so this is like our Achilles heel and I think it's gotten worse in the world today so my anger was that people are so focused on technology but that we need to focus much more on human nature on understanding people that's the primary skill that you need in life there is something deeply ingrained in each individual person a particular individual nature that we all have and that causes us to go into compulsive patterns of behavior I have this problem myself I notice each time I write a book I'm telling myself I'm gonna make this book short I'm not gonna ruin my health I'm not gonna do so much research and then every goddamn time I still go through the same process I can't break this pattern okay and everybody has them where does it come from some of it comes from our DNA from our genetics things we can't that we've inherited from our parents some of it comes from our early attachment and some of it comes as we get older and we interact with teachers and mentors and various people who create a certain way we view ourselves if people keep telling us that were not really worthy that we're not good students we internalize that in the end up becoming like that so it's a mix of things you know each person has a mix of these qualities and you have to kind of and untangle the various strands in your write-up what I'm saying is you're a mystery to yourself you don't know who you are you have patterns of behavior and you're not even understanding that you don't know why you're angry you think you're angry because that person said something mean to you or did something wrong but in fact your anger probably stems from things from deep deep within from your childhood and you're not reacting to that person but to actually your parents and what they didn't give you you know those is the origin of wisdom according to the Greeks was know thyself right and I believe that very firmly that knowledge about who you are is an end in itself and will help you in so many ways become that human being that I think we all have the potential to become so I'm a great believer in baby steps in learning how to do things on a daily basis so normally when we feel an emotion or we have an idea we don't examine it we just assume that's that's you know it just naturally came up with that on our own I want you every single day to be examining yourself and to look at yourself why do I have that idea why am I feeling this sudden emotion and it's not easy it takes it can take time and it can take degree of introspection that you're not comfortable with but if you begin to look at yourself in question why do I feel this way and examine it and look at perhaps other sources of it then you can begin this process of understanding instead of just simply accepting that you feel or have this certain idea so question yourself stop assuming that everything you do is so brilliant and smart it's right and imagine that maybe your ideas don't come from yourself maybe you're feeling some political anger or whatever comes from the fact that you're just assuming it from other people you're following things on Facebook and you're getting swept up in some viral emotion you want to think that you're completely independent and autonomous but maybe you're not as independent as you think I want to change how you look at people normally everything is personal oh they said that oh they don't like me oh he likes me she I'm not getting attention cut that off I want you to look at people as as facts of nature as things that like a rock or a stone or a plant this is who they are and I want you to observe them and accept them for who they are and deal with them as individuals you will be free of all that emotional baggage that you carry when you take everything so personally I think altering your perspective how you look at people will have a radical influence on all aspects of your life

Channel: Absolute Motivation

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Keywords: #AbsoluteMotivation, #MotivationalVideo, #SelfHelp, Robert Greene, Impact Theory, powerfulspeech, personal development, success, power, 48 laws of power, laws of human nature, inspiration, motivation

Id: 5wu8jcIfUbo

Length: 9min 42sec (582 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 29 2018