Aim for the Highest and Embrace Life's Mysteries

if you were properly oriented in life if your spirit was in order you'd aim at the highest thing that you could possibly imagine and that would point you in the proper direction and then you would attempt to treat everyone as if they had including yourself as if they had a value that was equivalent and related to that high order goal and and that's that's right why would you aim at anything other than the highest good you could imagine it's like why why bother almost by definition if you're going to aim you might as well aim it what's good if you're going to name it what's good you might as well aim it what's best and maybe if you aimed at what was best and you managed to progress towards that it would even be better if you could take everybody along for the ride and even if you're too cynical and bitter and faithless and nihilistic to think that's a good idea you can at least see the logic in it the utility in it the beauty in it I'll give you another example in the story of Exodus there's a scene before Moses is called on by God to act as a leader of his people and it's it's very interesting because the story lays out how you become a leader like an actual leader not a tyrant not someone who's manipulating not someone who's out for himself but an actual leader and that's a very difficult thing too to get right so in this scene Moses is out walking along a path and minding his own business and something sort of glimmers and gleams and glistens in in the periphery of his vision and he takes the time to deviate from his path and to investigate it now that's worth thinking about because it means something like this you know you're going about your business and something captures your attention something captures your interest and and that's an interesting way of thinking about it too something captures your interest and that's sort of how it how what's interesting makes itself manifest you can't exactly choose what you're interested in it sort of chooses you and then you can decide whether or not you're going to pursue it or not or ignore it and you can decide how seriously you're going to pursue it but you know perfectly well you know this from being in school even if you know you should study for a test if you're not interested in the subject it's virtually impossible it can beat yourself with a stick and you can force yourself to do it but you're you're gonna fight yourself and and you're probably not going to do that great a job depends to some degree on your discipline whereas if you're interested in it it captures your attention and then you pursue it it's no problem you enjoy it like it engrosses you and it's much easier to learn and to remember and that that's a real mystery right I mean that's the sort of mystery that if you think about with any degree of seriousness shows you how the world is constructed in a manner that's unlike what you might think that things call to you people often wonder how they should decide what to do with their life and one answer to that is well you should say you should see what interests you just pay attention to that and there's kind of two parts to that because things that interest you sort of they come in two flavors one is positive you're interested in engrossed there's something you love some opportunity that beckons some doors that open and you can see them and you're eager and enthusiastic to move in that direction and you find yourself compelled and motivated and and enjoying what you're doing and then there's problems that interest you and that's more negative you'll have something that's bothering you obsessing you that you can't get rid of some problem that is Paramount it might be personal might be conceptual it might be political it's your it's the acts you're inclined to grind and it's kind of arbitrary too because there's a million things in the world you could be worried about that could bother you that could make themselves manifest as problems but there's a small subset that are apparently your problem and people will ask you your wife will ask you what's your problem and that's a good question what is your problem and you might think well I don't want to have any problems it's like well good luck with that first of all and second it now it's not so obvious that you'd rather not have any problems because well then what would you do and that's an interesting way to think about your problems is that if they're your problems maybe what you have to do is solve them and you might think well I don't know how it's like if you knew how it wouldn't be a problem right so you have to sort yourself out to solve the problem you'd have to learn way more than you know to solve the problem you'd have to become way more than you are to be the person who could address that problem but then you could see if addressing the problem calls you to be the person that you could be well then the problem is an opportunity too and so then you might think well Destiny calls to you in the form of opportunities that beckon and problems that compel and you could take those problems on as your obligation and responsibility and you could pursue your interests with some degree of seriousness and who the hell knows where you'd end up well the story The Exodus story tells you Moses goes off the path to pay attention to this phenomena phenomenon that captures it in his interest phenomenon the word is from a Greek word feiness thigh which means to shine forth and things do that in the world all the time they capture your attention that's what happens when you fall in love something shines forth you don't choose that it happens to you weirdly enough what happens to you well who knows and who knows what's behind it it's not random that doesn't mean it's comprehensible so Moses goes and checks out this phenomenon and he approaches it and as he gets closer you can see that it's a it's a living form it's a it's a it's a bush it's a tree it's on fire and that's a strange Paradox right because obviously a tree that's on fire would burn into ashes and trees don't just stand there and burn although actually they do because living things are on fire they oxidize and they transform and everything living is like that so everything living is a combination of being and becoming and that's particularly obvious in the case of living things but it's true for everything because nothing is static in its form it is what it is and it is what it's going to be at the same time and the burning bush is being in transformation at the same time and fire is something that's intrinsically attractive to human beings like we're definitely the descendants of the first ape who couldn't keep this bloody hands off fire and then mastered it and you know you can sit around a campfire and look at it forever it's one of those things that grips your interest intrinsically you never get bored by it it's just endlessly fascinating it's part of because it transforms constantly like music You Know music and fire share that in common and not accidentally and so burning bush it's a compelling past paradoxical too it's it's static because it still has this tree-like form and that tree-like form is sort of emblematic of life and it's burning and so Moses is very focused on this and he approaches it more and more closely and a voice appears speaks out of the Bush and says stop you're you're beginning to tread on Holy Ground well Tammy when Tammy talks she said well in essence she said what would happen if you took if you listen seriously and the answer is well the more seriously you listened the more the person you're listening to would reveal themselves and they'd reveal themselves more and more deeply and that would be true whether you're listening to your wife or your husband or your friend or whoever you're listening to because people will tell you everything including all sorts of things you don't want to know if you listen and so you might come to understand that if people aren't telling you then you're not listening and if the people around you aren't that interesting it's because you're not listening if you are listening they'd be so interesting you wouldn't want to be anywhere near them they're people are no shortage of interesting because people are crazy and and and and strange and demented and peculiar and they're full of twists and Tangles and snakes and if they tell you what they're really up to man it's interesting

Channel: Jordan B Peterson Clips

Views: 184,352

Keywords: psychology, philosophy, Jordan B. Peterson, Jordan Peterson, JB Peterson, jordanbpeterson, jordanpeterson, personality, understandmyself, selfauthoring, neuropsychology, jordan peterson clips, jp peterson clips, jp clips, jordan peterson podcast clips, jordan peterson live, jordan peterson livestream, jordan peterson shorts, jordan peterson tiktoks, jordan peterson motivational clips

Id: yvzLzNrA2U4

Length: 9min 50sec (590 seconds)

Published: Thu May 25 2023