'Comparison Is the Thief of Joy!' | Joe Rogan and Ryan Holiday

comparison is the thief of Joy yes I I didn't know that quote when I lived in La uh when I first got there but I was on this sitcom we were on a sitcom right incredible yeah oh my God I'm on television this is amazing and the people that I was with who were great people they were they were all reading The Hollywood Reporter and they would read this and they'd get upset oh why is she getting this oh why is this happening why are they on Thursday night at eight o'clock why and I'd go hey I go that's the devil's rag I go what are you reading that's what I would call it the devil's Rag and I go guys last time I checked I'm on [ __ ] TV yeah okay I'm on television you're on TV we're on a TV show and you're complaining that other people are on better TV shows or on TV shows that have better ratings this is crazy yeah like you're looking for reasons why your life sucks when you're in one of the best positions that a person could ever be in in your line of work you're literally on a success full television show this is so crazy and they're reading variety to find all the people that are doing better than them oh look at this oh they're in a movie now I want to be in film and it was wild to watch yeah it's one of the things that Stokes say is like you would be jealous if you if you didn't have what you had and someone else did you would be jealous of that person oh yeah but all you're doing is comparing what you have to what someone else has instead of the Gratitude of holy [ __ ] look how lucky I am 100 that is sucking your happiness but I think it's also if if good work comes from being present it's preventing your ability from like actually being great on the television show that you're on because you're you're you're spending energy out in the world on stuff that doesn't matter instead of being like I'm gonna be the best that I can be in the thing that I am 100 100 if you are constantly dwelling on other people's opinions if you're constantly dwelling on other people's success it will 100 diminish your capability of doing good work yeah it is not just no if ins or buts about it because the mind has a certain amount of bandwidth and the way I always just Express this when I talk to people about it I go look at it like a number if you had a hundred bandwidth like if your bandwidth was 100 and then someone said something mean to you on Twitter and you read that and responded and you're going back and forth now how much do you have I bet you got about 30 is gone 30 percent is just dedicated to this thing it might be 40. you might have four and now what happens now now whatever work you're actually trying to do is greatly diminish because you don't have the focus well think of the arrogance too of being like I'm so good I can be on this show or in my like I can I can deliver this book in an environment where so many people would kill like to to be able to do what I'm doing so many people are doing it and we're competing for a finite you know whatever I can do it with only 60 of my capacity yeah it's it's her horrendously arrogant and stupid like I don't think it's arrogant though because I think it's ignorant I don't think people are really aware when they're doing this I think they're just so instinctive it's so instinctual it's such a normal thing to do to you know read sure some mean quote that someone said about you or read an article that someone wrote that pisses you off or you know I know friends I have friends that I'm not close with but I'm close enough to them that I pay attention to them and they their career is a disaster but when I go onto their Twitter page they're so deeply involved in politics like massively where they're quoting spending bills that I don't even know and they're talking about what the problem these bills I'm like if you spend a fraction of your life paying attention to your own career and doing what you actually love doing instead of focusing on this you're focusing on this because you feel like this is something that you can get involved with mentally where the burden of performance is not on you yeah well there's a Zen there's a Zen story like the Zen master was told he was criticized by another Zen master and he said oh how lucky for him to have arrived at Perfection and to have the time to do such a thing he's like me I'm not there yet and so what I'm saying it's arrogant I just I don't I I know what you're saying the humble way is like dude I can spare zero yeah I'm so uh holding I'm so on the razor's edge of this I cannot possibly afford to waste even one energy point on this thing that's not up to me which is what the stoics say they said epic to this is the chief task in life is separating things that are in your control from what's outside your control and all that stuff is outside of your control and you're spending the energy points that could be on what is in your control on the stuff that's outside your control so it makes you doubly worse it does but unfortunately this is not taught I mean you're teaching it there's Marcus aurelia's books there's there's there's many books that are available if you want to go seek it but this is not something that's being beaten into the head of people on a daily basis and it should be it should be something that television shows that you know that are supposed to be these intellectual exercises and examining the world around us one of the most important things is how are you looking at the world around us how are you thinking about things and through what lens and have you done the work on your own self because if you have not you're going to look for these struggles in other places because you're uncomfortable dealing with your own personal struggles and you're avoiding those so you'll find them in other places you'll start fires because you haven't dealt with your own [ __ ] yeah and this is also what they teach in like 12-step groups right it's like the acceptance of a higher power is to say like you're not the center of the universe right this is why they do the Serenity Prayer it's it you're realizing it's like the source of your unhappiness and self-destructive life is your focus on things you don't control is your you know you're handing over that power to this thing that you're hooked on and so 12 steps are really like a way to teach someone how to be a person again like from from Rock Bottom well the problem is even people who study philosophy they they think about interesting but abstract questions right like how do we know we're not living in a computer simulation right which is fascinating but like first we should probably focus on like what is in our control and what is not in our control once you've mastered that think about all the big questions you want right and how does the Mind handle adversity how does the Mind handle difficult situations and the knowledge that if you force difficult situations into your life that you can control like rigorous exercise like meditation like sauna and cold plunge and all there's many different things you can do like writing like sitting down and forcing yourself to do work that will it will free your mind in so many ways and allow you to have a philosophy or at least a philosophical perspective that's based on how you actually think not based on over compensating for deficits not based on trying to you know file dirt on the problems that you've created

Channel: Life Navigation

Views: 27,300

Keywords: happiness, health, wealth, life navigation, joe rogan, joe rogan experience, Ryan holiday, comparison, comparison is the thief of joy

Id: m4cTeJNa5P4

Length: 7min 40sec (460 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 10 2023