Using the "Good" Philosophy While Avoiding Pollyannaism - Jocko Willink

i've taken a lot of inspiration from your philosophy of good how do you apply this without succumbing to polyanism did i say that right yeah so pollyannish is is a is a term and it actually comes from a from a novel from i think it's like the early 1900s but it it uh the name of the novel is pollyanna and anyways pollyanna in the book has this really super positive attitude and it's almost so positive that it it overwhelms and it kind of changes people's attitudes in the town but there's a pejorative meaning of this word which is what this guy's asking about and it is that is when when someone is like soul positive that they that they forget about reality of a situation you know and so that's that's that can be absolutely problematic and that is not what i'm telling anybody to do in fact the the let's let's not mistake the the good philosophy as one that negates reality that is totally off that's not what i'm telling anyone to do in fact the very first thing you have to do is accept reality that's the first thing you gotta do you gotta look at what's happening you gotta assess it assess the reality of it and then you say okay good now instead of dwelling on the negatives and what's gonna go bad and what's wrong you deal with them but then you look at okay now what are we gonna do positive out of this what good's gonna come out of this and that's that's all it is it's definitely not denying or being delusional about the situation by any stretch but it is also not being woe is me and oh this happened and now oh my gosh everything's going horrible i'm doomed no that's that's not what i'm talking about obviously i'm not talking about that and it's also not like it's okay everything's wonderful no that's why the term is good and not wonderful right i'm not saying everything's wonderful but good okay now what are we gonna find out of this what are we gonna figure out of this what are we gonna make happen now because i'm gonna deal with reality i'm gonna accept reality i'm going to accept reality yeah then there's some people that you know like the the self-help gurus that are like no i'm just not going to accept that it's not going to happen make your own reality i'm going to be so positive that i'm going to get that million dollars tomorrow you know no no actually you're not gonna get that million dollars tomorrow you're gonna have to work you're gonna have to work for a long time you're gonna have to work hard you're gonna have to stay focused on your goals and then you'll get your million dollars good see how strong you are yes yes so that's it deal with reality except reality then find the good in it and move forward that's a cool video by the way that you that you made you like that video i do i think is that you fishing for a compliment that video is uh i think it's been a lot of people watch that video yeah it's interesting too because you made that video and you made another video where does discipline come from right and and i actually personally i like the where does this plan come from video better but the good video it just strikes a chord with people right the at because i think i think because it applies so universally to negativity in the world like okay yup these bad things are happening right now in fact i get so much feedback of people that literally say you know thank you for introducing me to that idea that philosophy because it's changed my attitude and now when things go wrong i say good now what am i gonna do about it right so i think that's why that video is is quite popular that and the unbelievable editing that was done where it was put together yeah sure yeah and it it does seem like a real um like personal like deeply personal thing like because it it's like it's more it's not this like sensationalization of it it's just it's real kind of kind of dark whatever and like how you said like the negative part of it it's like a um i said this last time or it's a painkiller it's not a multivitamin you know what do you mean by that meaning i've heard you say that before meaning like if you have a problem you you know okay just in nature when you when you're going along whether your brain is is evolved to to recognize problems and if something isn't a problem it'll start to filter that out that's just how your brain is okay so in life when you have problems that's what's always on the radar now you have this little personal like tool that's talking to you of how to deal with those problems nice you know i mean so um so the it's it's kind of that like the discipline where does this swing come from it's kind of that's more starts to go into the multivitamin thing where it's like this is not a big problem i'm gonna try to recognize it as a problem i need more discipline you know but it's not really this huge problem but it does help you know kind of thing so it's like a multivitamin interesting um but i like the discipline one as well

Channel: Jocko Podcast

Views: 126,725

Keywords: discipline, freedom, military, extreme ownership, leadership, advice, jocko willink, echelon front, navy seal, jocko podcast, excerpt, echo charles, leader, lead, win, defcor, discipline equals freedom

Id: SC5PI7eUyno

Length: 5min 18sec (318 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 06 2020