Good Life Project - What If You Were Defined By Your Worst Moment?

Episode Date: October 13, 2015

We love to judge. To gossip. To belittle.Not everyone, and not all the time, but enough for these feelings to fuel multi-billion dollar industries.Even if we never say it out loud, we derive a certain pleasure from others' misfortune. There's even a name for the phenomenon—Schadenfreude.We do it partly, because our brains are wired for comparison and social currency. And in part, because we're trained societally to determine our own value relative to others.Pile on the anonymity of the screen or the page and we've become a culture that not only judges, but determines the entire worth of a human, all too often, by their worst moment.We see it in the news cycle, in politics and Hollywood. But, we also see it in our towns, the local club, our own families and supposed friends.What if the value of your entire existence was judged by the meanest thing you've said or thought, or the biggest mistake you've made? What would that look like? How might it make you feel?What if, instead of reveling in the belittling of another human based on a moment, we looked through the lens of empathy and compassion? How might that change things?That's what we're talking about on today's short and sweet GLP Riff. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Don't shoot him, we need him! Y'all need a pilot? Flight Risk. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-nest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping.

And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary. Today's Good Life Project riff is entitled, Don't Define People by Their Best or Worst Moments. So there's this odd thing that tends to exist in most humans. We so often compare ourselves constantly to others. another odd quirk of humanity, and that is a pervasive desire to see others fail or fall from grace. We don't want to own this. We don't want to admit it. We don't want to actually say, you know, like there's something in us, which kind of is happy about it. But the phenomenon is really well researched and we see it all around us all day long. Whether it's fueled by envy or comparison, you've got a scenario where far too often we define others by their stupidest or their worst moments. Someone could say a thousand things, right? Valuable things and do a thousand good deeds. But the moment they do something wrong,

something that we perceive as dumb or unfounded, or do something, you know, we would consider it stupid or hurtful. We define the totality of their existence on that one or a small number of negative behaviors. Rather than saying, look, this is a good person who's made mistakes. We instead say they're a bad person or a moron or an idiot. We like to call them names or worse. We attribute some level of conniving or evil to them when the vast majority of their lives tells a different story, often a story of great benevolence and integrity. So let me ask you something. What if you were defined by your worst moment, your stupidest or snarkiest or most insulting quip? Unless you're living a relatively monastic life, we've all said

and done things we regret. We've said something in the moment of heat or written something based more on emotion or guess than fact. What if no matter how much good your life amounted to outside those rare aberrant statements or actions, you became publicly defined by that one worst moment. What if it was applied to you? That would be horrible. So then why do it to others? Why do so many people do it to others? Why do so many people do it to others? Why is there an entire industry of humanity, multi-billion dollars spent doing this to

others? Because when we do that on some primal level, most of us are wired to feel better about ourselves. Even knowing deep down, we've also said those same offbeat, nonsensical, moronic, mean or spiteful things and done similar things that have caused harm, whether it was intended or not. We see this in politics. We see it in business. And increasingly, we see it becoming the defining ethos in the online and social worlds.

Someone builds a longstanding career, makes years of kind-hearted decisions and gestures and supports right causes. Then in a moment of anger or spite or frustration or weakness, they do or say something stupid. It's a single thing against a backdrop of thousands of moments of goodness. Yet in a heartbeat, they become defined by a moment in time, a walking sound bite of their worst moment. So what if instead of trying to elevate ourselves by taking any opportunity to define others as less than or fallen, we instead sought to see the basic goodness in everyone. What if we rose by being a source of unyielding understanding, a source of deep forgiveness, a source of powerful guidance guidance and elevation? What if our deepest goal was to elevate rather than push down, rather than being a source of God-like judgment and condemnation? What if we stood back and said,

I want you to rise, and the next person, and the next person. What if we looked at the world and gained our place, gained our sense of self, not by comparison, not by knowing that in some way we were better than, above, more worthy, but simply that we are all worthy. We are all powerful. We all do amazing things, and we all make mistakes. And we moved into the world through that lens. What kind of a life would you live? What kind of a world would you help create? I'm Jonathan Fields,

signing off for Good Life Project. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes.

The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required. Charge time and actual results will vary.