The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett - Moment 51 - Jordan Peterson: How Struggle Makes Us Stronger

Episode Date: April 1, 2022

In these ‘Moment’ episodes of my podcast, I’ll be selecting my favourite moments from previous episodes of The Diary Of A CEO. In this moment, Jordan Peterson tells us all about the importance of struggle. Presenting his controversial view, he says that we aren't born with our virtues, they're rather forged in adversity. Because it isn’t the destination, it's the journey that takes us there. What people don't know about Jordan is that he's from a small town, in an oil town where alcoholism is very prevalent. Out of this Jordan had to find himself, forge himself. The values he lives by today, the vow he took with his wife never to lie to her, the desire to conduct himself with integrity in all his actions, aren't abstract concepts, they're hard taught lessons. Listen to the full episode here - https://g2ul0.app.link/pVhukOYjQob Jordan - https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor https://www.jordanbpeterson.com Watch the Episodes On Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDiaryOfACEO/videos

Quick one, just wanted to say a big thank you to three people very quickly. First people I want to say thank you to is all of you that listen to the show. Never in my wildest dreams is all I can say. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd start a podcast in my kitchen and that it would expand all over the world as it has done. And we've now opened our first studio in America, thanks to my very helpful team led by Jack on the production side of things. So thank you to Jack and the team for building out the new American studio.

And thirdly to Amazon Music who, when they heard that we were expanding to the United States, and I'd be recording a lot more over in the States, they put a massive billboard in Times Square for the show. So thank you so much, Amazon Music. Thank you to our team. And thank you to all of you that listened to this show. Let's continue. I've really contended with this idea of struggle and chaos in my life and the role it plays. And once upon a time, I thought I was trying to rid my life of chaos and struggle. I thought that's why I was trying to get rich and get the Ferrari and the blonde. I thought that would create a life free of struggle.

But then I looked at some studies and I heard about this thing called gold medal depression when Olympians come back from the Olympics and they've lost orientation. And then the day when someone offered to buy my company for a eight, nine, nine figure number, and it filled me with this emptiness and this dread. And I, and I, and I tried to understand the role that struggle would, would, would have to play for me to be a fulfilled human being for the rest of my life. Yeah, well, the observation with regard to your company, that's a great observation. I mean, we're built to walk uphill. And when you reach the pinnacle of the hill, you want to stop and appreciate the vision. But the next thing you want is a higher hill in the distance, because it's the uphill climb that it's from the uphill climb that we derive our value. And I mean this technically.

So almost all the positive emotion we feel, especially the emotion that fills us with enthusiasm, and that's to be filled with the spirit of God, by the way, because that's what enthusiasm means. That's experienced in relationship to a goal. And so in some sense, and this is part of the religious enterprise, you want a goal that you can never attain, right? So you can always move closer to the goal that recedes as you move towards it. You think, well, that's frustrating. It's like

Sisyphus pushing the rock uphill. But it's not, because as you pursue that goal, you put yourself together and your life does get better and richer and more abundant. And that's why the highest levels of virtue and goal are in some sense transcendent. You want them to be above everything you're doing so you can continually move towards something that's more sublime and better. That's what you are. You're here to live, not to sleep. And the problem with the vision of Mai Tai's on the beach is that, well, first of all, that's a vision of drug-induced unconsciousness. Second, it's only going to work for about a week. Third, you're going to be a laughingstock in a month and depressed and aimless

and goalless. No, that's not, it's, You want a horizon of ever-expanding possibility. And so it does happen to people because they've staked their soul on the attainment of an instrumental goal. And it can be a pretty high-order goal. It was in your case. But then you think, well, now I'm there.

Now what? Well, the answer can't be, well, I'm going to live in the lap of luxury and never have to leave the fate what do you want to be a giant infant with a gold with a gold bottle you never have to do anything but lay in your back and suck it's like well you see the problem with that as a as a as a conceptualization it's no you want to be like an active warrior moving uphill with your sword in hand.

And that's dynamic. That's exciting.