Confronting Adversity Head-on | Jordan Peterson EP 387

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation show.

0:10I firmly believe that taking charge of your mindset allows you to be in the driver's seat of your life and unlock your potential. And that's why I'm thrilled to share that my new book is out right now. It's called The Greatness Mindset. In it, you'll learn how to build a plan for greatness through powerful exercises and toolkits designed to propel your life forward. This is the book that I wish I had 20 years ago. It's everything I've learned in the last decade with the research and the science to help you unlock your mind. Make sure to go to lewishouse.com slash 2023mindset to pick up your copy of my book, The Greatness Mindset, today.

0:50Do you think you would still be able to have the ideals, the belief, the fortitude that you have to reach people and really impact people? Yeah, I think so. But I know what you're saying. You know, your question is, well, to what degree is adversity character building? And the answer to that is plenty. It was the same with my wife. We weren't naive people, you know, because I had an extensive clinical practice. I was dealing with heavy level adversity always, 25 hours a week. It wasn't your daughter. No, no. You know, there were other problems in my family and so forth that I dealt with as well.

1:22We'd already, I think, garnered most of what we could from confronting adverse situations. Now, did that add a different level to it? Probably brought her family closer together, all things considered. I saw the same thing happen when my wife's mother died. She died of prefrontal dementia, and she developed it quite young. It started to really manifest itself in her early 50s, and she died when she was 70. She fell apart over 18 years, and she was very physically healthy. And her husband, who was quite the man about town when he was a young guy, real extrovert, he was a real character in our hometown, he took care of her so well, it was absolutely jaw-dropping.

1:59Every time she slipped, he'd step up to the plate and he took care of her until he couldn't lift her out of her chair anymore. And he was getting old too. And so she wasn't in an old age home for very long. And then we were around when she died and her family acted impeccably throughout it. They took care of their mother very carefully. And one of the consequences of that, which was so interesting, is that although their mother died and that was a terrible loss, their bonds that connected them, all of them, strengthened to the point where I would say that was almost compensation. from the loss of their mother.

2:31So that was really interesting to see what happens even in a dire circumstance if people do what they can. Now, I'm not saying that that's going to work for every situation because I know people get cut off at the knees. And sometimes you hit a tragedy that you cannot rectify. It's a real catastrophe. But it was very interesting watching that because they were alert and awake around the deathbed and they weren't fighting with each other at all. There was no familial squabbling because you can imagine that that would happen because everyone's stressed. And then you can just imagine how terrible that would make something that's already awful.

3:03There was none of that. They focused their attention on her. You know, they gave her water when she needed it. And they made this terrible thing the least amount of awful it could be. And it definitely pulled them together. Like that whole family is closer because of what they went through and also how they went through it. When this political scandal blew up around me in Canada, when I opposed some legislation that I thought was reprehensibly constructed, that the radicals on the left in particular came after me hard. You know, they called me every name under the book, went after my character.

3:35And, you know, I suppose there was some degree of, if you stand up against the radical right, well, maybe you're a communist. Probably not, because you don't have to be a communist to not like the radical right. But if you stand up against the radical left, well, maybe you're a Nazi. Well, probably not, but you might be. And so it's certainly in the interest of the people who are proponents of the philosophy of the radical left to assume that you're a Nazi, because then they don't have to deal with you. That's what happens. You throw yourself into the fray. People try to localize you and they do that by saying, well, maybe you're this, maybe you're this, maybe you're this, maybe you're this.

4:0525, I started paying attention to what I was saying and trying very hard not to say things that something in me objected to. Before the political stuff blew up, I had a million views on YouTube, which isn't nothing. A million of anything is a lot. But then when the political scandal started to break, yeah, then people came for them, but stayed for the content. And so, yeah, well, it's been... Well, and it's not that surprising. Well, you know, there's a great hunger for information that is practical and useful, that helps people find meaning in their lives and orient themselves. There's a great hunger for that.

4:39And most of my lectures were derived from solid psychology, some of it experimental, some of it biological, a lot of it from great clinicians. It's not surprising that people find it helpful because, well, great clinicians were great because they were really helpful. And so to distill that and to offer it to people in a digestible form, to have that have a good effect on them, well, that's what you'd expect. That's what the whole discipline is about. Virtually everyone that's coming there, they're not coming for political reasons, even though that's the story you hear from the more ideologically possessed journalist types, because they see the world that way.

5:13They can't imagine anything else could possibly be happening. But the people who are coming to these lectures are coming because they are doing everything they possibly can to make their lives better. So it's a dialogue about responsibilities and not rights. Rights are only important insofar as they set up the space for you to shoulder your proper responsibility. And as a sovereign citizen, you have the responsibility for the integrity of the state resting on your shoulders. And it's something that if you don't take seriously, then the state shakes. And that's not good. And so I'm trying to convey that to people.

5:43It's like there's actually something that you need to do. You need to take care of yourself. You need to take care of your family. You need to take care of your community. and it's on you, right? Each of us. It's hard for people to grasp that. Well, they don't want to, first of all, maybe because they don't want the responsibility. Then they don't get any meaning. Then they suffer. Then they get bitter. That's not good. It's also salutary to people because it's useful for everyone to know that if you don't live up to your potential, that you leave a hole in the fabric of being. And unless that's what you want, then you shouldn't be doing that.

6:16And so it's perfectly possible to have a serious discussion with 3 ,000 people about this, and they're right on board with it all the way. And so that's really something amazing to behold.

6:42Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. That will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on the School of Greatness. And if you are loving the daily motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcasts. right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

7:32Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the daily motivation show.

7:48Thank you.