Joe Rogan - Jordan Peterson's Philosophy on Self Improvement

And you might say, well, of course, you know, it's... That that underestimates the degree to which there's systemic oppression, etc, etc. And the vagaries of fate, it's like it doesn't over underestimate it. It's not the point. The point is your best strategic position is, how am I insufficient and how can I rectify that? That's what you've got. And the thing is, you are insufficient. And you could rectify it. Both of those are within your grasp. If you aim low enough. One of the things... Why do you see that? That's another thing you keep saying. Aim low enough. Have a low enough bar. Why do you mean that? Well, let's say you've got a kid and you want the kid to improve. You don't set them a bar that's so high that it's impossible for them to attain it. You take a look at the kid and you think, okay, this kid's got this range of skill. Here's a challenge we can throw at him or her that exceeds their current level of skill, but gives them a reasonable probability of success. And so, like I'm saying, it tongue in cheek to some degree. But I'm doing it as an aid to humility. It's like, well, I don't know how to start improving my life. Someone might say that. And I would say, well, you're not aiming low enough. There's something you could do that you are regarding as trivial, that you could do, that you would do, that would result in an actual improvement. But it's not a big enough improvement for you, so you won't lower yourself enough to take the opportunity. Incremental steps. Yes. So this is also what is achieved through exercise. It's one of the most important... Well, what do you do when you go and lift weights? If you haven't bench pressed before, you don't put 400 pounds on the damn bar and drop the bar through your skull. You think, look, when I started working out when I was a kid, I weighed about 130 pounds and I was 6'1". I was a thin kid and I smoked a lot. I wasn't in good shape. I wasn't in good physical shape. And I went to the gym and it was bloody embarrassing. People would come over and help me with the goddamn weights. Here's how you're supposed to use this. It was humiliating. And maybe I was pressing 65 pounds or something at that point. But what am I going to do? I'm going to lift up 150 pounds and injure myself right off the bat? No, I had to go in there and strip down and put my skinny goddamn self in front of the mirror and think, son of a bitch, there's all these monsters in the gym who've been lifting weights for 10 years and I'm struggling to get 50 pounds off the bar. Tough luck for me. But I could lift 50 pounds and it wasn't very long until I could lift 75. Well, you know how it goes. And I never injured myself when I was weightlifting. And the reason for that was I never pushed myself past where I knew I could go. And I pushed myself a lot. I gained 35 pounds of muscle in about 3 years in university. I kind of had to quit because I was eating so goddamn much I couldn't stand it. I was eating like 6 meals a day. It was just taking up too much time. But there's a humility in determining what it is that the wretched creature that you are can actually manage. Aim low. And I don't mean don't aim. And I don't mean don't aim up. But you have to accept the fact that you can set yourself a goal that you can attain. And there's not going to be much glory in it to begin with. Because if you're not in very good shape, the goal that you could attain tomorrow isn't very glorious. But it's a hell of a lot better than nothing. And it beats the hell out of bitterness. And it's way better than blaming someone else. It's way less dangerous. And you could do it. And what's cool about it, there's a statement in the New Testament. It's called the Matthew Principle. And economists use it to describe how the economy and the world works. To those who have everything more will be given. From those who have nothing, everything will be taken. It's like what's very pessimistic in some sense. Because it means that as you start to fail, you fail more and more rapidly. But it also means that as you start to succeed, you succeed more and more rapidly. And so you take an incremental step. And well, now you can lift 55 pounds instead of 52.5 pounds. You think, well, what the hell is that? It's like it's one step on a very long journey. And so it's and it starts to compound on you. So a small step today means puts you in a position to take a slightly bigger step the next day. And then that puts you in a position to take a slightly bigger step the next day. You do that for two or three years, man. You're starting to stride.