Du er meget mere end du tror du er

Jeg har sagt det før, og jeg gentager gerne. Jordan Peterson er genial og et lys i en formørket tid. Jeg har transskriberet et uddrag fra et interview fordi jeg synes det er smukt og opmuntrende, selvom det også er dystert.

Han siger blandt andet: The optimism is nested in the pessimism. Det er smukt. Og er det ikke næsten stoisk?. What stands in the way becomes the way.

“This took me like 30 years to figure out.
You are more than you think you are
And that is extremely helpful to people
Especially for people who are struggling
They think oh my God life is so difficult
I don’t know if I can stand this.
There must be something wrong with me
Does anybody else feel this way
And you can say: “Yes”,
Everyone feels that way at some time”
And it is as bad as you think,
But you are more than you think you are.
And the thing that’s cool about that is all the clinical evidence shows it works
And not only that, that’s actually how you learn in life
if you are sufficiently courageous and forthright
and honest, let’s say in your approach
and you don’t shy away
What you will find is that there’s something within you
that will respond to the challenge of suffering
with the development of ability that will transcend the suffering
So the pessimism is, yeah, well life is rife with problems
at every level, but the upside is if you turn and confront that
voluntarily, that you’ll find something in yourself that can develop and
master that.
And so … The optimism is nested in the pessimism
If people are afraid of something
afraid of something that’s standing in their way
as and obstacle, like maybe you’re trying to develop your career
and you’re afraid of public speaking
Weil, I could try to calm you down about your fear
and …
Protect you from the challenge that would be associated
with public speaking.
You say: “Well, you never have to do that”.
Or I could say: “No, look, you have to learn to present yourself more effectively
in public,”
if you’re going to develop your career and you’re afraid of it.
So let’s break down what you are afraid of in 10 steps or 20 steps until we can find a step
that is small enough so that you can actually master is
Let’s assume with 3 years of diligent practice that you can become a competent public speaker, at least one that isn’t terrified. With 5 years you could become an expert.
And let’s decide how relevant that is to your future prosperity and thriving.
And then let’s assume that if you break it down properly and take it on step by step in this incremental way that we discussed, that you’ll actually master every single bit of it.”

– Jordan Peterson