I Went to a Jordan Peterson Lecture: Here are My 5 Biggest Takeaways
“What are you doing tonight?” my friend asked me.
“Eating dinner, hanging out with my wife, reading…”
Before I could list everything out (lol), he goes, “I have two tickets for a Jordan Peterson lecture. Wanna go with me?”
So I went with him to the “We Who Wrestle With God” tour in Schenectady, NY.
Now, I’m not a huge Jordan Peterson fan. I was never captivated enough to consume a lot of his content. However, I’ve always recognized that he’s a deep thinker, with great insights, lots of conviction, and a passion for helping humanity.
With that said, the lecture was EXCELLENT.
Jordan Peterson is a masterful orator who speaks with passion and addresses some of the most fundamental aspects of the human experience.
So here are my 5 biggest takeaways from the lecture.
Note: The initial takeaways are from Jordan Peterson, but the explanations are my own.
1) The world lays itself out in accordance with your aim.
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't – you're right.” — Henry Ford
Never underestimate the power of perspective. What your consciousness aims at plays a huge role sculpting your reality.
Try this:
Take 5 seconds and look around you for anything that’s the color red.
Now take 5 seconds and look around you for anything that’s the color blue.
Now close your eyes and focus on your hearing for 5 seconds.
You experience the world differently, according to what you’re looking for.
One reason for this is a part of the brain called the Reticular Activating System (RAS). It’s basically the filter between your brain and your senses. Since we process so much information at all times, it needs to be filtered and prioritized.
The RAS is the reason why, if you’re buying a red sports car, you’re going to see red sports cars everywhere. Why? Because you’ve decided they’re important now, and your brain is filtering for that information.
This goes a lot deeper too.
Once you get into quantum physics, you start to realize that perspective doesn’t just filter reality, but AFFECTS reality.
The Nobel Prize in Physics in 2022 was awarded for proving that the universe is NOT locally real. This means that physical reality has no definite properties until it’s observed.
Marinate on that a bit. The cutting edge science is pointing at what mystics and philosophers have said for millennia…
Perspective is everything.
Everything is perspective.
2) Stories help us aim.
Now, how do we build perspectives and aim our consciousness into reality?
Through the power of story.
Stories are how we orient ourselves as humans.
Think about it.
We form our sense of identity based on stories.
We form our sense of reality based on stories.
History is HIS-STORY.
What are the oldest texts humanity has written? Stories.
What do humanity’s holy books consist of? Stories.
How do we bond with each other? By sharing our stories.
Stories allow us to encode and decode vast amounts of information into sharable form.
Through story, we can compress the highest truths and archetypal patterns into language that we share with each other.
This helps us not only understand the nature of reality, but align ourselves with a higher trajectory in the future.
3) Integrity is magnetic.
When you’re in integrity, your beliefs, thoughts, words and actions are all aligned.
This builds power. Why? Because truth flows, unobstructed, through all levels of your being.
If one part of you isn’t in alignment, it’s like having a leak.
That’s why people who embody integrity are empowered. There’s a conviction that you exude when your thoughts, words, and actions are in alignment.
People feel this too.
I remember Ed Mylett saying this about sales. “People don’t need to believe you. They just need to believe that YOU believe you.”
Since most people are inundated with self-doubt, someone in integrity becomes a role model. They want to be around the energy of integrity. This is what makes integrity magnetic.
It builds your power, from the soul, and makes you a leader that other people want to be around.
4) Put everything in its proper place.
Everything has its place in the grand tapestry of existence.
Here’s an example. If anger runs your life, it’s destructive.
Think about someone who’s always angry. It’s a major liability that ruins virtually everything. Constant anger is so ridiculous — and unhelpful — that it’s almost comical.
However, anger is a natural part of the human experience. To try to ignore it or suppress it doesn’t work. Most of us know this from firsthand experience, lol.
However, if you keep anger in its proper place, it can be helpful. Anger is useful when applied to create change. When in its proper place, it’s a catalyst for growth. For example, if you feel angry, you can channel it into a workout. This way, the anger transmutes itself into fitness.
Anger is supposed to be nested as a small part of a greater whole. It’s fine when it’s temporary, and applied toward positive change. But when it’s constant, or festering subconsciously, it’s destructive AF.
Everything has it’s proper place.
Some more examples:
If you obsess over eliminating evil, you become evil and do more harm than good.
The analytical mind is a great tool, but if it runs your life, you become riddled with overthinking, anxiety and even robotic coldness.
Don’t deny things. Also, don’t allow certain parts to dominate the whole. Use your awareness and love to create balance, aimed toward the highest good.
In doing so, everything takes its proper place in the ecosystem of life, maintaining dynamic equilibrium and thriving.
5) Love yourself as you would love those you care about most.
Jordan Peterson answered one single question at the end of the event…
“How does one, especially someone who struggles with self image, learn to love themselves?”
His answer was fascinating. “Love yourself as you would love those you care about most.”
This is an interesting approach, especially because the popular advice these days is to, “love yourself first.” But here’s the problem. What if you don’t know what it’s like to love yourself?
That’s why his answer was great. Instead of groping in the dark for self-love — or trying to fake it until you make it — start with something you already have.
Everyone has a powerful love for someone or something. And we can use that as a familiar starting point to loving ourselves.
A powerful strategy that I use sometimes (because I’ve had a tendency to be hard on myself) is talking to myself like I would my wife or even like how I would talk to my inner child (the 3-4 year old version of me).
This is a quick way to realize how detrimental negative self-talk is and shift out of it. You realize, “I would never treat THEM that way, so why would I treat MYSELF that way?”
When you “Love yourself as you would love those you care about most,” you use your love for others as a mirror to reveal the love that already exists within yourself.
Remember, we’re all love at our core, even if we forget or don’t see it.
I trust you found value in this.
Much love,
Stephen Parato
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