You all know, leaders, that you can… People in your life who are straight with you, and you could count on them to be so. You trust them more than other people. You also know people who are better listeners than other people. And it really… You know they’re really curious. They really want to understand things. You like working better with them and Compared to people who are conflict avoidant and don’t have the courage to lean into difficult things, compared to people who’ve got to win the argument and not lose, Those people who are more courageous to lean into the truth, those people who don’t care about winning and being right and not being wrong, but really care about what’s true and are genuinely curious. And if you’re right and they’re wrong, they’re happy about it. Those are the people you esteem, right? So if that’s true, then become the person that you most esteem. We esteem people who are committed to the truth and who are committed to the truth on behalf of making things better. That’s who we respect. It’s in every movie It’s in every piece of literature, it’s in every religious and philosophical and mystical text.
The people we admire are truth seekers who are trying to do good in the world. They exhibit courage and curiosity and compassion. So if you want to become your best self and advance yourself on the world, commit yourself to that. One of the avenues for doing that is through your conversations. Every day, you see problems and opportunities around you to make things better. You got a choice. You’re going to lean into it or are you going to sidestep it? Now, you should probably sidestep a lot of the things, because you’ve got a lot of things going on. But there are so many opportunities for you. And in those opportunities, those conversations, it’s not only an opportunity for you to make a bigger difference, but it’s an opportunity for your transformation, too, for your growth. Because one, you’re stepping into, as you call it, your optimal self, somebody who’s more courageous, somebody who’s more curious, somebody who’s more compassionate, and who is putting the truth and doing good above all else, above your fears, above your egos, above everything. Then you have an adventure, man, because you don’t know what’s going to happen. That is more around, I guess, my to inspire, call people, motivate people to seize the day, man.
Life is short. Life is too short to sidestep the hard conversations. It will benefit you tremendously, even if in the moment, it doesn’t feel that way. We have to act as if with the faith, this is Jordan Peterson now, that the best thing that can happen, that can possibly happen, will come from your genuine pursuit of the truth, even if it doesn’t feel like in the short term.
