Jordan Peterson - Do You Want To Have A Life? Or Be Exceptional At One Thing?

Psychology Professor Dr. Jordan B. Peterson on how and why to balance career and personal life, unless you really want to sacrifice everything for a unidimensional career.

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[sherazahmad]

1) If one takes a mediocre job and has a life he'll live his life wondering what it would've been like if he had worked hard and progressed in his career.
2) If one goes after his career and doesn't have a life he'll start wondering what it would've been like if he had a life.
It's called being human, we can never achieve complete satisfaction.

[adfasfuiuiui]

I'm a uni-dimensional man. I have no life. I'm exceptional at watching videos.

[FishbowlPhenom]

4:37 - I love - LOVE when Peterson starts to say something, stops for a moment, and then re-corrects with different wording. He understands the importance of selecting exactly the right words to represent what he means, and isn't afraid to halt the sentence (effectively admitting he's saying it wrong) in order to avoid miscommunication. It's really an indicator of enormous integrity.

[ManosTheOne]

It's so funny so many people think themselves as one-dimensional overachievers but still have time to watch random youtube videos AND comment on them, with lengthy paragraphs.

[dragonballz]

Every time I hear Peterson speak, I feel I get grounded again to my goals. Not many people can do this for me.

[dodecachordon]

they need to teach this to kids. It took me 12 years to figure this shit out

[WSUGLUE]

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” - Albert Einstein

[jamesbrannan]

I'm exceptional at taking advice and never using it.

[SixRelic]

"You can have anything you want, just not everything."

[MissElisabelle]

Thing is... exceptional people LOVE what they do. No one can tell you how to live your life. Some people enjoy working hard, studying hard, even if it means to sacrifice social life, if they ever had any.

But some people, just like me, or many other people, actually love being ordinary. I figured this out when I was a kid, I always knew that I didn't want to be special or a future billionaire. My parents wanted me to be gifted and exceptional, but what's wrong in being ordinary? Living a simple life, trying to grasp all of the goods of this life that matters to YOU.
At the end of the day I am gonna die, and it doesn't matter whether people will remember me or not, cause I won't be there. But at least, on my deathbed, I'll know I had a good life, the life I wanted.
Even if I'll ever become richer, I don't want billions, nor millions. And if I had those, I would donate the money, or invest in public facilities, public healthcare, museums, researches.

[YawMoney]

Me: Elon musk what did it cost you
Elon: everything [else]

[ion]

on the flipside I had a bro who really wanted kids and did the fertility thing for 6 years, he finally had a perfectly healthy and bright baby boy @ the age of 35. I've never seen someone more happy in my life. It was very touching :)

[george.eliot]

I *love* that he stops himself, he talks to himself, and corrects himself when he realizes that those words may not convey what he's *really* trying to say. Talk about conscientiousness. bloody brilliant.

[MOBIO]

Without the uni-dimensional folks of the world, the ordinary couldn't live their ordinary lives and provide for their families, period. Those that strive for greatness in one aspect of life find enjoyment in what they accomplish and can rest easy knowing how many families' their tireless pursuit supports. The world needs both to prosper.

[Slawka_Kochanowska]

This's 1000% true. Me and my friends are young physicists (1-3 years after PhD), so I spoke from my and their experience. It's possible to be exceptional and maybe have one thing outside of academia e.g. climbing. However to: be a good parent, travel a lot, have a rich social life, hiking, climbing, taking care for your look (for girls) is simply impossible. Or maybe if you are very very well disciplined, and every 10 minutes of your life is well planed...

[nicolisclark]

This is my grandfather spot on. He was born in the great depression, in the dustbowl, forged his SS card lying about his age and ran away to the marines at age 14. they put him through college and He became a theoretical particle physicist and was instrumental in creating the supercollider. He worked for berkely, nasa, texas a&m, fermilab and cern. the man slept 4 hours a night. he would wake up at 3 or 4 am. clean his entire house, run 6 miles with his dogs all before 6 or 7 am then he would get in his little private plane. ( he lives in a pilot community so all house have hangars and runways in the back, then he would fly off to where ever he was working for the day. He lived all over europe and the united states, NY, Chicago, England, Germany, Italy. Truly one of the most accomplished men i have ever known. But he sacrificed his happiness, He sacrificed the love of his family. He never had any leisure time and he was highly tyranical. I remember he would inspect your room after you clean it with a surgical glove and if he found dust, up on a door ledge or anywhere, he would beat you with the belt until you bled. In fact he beat my stepdad and uncle so bad he sent them to the ICU on several occasions. However he then used his incredible ties to the government to have all charges dropped every time. He was so highly tyranical in fact every male he attempted to rear went the exact opposite of him and his boys all turned out criminals. Moral of the story, he was a one in a billion man who did great things but he also paid great great prices to do so.

[Rambler]

It's refreshing to see a professor daring enough to explain that men and women tend to think and operate differently, an idea that modern feminism shuns.

[prashanthsingh]

I love how he always has a regular drink on his desk i.e. diet cola or a shake etc. He doesn't pretend to be healthy person posing with a green juice or water. He's just genuinely human.

[wilhelmgroe]

The most inspiring man I have ever watched - completely changed my life.
I bought his book 1 year ago and even made a video about my transformation if someone is interested.
Have a nice day. Life is suffering, but take the world on your shoulders and bear your responsibility in order to have a meaningful life.

[vcrbetamax]

I feel mentally healthier when I listen to the good doctor. Peterson is like vitamins for the mind.