Dr. Jordan B. Peterson has created a new series that could be a lifeline for those battling depression and anxiety. With decades of experience helping patients, Dr. Peterson offers a unique understanding of why you might be feeling this way. In his new series, he provides a roadmap towards healing, showing that while the journey isn t easy, it s absolutely possible to find your way forward. If you re suffering, please know you are not alone. There s hope, and there s a path to feeling better. Go to Dailywire Plus now and start watching Dr. Jordan Peterson on Depression and Anxiety. Let this be the first step towards the brighter future you deserve. Episode 39: The Necessity of Aim, a Jordan B Peterson 12 Rules for Life Lecture, is a 12 Rules For Life podcast, recorded in Riverside, California on January 24, 2019, called about the importance of aiming at something you want to achieve and why it s important to have a target you re trying to achieve it. In this episode, he talks about why you have to aim at something, why you should aim at a target, and why you need to be precise in your speech, and how you should begin to understand why you ve got to aim for something you ve already got a target in order to achieve your goal. Thanks for listening to this episode! Season 2 is now airing on Dailywireplus.co/TheNecessity-Of-of-Aim/Season/Season-2. . Subscribe today using the promo code: "UPdates" at checkout to receive a 15% discount on the course "Discovering-Personality" and receive 15% off the course at $120. Discovering-Psychology-with-Dr. Peterson's FREE pre-sale. If you're interested in the course, you can pre-order the course for the course starting on Amazon Prime Day, $120 at $99, and get a discount on it at $150, and a FREE copy of the course with a discount of $99.99 at $137.99 and a lifetime membership at $179.99, plus an additional 15% shipping starting at $49.99. Learn more about the course is available on Amazon starting on Nov 1st, starting on Dec. 26th, only $99 and shipping starts on Nov 15th, starting with $99 + shipping starts at $39,99, starting in 7 days.
00:00:00.960Hey everyone, real quick before you skip, I want to talk to you about something serious and important.
00:00:06.480Dr. Jordan Peterson has created a new series that could be a lifeline for those battling depression and anxiety.
00:00:12.740We know how isolating and overwhelming these conditions can be, and we wanted to take a moment to reach out to those listening who may be struggling.
00:00:20.100With decades of experience helping patients, Dr. Peterson offers a unique understanding of why you might be feeling this way in his new series.
00:00:27.420He provides a roadmap towards healing, showing that while the journey isn't easy, it's absolutely possible to find your way forward.
00:00:35.360If you're suffering, please know you are not alone. There's hope, and there's a path to feeling better.
00:00:41.780Go to Daily Wire Plus now and start watching Dr. Jordan B. Peterson on depression and anxiety.
00:00:47.460Let this be the first step towards the brighter future you deserve.
00:00:57.420Welcome to Season 2, Episode 39 of the Jordan B. Peterson Podcast.
00:01:04.080I'm Mikayla Peterson, Dad's daughter and collaborator, mother of a toddler who is continually infecting her with a cold.
00:01:11.220This podcast is a 12 Rules for Life podcast, recorded in Riverside on January 24th, 2019, called The Necessity of Aim.
00:01:20.120Updates on the Peterson fam? Not a lot. I'm swamped.
00:01:24.440But Dad is still taking a break. A much-needed break.
00:01:27.480If you guys haven't checked out Dad's very first e-course, Discovering Personality with Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, I helped design the course.
00:01:34.880I love the topic of personality and think everyone would be helped if they learned about the Big 5 personality traits.
00:01:40.600It comes with a code to understandmyself.com for Dad's scientifically-backed personality quiz.
00:01:45.380We're currently offering a pre-sale for a 15% discount on the course at $120.
00:01:50.980If you're interested, this is a great opportunity to get it at a lower price or buy it for someone for Christmas.
00:01:56.820Check it out at jordanbpeterson.com slash personality.
00:02:51.980Now, I just have to take a few seconds and remind myself what a privilege it is to come here and talk to all of you.
00:03:00.000So, it's much appreciated that you take time out and come and listen to this.
00:03:07.120So, I was thinking backstage about what I'm doing tonight, and I want to talk about values.
00:03:14.780And, really, I'm going to produce a set of variations, I would say, on rule one, which is stand up straight with your shoulders back,
00:03:28.420and rule ten, which is to be precise in your speech.
00:03:32.140I want to dig underneath those and elaborate on them.
00:03:38.620And, I want to do that, I was thinking about a good metaphor for how I want to do that,
00:03:44.840because I've been thinking about it all day.
00:03:46.620I've got this complicated problem that I'm trying to solve.
00:03:50.460And, it's like, there's a target that I'm aiming at, and I want to send, like, seven armies marching toward the target all at the same time.
00:03:58.560And, so, I'm going to line them up, and, hopefully, I'll be able to pull that all together.
00:08:57.560But, you, you're acting out the presupposition that where you're headed is better than where you are.
00:09:02.940Because, otherwise, why would you put in the time and effort necessary to transform your current situation into that hypothetical future situation?
00:10:01.360And, the fact that there's nothing but clear sailing in front of me produces a little bit of positive emotion.
00:10:06.600If I stand here, by contrast, and then I look at the same, if I look at this, look, if I look at myself in the same direction, then, that chair's, or that stool's in the way.
00:10:16.700And, like, that's not a catastrophe, you know.
00:10:19.400And, that's because I know how to walk around a stool.
00:10:22.340But, it's not, but that's the only reason.
00:10:24.500Because, otherwise, you know, it would be in the way.
00:10:26.280And, and, and, and, whenever you observe a pathway, and it's, it's cluttered with, it's cluttered in a manner that would interfere with your movement forward.
00:10:48.320And, so that's, and that's part of the reason why it's so useful.
00:10:50.540It's useful, it's useful to know this if you're thinking about how to set up your house.
00:10:55.160It's part of the reason that I've suggested to people that they clean up their rooms.
00:10:58.940Because, your, your room is a place of pathways.
00:11:03.200And, if it's cluttered, then, you experience chaos and negative emotion in relationship to your goals.
00:11:09.520It's not a, it's not a clearly laid out vista.
00:11:12.200And, if it's clearly laid out, then you look at it, and you experience positive emotion, and it's cluttered, and, and, and, and, and the, and the traveling is difficult, then you experience negative emotion.
00:11:24.420And, it's logical that that would be the case, because, if your pathway forward is cluttered, then it's more difficult to get where you want to go.
00:11:33.260And, if it's more difficult, that takes more time and energy.
00:11:35.500And, that should be signaled by something, biological.
00:11:43.540And, that's actually how we look at the world.
00:11:45.560That's how the world manifests itself to us, not only emotionally, but also even perceptually.
00:11:52.000Because, we don't exactly appear to perceive objects that, that, you know, the way we think about how we think is, we think we look at the world, and we see objects, and then we evaluate the, we think about the objects, and we evaluate them, and then we make decisions about them.
00:12:07.400But, that isn't actually how you perceive the world at all.
00:12:12.220The way you perceive your world is, is a place of, of obstacles, and, and obstacles, things that get in your way, and, and things that move you forward.
00:12:22.380And, you want things that move you forward, and they produce positive emotion.
00:12:26.260And, you don't want things that get in the way, and they produce negative emotion.
00:12:29.000And, you don't look at the, you don't look at the, you don't look at the objects, and then decide if they're obstacles, or facilitators, let's say, is that, you see obstacles and facilitators.
00:12:44.440And so, that emotional perception is part of direct perception.
00:12:47.960It's not a secondary consequence of thinking.
00:12:50.040So, when you, you orient yourself towards some aim, and then you start to implement the actions necessary to undertake that aim, to make it manifest itself in the world.
00:13:03.660And then, you observe the consequences of that, and if the consequences are that, you, as you implement your plan, you move towards the goal, then that produces positive emotion.
00:13:16.000And, that positive emotion is of a very particular type.
00:13:20.200We, we understand this very well, that the neurological, the neurology of this is laid out very well.
00:13:26.380The, the system that produces positive emotion, when you're moving towards a valued goal, runs on a neurochemical known as dopamine.
00:13:35.520And, it's technically known as the incentive reward system.
00:13:39.200It's, it's different, often people think of a reward as, you know, you're, you're hungry, and you have Thanksgiving dinner, and then you're, sort of, complacent, and satiated after that, and that's the reward.
00:13:56.400If you're hungry, and you eat, then you're no longer hungry.
00:13:59.180Incentive reward is a different thing.
00:14:01.260Incentive reward is what pulls you along towards a goal.
00:14:03.740And, almost all the positive emotion that people really value in their lives is incentive reward.
00:14:10.700That's the feeling that you're engaged in something important.
00:14:13.920And, it's so important, it's so vital, that incentive reward system, that it can be hijacked by different kinds of chemicals.
00:14:21.520And, so, almost all the drugs that people abuse, like cocaine, and methamphetamine, and opiates, all the really, all the drugs that really hook people, hook people because they activate the incentive reward system.
00:14:34.140And, so, they produce the facsimile of purposeful engagement.
00:14:39.980And, they can do that in a very, very potent way, in an exaggerated way.
00:14:45.400But, the reason that people experience them as positive is because the drugs hijack the system that actually does indicate what constitutes positive.
00:14:58.960And, so, you need an aim in order to experience what's positive.
00:15:03.120That's really, really an incredible thing to know, you know, is that, that, that there's a direct relationship between having an aim and experiencing the sort of positive emotion that engages you meaningfully in life.
00:15:20.300And, there's more to it than that, too, because the neurochemical system that's activated as a consequence of the observation that you're moving towards a valued goal, also is analgesic.
00:15:34.280And, so, cocaine is an incentive reward drug, and it's also analgesic.
00:15:39.580If you ever know somebody who's suffering from intractable cancer pain, for example, you can use a drug like an opiate, which is a direct analgesic.
00:15:47.220You can, you can use a drug, a psychomotor stimulant, a cocaine analogue, to increase the potency of the opiate.
00:15:54.460So, if you ever know someone who can't have their pain managed, it's a very useful thing to know if someone's approaching the end of their life.
00:16:00.740If you give them a combination of Ritalin and opiates, that's much more effective than just opiates, and it also helps people be alert.
00:16:08.560So, that's a, you know, a useful side effect of knowing something about, well, it's a useful side effect of knowing something about the underlying neurochemistry.
00:16:17.240So, in any case, in order to activate the systems that produces the sense of positive and meaningful engagement in life, you have to be pursuing an aim.
00:16:31.580You have to have an aim, and you have to be pursuing it.
00:16:33.620And then I would also say, at least to some degree, you have to be pursuing it successfully, because otherwise it just gets too, it gets too complicated and too chaotic.
00:16:41.900So, no aim, no purpose, no meaning, no positive emotion.
00:17:11.600We specify targets and lock on them, and we throw things at the targets, and we chase the targets.
00:17:16.480And we're very, very much goal-oriented.
00:17:18.940And you can't even look at the world without a goal, because you can't focus your eyes unless you pick something out as the thing that you're aiming your perception at.
00:17:27.900You literally can't see the world without having an aim in mind.
00:17:32.140And so, you're nested inside a system of aims.
00:17:36.180And the question is, well, what do you aim at?
00:17:38.220Well, maybe you want to walk across the stage.
00:17:40.100I was talking to a friend of mine the other night, and he's trying to restructure a big company that isn't doing very well.
00:17:48.640And he's quite a deep thinker, and he's done this before.
00:17:54.100He's restructured other companies, and that's worked.
00:17:56.120He's a very honest person, and the way he restructures companies is he tries to figure out what it is that they should be doing,
00:18:02.200and then tries to figure out why they're not doing it, and then tries to set that right.
00:18:08.160And he sort of starts at the bottom to find out why things aren't working,
00:18:12.700and he gets obstacles out of the way of the people who want to be productive,
00:18:16.300and he establishes a set of goals, and he puts in a system of rewards and punishments that are commensurate with those goals,
00:18:23.740and he gets everybody pointed in the same direction.
00:18:26.560And so, he said to me, well, this particular company said,
00:18:30.280well, we make computers that are going to change the world.
00:18:32.640We're going to change the lives of billions of people, and that's what we're doing.