
Date of issue: 01.02.2018
Song language: English
Compare Yourself to Who You Were Yesterday, Not to Who Someone Else Is Today |
I’m a Clinical psychologist and I spend |
20 hours a week for 25 years |
Listening to people tell me about their lives |
And those people were people who were just barely hanging on to the bottom of |
the world |
Up to people who were so successful you could hardly believe it |
Being a clinical psychologist if you really listen is like |
Being immersed in a Dostoevsky novel all the time |
You know |
Because it’s amazing what people tell you if you listen to them |
Because they’re so peculiar like |
They’re like penguins or rhinoceroses or ostriches |
They’re unlikely creatures |
Well you gotta improve right? |
And you might think |
Well, I’m a real fixer-upper and |
I’m really embarrassed about that |
Cause there are 50 things wrong with me |
And Like look at that guy and |
So now I feel all terrible because of the comparison and all of that |
First of all, it’s unfair |
Especially by the time you’re about 30 |
Your life has become quite idiosyncratic |
Let’s say your life has eight dimensions |
Family, friends, intimate relationships |
You’re |
Individually |
Positioned in all those dimensions |
Your life isn’t like anyone else’s life |
And so, you see someone who’s doing better than you |
It’s like you only see in one dimension at one slice of time |
So it’s not reasonable |
You don’t have the whole picture |
And then you |
Get down on yourself |
And take the spirit out of yourself |
And you get bitter and resentful |
There’s nothing good about that |
But you do need to improve |
There’s not as much of you as there should be |
So, what’s the comparison? |
Well that’s easy |
Just say okay well here’s my position |
In time in space right now |
Here’s my |
Virtues and fault |
I can be |
A little bit better tomorrow |
In some minor way |
Well |
That’s the right comparison |
Cause you are very much like you |
Everything is the same about you |
And so, it’s the perfect comparison |
You just don’t have insight into the tragedy of someone else’s life |
You might think well he’s rich and successful |
It’s like |
Yeah but you just don’t know |
You don’t know what his relationship is with his wife or his children |
You know you don’t know that he’s gone through two divorces |
And his daughter won’t talk to him |
And one of his kids is schizophrenic and |
The point is |
You should be better than you are |
But it’s not because you’re worse than other people |
It’s because you’re not everything you should be |
And so, you got to pick the comparison right |
And then that’s also ennobling |
And instantly hopeful |
There is absolutely no doubt that you can be slightly better tomorrow than you |
are today |
There is definitely something that you can do today |
That will make you slightly better |
For the next day |
Always |
Okay |
You’re 85 |
You have Alzheimer’s |
You know |
You’re done |
Sometimes you’re done |
Most of the time you’re not |
And most of the time there’s something within your grasp that you could |
Put right |
See that’s the fundamental issue |
It’s like, life is tragic |
It’s full of suffering and it’s full of malevolence |
There’s no doubt about that |
And it’s brutal |
And it’s more brutal than you can even imagine in some ways |
Or willing to imagine |
But there’s something you could put right |
And we don’t know what would happen if you put everything you could right |
If you put it right |
And then we don’t know what would happen if everyone did that |
But you can be certain that it would be less tragic |
And less malevolent and so |
Like |
You don’t have anything better to do (Distorted) |
Name | Year |
---|---|
Organized Mess ft. Alan Watts | 2020 |
There Must Be Discipline ft. Jocko Willink | 2021 |
Discipline Gets Things Done ft. Joe Rogan, Jocko Willink | 2020 |
Happy as Fuck ft. Joe Rogan | 2020 |
Please Come In ft. Alan Watts | 2019 |
The Same Magnet | 2019 |
Cosmic Order ft. Joseph Campbell | 2020 |
Build the Biggest Building ft. Gary Vaynerchuk | 2020 |
94 Knicks ft. Gary Vaynerchuk | 2021 |
Music Is Everything ft. Jordan Peterson | 2020 |
Forgetting the Upside ft. Gary Vaynerchuk | 2020 |
Everybody Sucks ft. Gary Vaynerchuk | 2020 |
Never Been Better ft. Gary Vaynerchuk | 2020 |
The Greatest Year ft. Gary Vaynerchuk | 2020 |
Optimistic Practical ft. Gary Vaynerchuk | 2020 |
A River ft. Марк Аврелий | 2020 |
Offense Defense ft. Gary Vaynerchuk | 2020 |
Our Revels Now Are Ended ft. Alan Watts | 2020 |
Agrarian Society ft. Alan Watts | 2020 |
Be Me Be Sixteen | 2018 |