Sacrifice. You get to pick your damn sacrifice.
That's all. You don't get to not make one. You're sacrificial
whether you want to be or not. This is the Peter Pan story roughly speaking .
Peter Pan is this magical boy pan means pan is the god of everything roughly
speaking right and so it's not an accident that he has the name Pan and
he's the boy that won't grow up and he's magical. Well that's because children are
magical they can be anything they're nothing but potential and Peter Pan
doesn't want to give that up. Why? well he's got some adults around him but the
main adult is Captain Hook. Well who the hell wants to grow up to be Captain Hook?
First of all you've got a hook. Second, you're a tyrant and third you're chased
by the dragon of chaos with the clock in its stomach, right, the crocodile.
It's already got a piece of you well that's what happens when you get older time has
already got a piece of you and eventually it's got a taste for you and
eventually it's going to eat you and so Herc is so traumatized by that that he
can't help but be a tyrant and then Peter Pan looks at traumatized Herc and
says well no I'm not sacrificing my childhood for that so that's fine except
he ends up king of Lost Boys in Neverland well Neverland doesn't exist
and who the hell wants to be king of the Lost Boys and he also sacrifices the
possibility that held a real relationship with a woman because that's
Wendy right and she's kind of conservative middle-class London
dwelling girl she wants to grow up and have kids and have a life she accepts
her mortality she accepts her maturity Peter Pan has to content himself with
Tinkerbell she doesn't even exist she's like she's like the fairy of porn.
She doesn't exist. She's the substitute for the real thing.
and so but the dichotomy that you're talking about is very tricky because
there's a sacrificial element in maturation
right you have to sacrifice the pleura potentiality of childhood for the
actuality of a frame and the question is well why would you do that well one
reason is it happens to you whether you do it or not you can either choose your
damn limitation or you can let it take you unaware when you're 30 or even worse
when you're 40 and then that is not a happy day and you see I see people like
this and I think it's more and more common in our culture because people can
put off maturity without suffering an immediate penalty but all that happens
is the penalty accrues and then when it finally hits it just Wallops you because
when you're 25 you could be an idiot it's no problem
even when you're out in a job search it's like well you don't have any
experience and you're kind of clueless yeah yeah you're young you know it's no
problem we can that's what young people are like but they're full of potential
okay well now you're the same person at 30 it's like people aren't so thrilled
about you at that point it's like what the hell have you been doing for the
last ten years well I'm just as clueless as I was when I was 22 yeah but you're
not 22 you're an old infant right and that's an
ugly thing an old infant so the raised part of the reason you choose your damn
sacrifice because the sacrifice is inevitable but at least you get to
choose it and then there's something that's that's even more complex than
that in some sense is that the problem with being a child is that all you are
is potential and its really low resolution you could be anything but
you're not anything so then you go and you do adopt an apprenticeship roughly
speaking and then you become at least you become something and when you're
something that makes the world open up to you again you know like if you're a
really good plumber then you end up being far more than a plumber right you
end up being a good employer not not that plumbers I'm not putting plumbers
down it's like more power to X plumbers they've saved more lives than doctors so
hygiene right so you know if you're a really good plumber well then you have
some employees you run a business you you you make you you train some other
people you enlarge their lives you're kind of a pillar of the community you
you have your family it's you can once you pass through that
narrow training period which narrows you and constricts you and develops you at
the same time then you can come out the other end with a bunch of new
possibility at hell at hand and Jung talked about that he thought that the
proper part of the proper path of development in the last half of life was
to rediscover the child that you left behind as you were apprentice it and so
then you get to be something and regain that potential at the same time very
very smart well he was very very smart so that's a very wise very wise thing to
know sacrifice you get to pick your damn sacrifice that's all you don't get to
not make what your sacrificial whether you want to be or not that's a good
thing to know as well if you want to hear more insights from dr. jordan
peterson we highly recommend checking out his book twelve rules for life you
can listen to the entire audiobook for free when you use our link at
audible.com slash after school or text after school to 500 500 jordan peterson
may be the most misrepresented person in history but there is no denying the
straightforward wisdom in his teachings his audiobooks on audible are all
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is great for listening while you commute or during a workout so right now when
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