- Welcome back to part two
of "The Laws of Human Nature"
by Robert Grant.
In this video,
you will learn how to understand human behaviour
so you can become 1% better.
Let's jump right on in to law 10: envy.
You may deny it, but you compare yourself to others.
It leads to low self-worth, frustration, and hostility.
A sudden change in status can trigger envy
in your friends and peers,
especially among those in your own profession.
The biggest sign of envy manifests in the eyes.
Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer devised an experiment
where he would say something good about himself
and observe the onlooker's expression of disappointment.
On the flip, he would share a misfortune,
and it would elicit joy in the onlooker.
This is a common phenomenon known as schadenfreude.
Envy also manifests as offhand comments, gossip,
and flattery followed by negative criticism.
So here are five strategies to transmute envy.
Number one is to understand that someone might look good
on the surface,
but in reality, they face other troubles.
And so your envy loses its power.
Number two: compare yourself to those in dire situations
to increase gratitude for where you're at right now.
Number three: practise (speaks in German),
a term coined by Nietzsche
which means joying with.
Actively try to feel the joy of others.
Number four: turn envy into a source of inspiration
to reach or exceed their level.
And lastly, number five:
admire somebody else's achievements
in light of human greatness
because admiration is the opposite of envy.
Law 11: grandiosity.
We have a deep need to think highly of ourselves.
It's this facet of human nature that is largely responsible
for the business idea you think is awesome
but actually sucks.
We look up to charismatic leaders
because of they grandiose energy
whether it's rational or not.
So here are five strategies to deal with grandiosity.
Number one: understand that it's normal
to want to feel superior.
Concentrate the energy into one endeavour.
Actively seek feedback and criticism.
Seek out challenges above your skill level.
And occasionally allow yourself
to entertain crazy ideas or projects
in order to stay sane.
Law 12: gender rigidity.
It is in your nature to want to move closer
to what is feminine or masculine,
which manifests as attraction to another person.
The shaman is considered the wisest person
in primitive cultures.
The male shaman had an inner wife
he listened to for guidance,
and the female shaman had an inner husband.
Greene says that in the myths of many ancient cultures,
Persian, Hebrew, Greek, Egyptian,
original humans were believed to be both male and female.
This made them so powerful
that the gods feared them and split in half.
The problem in the modern world is overidentification
with masculinity or femininity.
Your masculine and feminine qualities
are based on genetics and the influence
of your parents of the opposite sex.
Studies have shown that at an early age,
boys are more emotionally reactive than girls.
They are highly empathetic and sensitive.
As they age, they learn to repress their emotions.
Girls have an adventurous spirit that is natural to them.
They have powerful wills, which they like to exert
in transforming their environment.
But they learn to sacrifice their assertive side
and to put other feelings before their own.
Can you think of an area in your life
where you are expected to take on a certain role
and constantly live up to somebody else's expectations?
Law 13: aimlessness.
Feeling lost in life isn't your fault.
It's a natural response to growing up
in modern society and culture.
Support systems of the past,
like religion and universal causes to believe in,
have mostly vanished
at least in the Western world.
It's no wonder you experience depression
and lose yourself in addictions.
Having a strong sense of purpose acts as a force multiplier
in all areas of your life.
Your decisions and actions will have power behind them.
You'll be seen as the guy or girl
that has their shit together.
But beware of false purposes.
The pursuit of pleasure is not
a genuine or sustainable purpose,
nor are some causes, cults, money, success,
attention, or pessimistic nihilism.
Here's five strategies for developing a sense
of genuine purpose.
Number one is to discover your calling in life.
It may come to others easily, but for most people,
it requires deep introspection and effort.
Examine what you did when you were younger
and be vigilant of the activities
where you enter a state of flow.
Number two: use resistance and negative spurs.
In any skill or project you pursue,
you'll receive outside criticism,
or the work will become frustrating.
Greene says that frustration is a sign
that you are making progress
as your mind becomes aware of higher levels of skill
that you have yet to attain.
When things get tedious, set a deadline for yourself
to force yourself to new heights.
Number three: associate with others
who have purposeful energy
and avoid your loser friends
who have a low sense of purpose.
Break down your long-term goals into short-term goals
to avoid overwhelm.
And lastly, eliminate distractions,
and lose yourself in the work.
Law 14: conformity.
A side of your character is dictated by your interactions
with groups of people.
There's an impulsion in you to conform to behave
how others behave and how they expect you to behave.
Just look at the George Floyd protests.
Notice how normal people stole from stores
who wouldn't normally steal.
Greene says the only solution is
to develop self-awareness and a superior understanding
of the changes that occur to us in groups.
Whether it's in life or business,
Greene suggests you form a reality group,
which is a group with a healthy dynamic
that's grounded in reality.
It exists in order to get things done,
to make things, to solve problems.
Everybody knows exactly what their role is
and what the goals of the group are.
Here are five strategies to conduct a reality group.
Number one: instil a collective sense of purpose.
Make sure it's clear
and that everybody puts it into practise.
Number two: assemble the right team of lieutenants.
Every group with big goals
will need others to manage the execution of ideas.
Choose the best person for the role
based on their character and competence.
Number three: let information and ideas flow freely.
Infect the group with productive emotions.
And forge a battle-tested group.
In the day to day,
your group can seem like they have it all together.
But throw them into a stressful situation,
and their inner toughness will be revealed.
For a group to move mountains,
group members require inner toughness.
Law 15: fickleness.
People are ready to turn on their leader
the moment they seem weak or experience a setback.
It may not seem obvious on the surface,
but humans respond with hidden contempt and doubt.
The solution as a leader is to develop greater authority.
Here are six strategies to develop greater authority.
The first is to find your authority archetype.
It's based on your character and natural strengths.
Pause this video to identify your archetype,
and let me know on the comments below which one you are.
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Number two: focus on getting others results.
See the long-term vision amongst the short-term chaos.
Lead by example.
Stir conflicting emotions by occasionally being absent.
And never appear to take. Always give.
Your authority erodes if you promise to give,
but fail to deliver multiple times.
Law 16: aggression.
People appear polite and civilised on the surface,
but beneath, they are dealing with frustrations.
It can turn into manipulative and aggressive behaviour
to gain power over circumstances.
The root of aggression is thought to stem from genetics
and the attachment form between a child and their mother.
Psychoanalyst Melanie Klein,
who specialised in the study of infants,
noticed some babies were more anxious
and greedier than others.
And according to the psychoanalyst and writer Erich Fromm,
if parents are too domineering,
they repress their children's need
for power and independence.
These children are often the types
who later like to dominate and tyrannised others.
Greene shares four strategies in the book.
I won't elaborate because they can be described
in one sentence;
channel your aggression into positive energy
towards your goals.
Law 17: generational myopia.
The generation you are born into shapes the way you behave
more than you realise.
Each new generation wants to set a new standard
for the world and separate themselves from others.
With an understanding of this law,
you can make better sense of the underlying changes going on
in all areas of society
and begin to anticipate where the world is headed,
to predict future trends,
and to understand the role we can play in shaping events.
Greene shares strategies to use this law to your advantage,
but I believe you will derive more understanding
by first reading "The Lessons of History" by Will Durant.
The last law is death denial.
You are going to die.
How does that make you feel?
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If you're like most people, you feel anxious.
So you distract yourself.
But you can never achieve long-lasting peace
without acceptance of death.
In his book "The Wisdom of Insecurity," Alan Watts says,
"Suppressing the fear of death makes it all the stronger.
The point is only to know beyond any shadow of doubt
that I and all other things now present will vanish
until this knowledge compels you to release them,
to know it now as surely as if you had just fallen
off the rim of the Grand Canyon.
Indeed, you were kicked off the edge of a precipice
when you are born,
and it's no help to cling to the rocks falling with you.
If you are afraid of death, be afraid.
The point is to get with it, to let it take over,
fear, ghosts, pains, transience, dissolution, and all.
And then comes to the hitherto unbelievable surprise;
you don't die, because you were never born.
You had just forgotten who you are."
There's nothing more powerful
than changing your relationship with death
then facing the immediate possibility of death.
Existential psychotherapist Irvin Yalom documented
the reactions to the impending doom
of terminally ill cancer patients.
They experienced a rearrangement of life priorities,
a sense of liberation, deeper communication with loved ones,
less fears, less concerns about rejection,
and a greater willingness to take risks.
Greene share strategies for dealing with death
similar to that of Alan Watts.
But I'm disappointed to see no mention of something.
And mentioning that something
will probably get us demonetized.
But I'm gonna share it with you anyway
because I believe in truth.
That something is-
(instruction whooshes)
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Let's recap.
In today's video, you learned the law of envy,
grandiosity, gender rigidity,
aimlessness, conformity, fickleness,
aggression, generational myopia,
and death denial.
Drop a comment below,
and tell me which law you think is the most important.
Let's keep becoming 1% better together.
I'm Brandon, and I'll see you in the next video.
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