In our modern world we inhabit a sea of endless comparison. It is very easy to come to think that if we had someone else’s life then we would be happier. In today’s episode we explore the wisdom of Carl Jung who reminds us all that we have a person destiny to accomplish that can only ever be ours alone to accomplish.
Transcript
Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.
Speaker:Once again, welcome back to the daily podcast.
Speaker:Hope you've been enjoying recent episodes.
Speaker:I've, uh, uh, really enjoyed doing them.
Speaker:Of coming to the studio and done a, this episode today, I've got a lot happening.
Speaker:I've got this afternoon.
Speaker:I'm interviewing one of the main, uh,
Speaker:Writers for the wall street journal for my other podcast on global macro economics.
Speaker:So I'm really looking forward to that.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:And I've got a, another interview tomorrow morning at 4:30 AM for the
Speaker:economics podcast interviewing my first reclusive billionaire, not just
Speaker:any billionaire, but a reclusive one, because when you want to interview a
Speaker:billionaire, you got to make sure they reclusive the much more interesting.
Speaker:So, uh,
Speaker:Yeah, looking forward to that interesting life.
Speaker:I get to do a whole bunch of different things.
Speaker:And, uh, but doing this with you guys is one of my daily favorites.
Speaker:It's a great part of the daily routine.
Speaker:As I said a couple of episodes ago that I, um, I get so much out of this side, no
Speaker:matter what mood I come into the studio.
Speaker:By the time I've done it.
Speaker:I just I'm feeling pretty good.
Speaker:I'm a morning person.
Speaker:So, uh, grab that espresso on the way into the studio, do these and, uh, get
Speaker:out there and get stuck into the day.
Speaker:And do some gym stuff this morning and, uh, yeah.
Speaker:And then getting on with it.
Speaker:So friends, let me share something with you.
Speaker:This is.
Speaker:Another quote from a very, very famous psychotherapist psychologist
Speaker:and all this focus on psychotherapy.
Speaker:I guess some of your thinking, Jonathan, is this something you want to tell us?
Speaker:So friends, these men and women just have such great insights for us.
Speaker:And I love sharing them with you at the moment.
Speaker:I think they're, they're a very rich vein of material.
Speaker:So today I'm sharing with you something from Carl you'll know.
Speaker:Many of you would know he was the, uh, A disciple of Sigmund Freud.
Speaker:But yours is a, did a huge amount of work in terms of archetypes and.
Speaker:How the great mythological stories of world history and world culture
Speaker:revealing some very interesting, deep stuff about all of us.
Speaker:So, uh, he's one of the greats and I love this quote.
Speaker:Let me read it to you.
Speaker:He says this do not compare.
Speaker:Do not measure.
Speaker:No other way is like yours.
Speaker:All other ways, deceive and tempt you, you must fulfill the way that is in you.
Speaker:One more time.
Speaker:Just have a quick, listen, here we go.
Speaker:Do not compare, do not measure.
Speaker:No other ways like yours, all other ways to save and tempt you.
Speaker:You must fulfill the way that is in you.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:There's a lot in this.
Speaker:This is something we call teleology.
Speaker:Teleology is kind of I guess.
Speaker:The potential of something, the purpose of something.
Speaker:So the teleology of a tree is to be a tree, is to grow and to have leaves
Speaker:and to do all the things that trees do.
Speaker:So you notice a tree, doesn't try to be a dog.
Speaker:And you're going, Jonathan, this is really random.
Speaker:Stay with me.
Speaker:Things in the natural world fulfill their purposes.
Speaker:They have a sort of teleology within them.
Speaker:Uh, focus.
Speaker:A potential, a direction in which they're existing.
Speaker:Now what young is reminding us here is that it will, he believes that we all
Speaker:are very similar in that sense that each of us has a particular unique
Speaker:genius of brilliance, a potential, a possibility, a potentiality,
Speaker:all of us carry that within us.
Speaker:You know, I am not a brain surgeon.
Speaker:I'm not a mechanic.
Speaker:I tend to do these sorts of things.
Speaker:I spend time on stage.
Speaker:I write books, I run our businesses.
Speaker:I do these sorts of things.
Speaker:I love encouraging people.
Speaker:That's kind of my teleology.
Speaker:If I spent all day.
Speaker:Completely cut off from humans doing something randomly different.
Speaker:I would struggle in life now.
Speaker:It doesn't mean we don't have interests and, and various
Speaker:things that are important to us.
Speaker:But he's arguing that we must fulfill the way that is in us.
Speaker:Now, this is important because I'm deeply convinced we are all
Speaker:living in a cultural moment.
Speaker:Where.
Speaker:Comparison is enormous.
Speaker:So through social media, there is an incredibly strong.
Speaker:I guess.
Speaker:Uh, tension in our culture where we feel that we need to be someone
Speaker:different, or we would be happier if we had what this other person
Speaker:had, or if we looked like they look.
Speaker:And of course, Instagram and Facebook and other things reinforce
Speaker:that on a vast global scale.
Speaker:So can you see that cultural tension?
Speaker:Here's the great wisdom of young saying each of us are truly individual.
Speaker:Each of us have this unique potential in life.
Speaker:Each of us have this one or two major things we should do with our lives.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:Surrounded as we are by these counter messages, where that, if we looked
Speaker:this way, if we drove that car, if we had this clothing, if we had that
Speaker:career, we would be existentially happy.
Speaker:And it's just not true.
Speaker:You can't spend your life trying to be someone else.
Speaker:It's very stressful.
Speaker:And it will sit you up for life of enormous frustration.
Speaker:Remember Oscar Wilde famously said, be yourself because
Speaker:everybody else is taken right.
Speaker:You can't be someone else.
Speaker:You have to be, you.
Speaker:So, and this, I love this line here.
Speaker:He says, do not compare, do not measure, do not measure your life
Speaker:against somebody else's measure your life against your own potential.
Speaker:Measure your life against what you should be able to accomplish.
Speaker:Given your unique talents, skills and abilities.
Speaker:You know, I've been reading Jordan Peterson's latest book, um,
Speaker:beyond order and there's a whole chapter devoted to that idea.
Speaker:There's a whole chapter devoted to identify what you
Speaker:could be and then aim at that.
Speaker:So, what could you be in this life as you listen to me?
Speaker:What could you be?
Speaker:They're not saying you will be it, but what could you be?
Speaker:What does your heart tell you?
Speaker:What inspirations motivations, what dreams, what goals, what are
Speaker:the things that really amp you up and you want for your life?
Speaker:Follow that path, you know, don't measure that path against somebody
Speaker:else's do not compare it to someone else's cause there's no other way.
Speaker:As young says that is like yours.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Stop the comparison game.
Speaker:Ask yourself, what you could be, and then aim at that.
Speaker:So my job is to try and become the best communicator I can be
Speaker:the best husband and father.
Speaker:I can be the best friend I can be.
Speaker:And to keep doing and building the things that are unique to my personality.
Speaker:And if I keep following that path, it doesn't mean rainbows and
Speaker:unicorns and sunshine and fairy dust.
Speaker:It doesn't mean we won't have struggles and difficulty and challenges.
Speaker:But it does mean we will have authenticity and probably a fair
Speaker:bit of happiness on the way.
Speaker:All right, friends.
Speaker:You're happy with that.
Speaker:Is that helpful?
Speaker:Let's remember that we must fulfill the way that is within us.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Please make sure you subscribe, hit that big subscribe button
Speaker:that you can subscribe anywhere.
Speaker:Leave a comment on any player in the podcast platform.
Speaker:Of course, everything else is on the website.
Speaker:Jonathan doyle.co.
Speaker:You send me an email if you need to, if you want to reach out
Speaker:and say hi, you want me to do an episode on any particular issue?
Speaker:You can find me@jonathanatjonathandoyle.co and of course, check out
Speaker:the coaching tab there.
Speaker:You want to get some different results in life?
Speaker:You want some help?
Speaker:Then we can do some live coaching via zoom with clients all over the world.
Speaker:So check that out.
Speaker:The coaching tab@jonathandoyle.co that's it for me today, friends.
Speaker:God bless you all have a fantastic day.
Speaker:Evening, night, wherever you're listening in the world.
Speaker:My name's Jonathan Doyle.
Speaker:This has been the daily podcast and i'll have another message for you tomorrow
