Dr. Aziz compares a snow leopard hunting on a cliff, raw and captivating, to one pacing behind zoo glass, deadened and confined. When you perform a polished persona to meet external approval, you become the caged leopard. Authenticity dies under pressure to be someone else.
The very thing we're trying to do, which is pressure myself to be something, no matter how polished that something is, the performance is actually less attractive because it's deadened or confined or controlled. Like, what's more fascinating to watch? A snow leopard who is chasing a— some sort of antelope on a freaking cliff face. Like, a human would just tumble down this thing. So compare that to a snow leopard in a zoo. And that leopard was just pacing, man, back and forth and back and forth on the front of the glass. I was like, I don't like zoos, this is painful. And, and that's you when you try to pressure yourself to be somebody
