Dr. Aziz presents a short, conversational exploration of why people feel inferior. He describes his own experience of persistent comparison and argues that feelings of inferiority come from culturally conditioned value systems (e.g., height, muscles, race, wealth, sexual conquests for men; beauty, desirability, popularity for women). He invites listeners to consciously choose their own values (kindness, courage, honesty, presence with family, creativity, etc.) as a healthier source of self-worth and ends with an encouragement to claim those values and share them in the comments.
Chapters
Do you ever feel inferior to other people? Now, that might seem like a no, duh question, because the answer is probably like, well, yeah, everyone feels that. Yes. And you can feel it once in a long while, regularly or virtually all the time. And I've lived in all those places. I remember when I was younger, I lived in that almost all the time. Everywhere I go, I was comparing myself usually to other men. I think I would look at women and feel inferior in some way. Like, oh, she's out of my league. And then I would look at men who were, like, in that league and feel inferior to them all of the time. Like, it was. It was so persistent that it's almost like a background hum of, like, a fan or an air conditioner just becomes part of the background of your existence. So you might just take it as like, a fundamental state of reality. Like, that's what I do. Like, this is how it is. Of course I feel inferior because I am inferior. So there you go. But let's examine that for a minute right now, you and me, huh? What's going on there? We say, well, this person's more valuable than I am. They're more worthy than I am. Okay, the key question to ask yourself is, what makes a human worthy? Right? So if you're. If I was looking at a man over there, oh, he's better than me, what makes him more worthy or more valuable than me? Well, I would say, well, he's taller, he's more muscular, he's more charming. He's white. Because when I grew up and I thought, oh, man, I'm not. If I was white, then somehow that'd be better. Doesn't. It doesn't have a name like Aziz, right? He's got, like, sort of an Anglo Americanized name, you know? And, you know, as I got when I was younger, I don't think I focused as much on wealth. But, you know, then as I got older, well, if someone makes a lot of money, that makes them valuable. Okay, well, just really ask yourself that question. What are the things that you are placing the value on now? The cultural field that you grew up in, the conditioning that you grew up in determines what those things are for the most part, right? And the most common ones for men, Are you athletic, good at sports? Have you had sexual conquest? You're desired by women, and do you make money or have power in your company? For women, a lot of it's like, what do you fit into the beauty standard? How desired are you? How popular are you? How sort of connected are you? And of course, career could be thrown in there as well. And there's other things beyond that, but those are the big ones, right? So just notice, is that what you're placing value in? And the question is, is the value of a man determined by how many women he slept with? Is the value of a woman? You know how her waist to hip ratio and there can be this conditioning inside. It's like, yes, that is how it is. And it just feels like it because you got pummeled with it since a young age. And not especially in this era, the last 50 years of insane media, exponential growth of our exposure to just visual media, that reinforces that. But I'm not asking you about what your conditioning is. I'm asking you right now, as a conscious being, as a powerful creator, as the designer of your destiny, the captain of your ship, your higher self. Is the value of a person. How many people they slept with, what they look like? And if the answer is no, well, then what is it? And you get to decide what is your value drawn from? What can it be? What is it? How are you with. If you have. With me, when I look at me with my kids, how am I with my kids? Was I engaged? Was I present? Was I patient or playful? If I was, I'm like, yeah, that feels good. And you can draw a sense of value from that. If you don't have kids. Like, how do you show up? How did you show up? Like, what do you value? What's important to you? Is it courageous? Is it humor? Is it honesty? Is it boldness? Is it playfulness? You get to decide the games that you play. You don't have to play the get big muscles game to try to be worthy or to get thin game to be worthy. You can play the I'm just. I really enjoy being kind of quirky and making weird, funny art. And you can, if you value that, and then therefore, you can derive value from that. Now, ultimately, that's not your only source of value. Ultimately, there's. That's still dealing in a proxy currency of what is so. Because what is so is your value is not dependent upon your muscles or how many people you slept with. And it's also not dependent upon the weird art you create and the roles that you play as a dad, as a mom, as a husband, as a son, as an employee. Whatever the roles you play, it's ultimately, it's from something even bigger than that. And your worth is. It's like in the beating pulse of your heart that's connected with the planet. But the mind is like, what the hell are you talking about? So for now, let's stick with drawing your worth from stuff that's on your terms. Your values. So what are they for you? You can put them down in the comments below. I'm curious, but this is the time that you decide. You claim it. No one else can do this for you. And you can live perpetually in inferiority for the rest of your life and die not enough. And that's not even freaking real. That's just some perspective, some story, some tortured reality that you lived in. And you can choose. You can choose right now to say, no, I'm going to decide. I'm going to figure out what I value. And then when you do and say, look at that guy. You know, he makes a lot of money, you say, oh, good for him. Maybe I can learn some tips from him. Right? But it doesn't have that same heaviness to it. Beautiful. So share down in the comments below what you value, how you derive that value. Until we speak again, we have the courage to be who you are and to know on a deep level that you are awesome.
