Jocko Underground: Try Not Having an Opinion About EVERY FREAKIN THING.

This is the Jocko Underground podcast, number 87, sitting with Echo, Charles and me. My name is Jocko. Here's something that can help you. It can actually help you a lot in life.

Try not to have an opinion on every freaking thing. This is.

This is.

Just put this in your brain because so many people. And this is an easy trend to fall into. So many people have an opinion on everything.

They got an opinion on politics, they got an opinion on American politics. They got an opinion on foreign politics. They got an opinion on sports. They got an opinion on food. They got an opinion on diet, they got opinion on working out. They got opinion on everything. And I'm talking like a strong opinion that they're arguing with other people about.

What do you actually know about any of this stuff, right? What do you actually know? What do you actually know that you have this big opinion that you formulated, this big giant opinion. What do you actually know about that? Like, they have an opinion about all these things in the world, then they also have a big opinion about something going on at work. Now maybe they do know more about what's going on about work, but is it really, you know, this, this new plan at work, you got this big opinion about it. No one's tried it yet. The plan hasn't been executed. It's just an idea. And you have a big giant opinion about it, and it's letting you. Your opinion is affecting your emotions, it's affecting your attitude, it's affecting your mindset. So you have this big opinion about all these different things. And by the way, at work, you got an opinion about Fred.

Right? You've got an opinion about Fred.

And what he should do and what he shouldn't do and why he should do it or why he shouldn't have done it. You know, have a big opinion about that.

And by the way, Jessica, who's involved with Fred that we know about, you got a big. A big opinion on that, right? Because of course you do. Because you got to under. You're thinking about it, you think it matters. You think your opinion about Fred and Jessica and what they've got going on, you got a big opinion about that.

And for some reason at this juncture in time. And you know what? Maybe it's always been this way. I'm not sure, but it certainly seems like people are over opinionated right now. And here's what, here's the thing that you got to watch out for. The stronger opinion that you have, the less that you know.

I'll say that again in case you Missed it. The stronger opinion you have, the less you know. And by the way, if you're talking to me with your big opinion, I know that the bigger opinion you is the less you. The bigger opinion you have, the less you actually know about what you're talking about.

Because if you really know a lot, you realize there's nuances. If you really know a lot, you realize it's like someone that has a big opinion about a position in Jiu Jitsu.

When it's like, well, someone that actually knows a lot of Jiu jitsu goes, well, there's another way to do that. And there's another way. And there's thing that counters that. And you also got to be careful of this. And also in mma, it doesn't transfer very well. There's a whole a person that knows more in Jiu Jitsu and has a more open mind than someone that's a blue belt instructor, and they're like, no, you gotta do it this way. No, actually, that's not completely untrue. I mean, sorry, that's completely untrue. You don't need to do it that way. There's a point when someone in Jiu jitsu, as an instructor, there's a point when people start going, yeah, for me, this works well.

For other people. This is not a great move. There's a previous point, a less mature point, when it's like, this is the way you do the move.

That's a less knowledgeable person, Less opinion, more knowledge, more opinion, less knowledge.

So.

The more opinionated you are, the less you listen, the less you learn, the less you know. And by the way, the less time you spend arguing over stupid things, the more time you spend understanding them. What's better to understand something or to argue about it? It's better to increase your understanding of something, but you got a big opinion about everything, about things that are so complex and so complicated that there are people that study those subjects for their entire lives and they don't have them figured out. And yet you do. Because you watched a YouTube video or because you read two books on the subject. If you read four books on the subject, you're going to realize that, oh, the first two books that I read on that subject indicated this. Then the next book actually countered that, and the next one countered it even further.

So even the people that write books on this subject can't agree to what's correct and what's not correct.

But you do.

You.

You do, you know for a fact.

Because you want to have this big opinion because the big opinion makes you feel like you know something, when in fact you don't. And, and you end up in dug dumb arguments and you end up saying dumb things and you're not helping the team, you're not helping the mission, you're not helping your community, you're not helping your family. By the way, how? Well, when you, when you attack someone with your big opinion, how does that impact them? Does it make them say, oh thanks, you feel strongly about this? You must be right. No, they say you feel so strongly about this that you're blind to the facts or you're blind to this other perspective. That's what they think.

So instead of going into the world with this big giant opinion, which by the way, just as a reflection of your big giant ego, instead try, try consciously to actually not have a big giant opinion about everything.

Instead of saying, you know, I think or in my humble opinion, instead of saying that.

Say, you know, I've never really thought about that perspective before, try saying that.

Try saying that or try and say, you know, that's, that's out of the scope of my knowledge. But that's very interesting. Hadn't heard that before. Try saying that or try saying something as, as rare to leave the human mouth as I'm not sure or I don't know or I have no idea.

And if you can say those things, if you can say I'm not sure or I don't know, your mind will actually open up.

Your mind will actually open up and then you can learn and you can find areas of agreement and then you can have actual discussions with people, open minded discussions with people.

And that will allow you to become a better, more productive and more useful human being.

Instead of just.

A person with a big ego and a big opinion.

So there you go. Just a different way to approach things could be useful for you.

Obviously I'm not gonna sit here and say I'm never guilty of that scenario. However, though it is it, it sometimes can be one of those things, if not every time, one of those things where it's super easy when you see someone else doing this. Oh yeah, and you know, and it's also super easy for you to miss when you do it, you know, kind of a thing. But okay, that being said, it is one of those things. If you can kind of reflect on what yourself, you'll notice that there's going to be a big question mark as to like what, what are we trying to get out of this whole thing? And I know this scenario quite well. I think Because I run into it from time to time where it's. You can almost sense that the person is maybe trying to express how smart they are or express their knowledge, you know, and impress you kind of a thing. Like, I know this much and I'm in kind of. Sometimes it can come down to like, hey, I'm. I'm smarter than you. Like, that's kind of the underlying message, you know, I'm smarter than you.

But I don't think it ever can land like that, that, you know, like, oh, if someone's doing it to you, it's, it's unlikely you're going to end up with the idea like, oh, damn, you're, you're so smart. You know, when you have this huge, like, fired up opinion or whatever, it's more, you're probably going to leave the person with like, I sounds kind of ignorant, you know, like, you got all fired up. Brat's not even that serious, you know, kind of a thing. Like, none of us know about this stuff.

It's weird that you can develop such a strong opinion on things that are so unsure.

Yeah.

Like things that are. Things that are unknown.

Yeah.

Like I said, a real obvious example is like a plan to do something.

Yeah.

You know, like a mission or a project that you've got. And echo comes to me. So that is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko Underground podcast. So if you want to continue to listen, go to jockounderground.com and subscribe. And we're doing this. We're doing this to mitigate our reliance on external platforms so we are not subject to their control. And we are doing this so that we can support the Jocko podcast, we which will remain as is free for all as long as we can keep it that way. But we are doing this so we don't have to be under the control of sponsors. And we're doing it so we can give you.

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