Brian Johnson argues that envy is the ulcer of the soul and that comparing yourself to others feeds unhappiness. He's 49 and once failed a major goal, which taught him that growth comes from following your own path, not measuring yourself against airbrushed versions of other people's lives.
Questions this video answers
49
June 10, 2023
Chapters
Quit comparing yourself to anybody. Envy is the ulcer of the soul. So if you want to kill your eudaimonic joy, constantly compare yourself to other people. Happy people don't do that. They just don't spend a lot of time thinking about other people in general. And when they do, they celebrate them. They look at it and say, well, Brian can do that. Maybe I can do that. And rather than negatively compare myself to them, I'm going to see them as a radiant exemplar. Now I have someone who has done the thing that I didn't think I can do, and if they can do it, I can do it. Then we come back to the fixed mindset, nonsense culture we have in which everyone is airbrushed and pretends like they were perfect and it was easy. Which is why I'm constantly telling you how imperfect I am and how hard it is to do what I do. You know, I'm 49 years old. Read the goal I set for myself years ago that I didn't hit. So what can I learn from that? How can I get a little bit better? And I would never have been in this position if I didn't have the wisdom, self mastery, love and courage and gratitude and hope and curiosity to follow my own path.
