665 Jordan Peterson on Pain and Suffering

Jul 11, 2018

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Jordan B Peterson

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ANECDOTE

Watching His Daughter Endure Years Of Debilitating Pain

Jordan Peterson recounts his daughter's years of severe illness with joint deterioration and months of daily, excruciating pain that required high-dose opiates.
He describes two joint replacements (hip and ankle), sedation effects, and a two-year period of relentless suffering that nearly broke the family.

ADVICE

Shrink Your Time Frame During Catastrophe

When catastrophe overwhelms you, shrink your time frame to manageable units like the next hour, day, or week instead of planning years ahead.
Peterson says this approach lets you focus on making the immediate next period as tolerable as possible during prolonged crises.

ANECDOTE

Family Stability Carried Them Through

Peterson credits family resilience: his marriage and relationship with his son were solid before the crisis, which helped them cope.
His son grew into responsibility, stayed home more, and supported his sister, reducing additional family stress during the ordeal.

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“When you love someone, you not only love them despite their fragility: but also because of it.”
One of the hardest things you have to deal with in life is watching someone close to you suffer from an illness. Especially if you’re a parent.
Although I’ve never had the experience of seeing my child suffer, I’ve had close loved ones go through the pain.
It’s this time in life that either makes or breaks you. You have to be strong, not just for you, but also for them.
That doesn’t mean you should discourage their vulnerability. You still need to embrace it, and there is a delicate balance in doing so.
It’s also important to be there to support them and let them know that they are not a victim. They are still as strong as they want to be.
If they fall into that victim mentality, it’s game over. They begin to lose their character in their illness.
To dive into this more, I brought back Dr. Jordan Peterson.
This is part two of my interview with Dr. Peterson. If you missed the last episode, go back and listen.
In this part of my interview, Jordan dove into what it was like watching his child suffer with an debilitating illness.
He talks about the lessons he learned as a professional, as well as a father.
We discuss how his entire family was affected, and how he was able to teach is daughter to stay strong and vulnerable.
This is a powerful episode, and you need to listen to it because there are valuable lesson you will need to use one day.
Learn how you can avoid the victim mentality when an illness hits, on Episode 665.
Some Questions I Ask:
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome? (5:16)
How does mapping out your time play into the self authoring program? (9:09)
Did your daughter feel responsible for causing all of the pain? (13:18)
Is there anything that you wish you had done differently with your children? (21:22)
Did you ever doubt yourself, in terms of your ability? (26:56)
What’s your biggest fear now? (35:18)
In This Episode You Will Learn:
How to emotionally navigate seeing your child suffer (7:42)
How to focus on your career at the same time as dealing with a loved one’s illness (11:03)
What Jordan taught his daughter at an early age about her illness (16:06)
How Dr. Peterson feels about his daughter’s experience (23:48)
How his daughter’s health affected his career (30:27)
Dr. Peterson’s plan moving forward (40:22)

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