The Illusion of Being Right

A person grows enormously when they voluntarily choose to take on responsibility. Rather than pursuing things according to our desires,
it is when we willingly shoulder responsibility that we come to understand the meaning of life more clearly. The experience of shouldering responsibility enables an individual to shake off nihilism, and it also contributes to turning society into a better place.

In the lecture above, Jordan Peterson went on to say, "Pick up your burden. Make it as heavy as possible — and then, even a self that seems useless can feel the sense of accomplishment that comes from having done this."

Shouldering a burden, enduring the weight of life, accepting life's pain — all of these are far removed from the short pleasures we so easily reach for. This is not telling you to deliberately bring danger or difficulty upon yourself. It is simply saying: change your attitude toward difficult situations. In my case, my family has been going through financial difficulties ever since I was young. In that kind of situation, I sometimes complained and resented my parents. But those negative feelings were of no help to me, nor to society. After reading Jordan Peterson's books and listening to his lectures, I changed my thinking. That brought about the most dramatic change in my life.

Because the world is not a paradise in which every being is good and overflowing with love and compassion, if we orient our lives solely around happiness we inevitably collapse easily. But simply by knowing that evil exists, by being aware that life is pain and living with that awareness, we can shoulder our burdens with a kind of nobility. Let us try to reduce the suffering in the world.

Once you accept that life is pain, the countless pains that exist in the world will come into view. You will start to think about what you yourself can do to make society a better place. And you will first fully shoulder your own burden, and once you can bear it, you will then want to help shoulder society's burden as well. Just knowing and accepting that life is not happiness but pain — and that your own suffering and pain are only natural — is itself a great comfort. Life begins to change from the point where you accept, take responsibility for, and shoulder the pain of your own life.