It's time to let go and to sacrifice who you are for who you could become

 Jordan B Peterson. Who else?!

On the long drive back to STL I listened to JBP and the Abrahamic lectures. I really should know more about the Abraham stories, maybe someday between home repairs, a job, russian studies, running, and spending weekends with LA I'll find the time. Ha!

Anyway, the lectures centered around the idea of sacrifice. Thankfully I can find transcripts of these lectures because I couldn't paraphrase them well enough here. 

In the Abrahamic stories, one of the things that maintains Abraham’s covenant with God is his continual willingness to sacrifice. That sacrificial issue is so important: you are not committed to something unless you are willing to sacrifice for it. Commitment and sacrifice are the same thing. It borders on miraculous that those concepts are embedded into this narrative at the level of dramatic actions, instead of abstract explanation. People are acting this out. The fundamental conception is so profound; it’s quite awe-inspiring. It’s breathtaking, really, when you understand what message is trying to be conveyed. You have to make sacrifices. What do you have to sacrifice? You have to sacrifice that which is most valuable to you, currently, that’s stopping you. God only knows what that is—it’s certainly the worst of you. It’s certainly that. God only knows to what degree you’re in love with the worst of you.

Abraham sacrifices a life to his vow. So what do you do? Well, you don’t sacrifice an animal. You don’t make a blood sacrifice; you do it psychologically. You say, I’m going to sacrifice my life to this aim. That’s what you do, if you’re serious. What do I do next? Well, I’m going to sacrifice my life to this aim. What is it that I should do that’s worth sacrificing my life to? That’s a serious question. Maybe that’s the sort of question that people don’t ask, because they’re afraid of the seriousness of the question and the potential magnitude of the answer. Do you really want to know what you should do that would be worth sacrificing your life to? Well, the answer is yes, because it’s worth it. But the answer is also no, because it’s your life, you know? What if you’re wrong? And you’re probably wrong. But maybe that doesn’t matter. Maybe the rightness is in the process, and not in the decision. It’s the beginning of a sequence of decisions, as we’ve already pointed out.

I could copy quotes out all day, I don't have all day. I just have a few minutes here at work between other things going on. 

The point is - If I want to transform, if I want to make the changes I want to make, then I have to sacrifice a part of me. I need to sacrifice the time in Moria and the M and instead leave those comforts and habits behind to fix what needs to be fixed. Go for a walk or paint the wall or cut glass. 

It's all so clear when JBP says it. When I say it, it just sounds lame, haha.