Tom Green is a 55-year-old businessman, husband, and father. He is the author of “.wit and wisdom” and frequently writes on topics such as happiness, family, spirituality, and friendship.

In 2006, actress Reese Witherspoon won an Oscar for her epic role in Walk the Line. In her acceptance speech, she summarized her thoughts about her career.

“I’m just trying to cherish and live a good life and do work that is meaningful to other people.”

The key word in the 2006 speech is substance. Witherspoon was named after forbes As the richest actress in the world with a net worth of $440 million. I think she has a good job and enough money to cherish for the rest of her life.

We humans have an amazing innate desire to create meaning and purpose in our lives. become important in some way. Each of us seeks our own path, our own way of imbuing our lives with some level of meaning. Like Reese Witherspoon, we're all just trying to do something important. It's a blessing and sometimes a curse. but why?

It's a blessing because trying to do something important can be an inspiration to create a huge amount of good. But if you spend your whole life accepting the wrong thing, it can become a curse. That embrace can prompt many wrong decisions.

You can see it in high school students as well. A burning desire to be known and to stand out from the crowd. That causes angry kids to do some really, really stupid things. (Well, the word “epic” isn't in the dictionary, but it should be.)

In any case, the desire to cherish something will never disappear. In fact, some people develop a desire to take time to cherish things, like throwing gasoline into a smoldering campfire. It can explode into a fiery hellish pursuit of money, power, influence, and fame. (More details in 60 seconds.)

In the years leading up to the French Revolution, France operated under a strict class system known as the Ancien Régime. Under this system, you are born into your social class and remain in that class forever. If your father was a commoner and a mason, you will always be a commoner and a mason.

Your expectations for life were low because your job and social status were fixed. I wasn't expected to play, take chances, or be very successful. Taking few risks means avoiding the personal shame of failure. The only way it would matter was to build something special that would outlast our time on Earth.

I often wonder if people were happier under that rigid social hierarchy. Sure, they were stuck hitting each other with stones, but they learned a valuable craft. Their dreams of becoming court jesters may have been dashed, but they knew from birth that it wouldn't come true. Sure, they struggled in a dead-end job with no chance of advancement, but imagine being happy in that job. Imagine yourself knowing that the last three generations of your family were involved in building a cathedral that will last for thousands of years, long after you are gone. Pretty cool, right?

I'm pretty sure today's youth might view this a little differently. Our children are filled with the message that they can do anything from the time they are born. In 1990, a famous “doctor” wrote a book on this topic.

Your head has a brain.

My foot is inside the shoe.

can be operated by oneself

You can choose any direction.

– Dr. Seuss, “Oh, the places you go!”

But despite this flexibility, our young people are more anxious and depressed than ever. Would they be better off if their future was predetermined? Maybe.

Message to today's youth: You can try a million different things and fail a million times. Each one is a lesson in learning what you don't want to do. But chasing after the wind can leave children adrift without tangible results. I lost everything that was truly important in my life.

Let's get back to the topic. Why are we all wired to live on the struggle bus and spend our lives trying to do something important? Because if you are important in this world, you most likely wield some level of power.

For example, Reese Witherspoon recently sold her fashion design company Draper James to a private equity firm for an undisclosed amount. The sale of Draper James comes two years after Mr. Witherspoon sold his hugely successful media company Hello Sunshine to Blackstone Private Equity for $900 million. That kind of success and power is more addictive than heroin.

Some people seek power to have more influence over their lives. That is healthy power. Others seek power to control others. It is often an unhealthy force.

Otherwise, how can you explain why two grumpy octogenarians are heading into a new showdown for the White House next year?

I have no disrespect for either of these men. We should be grateful that they are willing to serve (and we definitely would, even if we dislike one of them). So far, Father Time is undefeated on this planet, and both of these candidates are deep into the extension of their lives.

Was eating fried Snickers on a stick at the Iowa State Fair or pancakes at a diner in New Hampshire really what they envisioned during their final years on earth? I wrote more about this topic here. No, in reality, these men are probably not the healthy type and want to maintain or regain power.

The late Henry Kissinger gave us a unique perspective on power in 1973. When someone wonders out loud what the overweight, pasty former Secretary of State was doing with Hollywood actress Jill St. John under then-President Richard Nixon, he smiles wryly. I answered as follows. The ultimate aphrodisiac. ”

It makes you wonder if any of the power-seeking politicians in Washington, D.C., have real lives. Their spouses, children, beliefs, and pets are often props used to promote greater power. Their entire identity is built on a foundation of sand, not rock. It's all based on the power and influence they wield. Once you feel such power, you can imagine that it is very difficult to live without it. How tenuous that power feels in the quiet moments of their lives.

Once we taste its power, wildfires can explode and consume everything in their path. This is one reason why we often see former big-name politicians getting into trouble.

Once some people have had a taste of that power and influence, they will do almost anything to get it back. For example, four previous Illinois governors are in prison. Perhaps they were all trying to regain a sense of power. Everyone was trying to make it count…again.

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani was just handed a $148 million defamation judgment after a mother and daughter falsified ballots during the 2020 presidential election. Whether you agree with the verdict or not, like Icarus, he definitely flew too close to the sun.

For a man knighted by the Queen of England, such a graceful fall is a reminder that a life built on money, power, influence and fame is a fragile foundation. Foundations built of sand rather than rock. Surely there must be a better way in this life.

By putting all your eggs in one basket, you're betting the farm (and the chickens) that the eggs won't spoil somehow. It's a gentle reminder that everything on earth eventually rots or rusts. Especially money, power, influence, and fame all come to an end eventually.

As we enter a new year, it's a good time to reflect on what's important. Do you value money, power, influence, and fame? Are you clear on what really matters? Are you building your foundation on stone? If not, now is the perfect time to get stoned.

Dr. Jordan Petersen is a Canadian psychiatrist, speaker, and author of 12 Rules for Life: The Antidote to Chaos. The book quickly became a bestseller in multiple countries. Petersen shares unique and often controversial views on life and living. One example is the lengthy comparison between humans and lobsters. Strange, right? However, humans and lobsters have some unique characteristics.