FATHER OF PSYCHOLOGY, WILLIAM JAMES, MOST IMPORTANT VALUE
William James is one of the most important if not the most important psychologist of the 20th century. He is a pretty big deal pertaining human behaviour. You could say he was extremely successful as well, being the father of psychology. I read his story in “The subtle art of not giving a fuck” by Mark Manson, which is an amazing book by the way and I urge you 0to give a little bit of a fuck and go read it. Anyways William James was not born smart and successful, he had a pretty shitty life. He came from a wealthy family; great things were expected of him. During his childhood he got an eye disease which left him blind for a while, then he went to school, on which he was not pretty good. Then he found his passion, painting, not one picture was bought. His father the sent him to medical school, he went to a mad house and mentioned that he identified more with the patients than with the doctors (first hint) and so he failed. His father mocked him, his brother, a successful author wasn’t making things easy for William. During this time, he got a terrible disease of the stomach that could barely let him move, he got a bit better and decided to take a trip a trip to Latin America, however, this trip was not the nice trip you are imagining right now with beautiful beaches and a corona in one hand. This trip lasted months and was really dangerous, he made it, I don’t now know how but he did. When in America, he got sick again from some common disease of the jungle and almost died. This is starting to sound funny, bad luck William right. He then managed to return to England with his father, who lost all hope on the child. William was ready to commit suicide, but first, he made a promise: to kill himself only after a year of focusing on:
RESPONSABILITY
The value William wants you to have. He said that he was going to become responsible for everything that happens in his life for a year. This was just an experiment to see if anything about his life could be done, if not, suicide was always an option, and so he did and it changed his life, he became fully accountable for every tiny little matter about his situation and he became the father of psychology.
You cannot control the things that happen to you, but the ability to respond to challenge and fucked up situations always remains yours. There is no fault or feeling guilty with this, remember, guilt is past, responsibility is present.
