He Wanted My Help - Dr Jordan Peterson on His Meeting With Cristiano Ronaldo

A weird thing happened about two weeks ago. I was on Instagram and something unpopped this picture. And it was you with a friend of mine, Cristiano Ronaldo, the football genius, greatest player to ever play the game as far as I'm concerned. And you'd been to see it, just privately. And he was saying how great it was that he'd met you and you'd gone there. And all hell broke loose. He was bombarded with people saying this is outrageous, legend over, legacy finished. None of which would have bothered him because he's heard all this kind of thing before. But the venom of it was from certain quarters was so pathetic, it seemed to me. So first of all, what were you doing with Cristiano? Why were you there? Well, he invited me to come and see him. And he had had some trouble in his life a few months ago. And a friend of his sent him some of my videos. And he said he had watched those. And then he read my book, one of my books, and found them very helpful. And he wanted to talk. So I went out to his house and we talked for about two hours. And he showed me all his equipment for keeping himself in tip-top condition. And we talked a bit about his companies. But mostly we talked about what he wanted in the future and some of the obstacles that he's facing while pursuing that. And so we had a strategic conversation, I would say, on those topics for about 90 minutes. Were you, in a way, were you the Ted Lasso figure in his life? Well, that's what it felt like. He didn't realise he was missing? Yeah. Well, I think maybe he did realise that he was missing it because he seemed to have found it to some degree in those lectures. And I always like to hear not only what people are up to, but what they want. And one of the things I loved about my clinical practice, which was very much predicated on this, like, well, you're miserable, let's say. And not to say that he was, because he has a good life in many ways. But if you could envision a path forward out of your misery, let's say, to somewhere better, what would that look like? And it's not a question people ask themselves with enough depth. And then having developed that vision, what are the strategies that might be put in place to make that more likely? And again, not in a manipulative way, but if you had to conduct yourself in the proper manner to bring about this desirable end, or at least to move towards it, how would you organise your behaviour? When someone like Cristiano, who, you know, we know what the personal problem was, he'd lost a baby and his partner was incredibly sad for him. And professionally, after that, a lot of turmoil as to whether he was going to stay at his club and so on and so on. It seemed to me, talking to him in the last couple of days, after he saw you, he's in a much better place, actually. That's what happens when you hang out with a reprobate like me. Yes, but really interesting to me, so you got, and you and he both got criticised for just seeing each other. But actually, it was clearly very helpful to him. Well, I hope so. That would be lovely if it was true. It's a weird position, isn't it? There's you, Dr Jordan Peterson, this guy that comes out of Canada, lecturing students, and then you're at the home of the greatest football player of all time, and you're genuinely helping him. I mean, Ronaldo is known as one of the most mentally strong athletes has ever been, not just physically, but mentally strong. And yet, he needed someone like you to help him. I find that really fascinating. Well, I don't know if he needed me, because he's a pretty competent guy, but, you know, you can always, and this is something that very competent people do, you can always improve on the edge, you know? And so, his life is very well put together, and he had some trouble, but people do, but we talked a lot about what he wanted, how he wanted his career to end, in the most graceful possible manner, and how that might be optimised, and so... I hope you told him to sign for Arsenal in the January transfer window, did you, Jordan? No, I didn't give him, I don't give, I try not to give people advice. I mean, I'm curious on that, because he's obviously reaching, not the end of his career, by any means, he's still a world-class player, and he's incredibly fit, so he could play for another three, four years, perhaps. But what is an end game for someone who's achieved everything in the game? Yeah, well, that's a good question. It's hard for people who have had a stellar career, especially one that's, to some degree, predicated on youth, to figure out what to do with the rest of their life. He's well set up, because he's a very canny businessman, and he has a young family, and he has lots of friends, and as far as I can tell on that front, he's situated himself extremely intelligently. So I think, it looks to me like the transition for him is going to be quite smooth. But that's a testament to his wisdom, because he made sure that his life was founded on more than one dimension of attainment, and that was very wise, and everyone should do that. Does it make you feel good that even people like him can find great solace from watching your lectures? Well, all that makes me feel good. I mean, I do think that this is part of the reason I keep going on these lecture tours, is that it seems to be doing people good.