A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
by Benjamin J. Montoya, PhD
About the Author
Jordan B. Peterson, raised and toughened in the frigid wastelands of Northern Alberta, has flown a hammer-head roll in a carbon-fiber stunt-plane, explored an Arizona meteorite crater with astronauts, and built a Kwagu’l ceremonial bighouse on the upper floor of his Toronto home after being invited into and named by that Canadian First Nation. He’s taught mythology to lawyers, doctors, and business people, consulted for the UN Secretary General, helped his clinical clients manage depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, and schizophrenia, served as an adviser to senior partners of major Canadian law firms, and lectured extensively in North America and Europe. With his students and colleagues at Harvard and the University of Toronto, Dr. Peterson has published over a hundred scientific papers, transforming the modern understanding of personality, while his book Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief revolutionized the psychology of religion. The author lives in Toronto, ON.
Introduction
Do we really need more rules in life? Although the answer to this question may seem counterintuitive to much of what popular psychology teaches, the answer is yes. We need rules to live by to avoid chaos. The 12 rules mentioned in this book originally began on a website named Quora, and this author’s responses there had a multitude of views. The goal of this book is to present the much longer list in a concise 12 rules so that we can collectively flourish. Jordan Peterson is a masterful story-teller, and this book devotes much of its pages to stories that help bring more concreteness to what he is saying.
Table of Contents
Rule 1 Stand up straight with your shoulders back
Rule 2 Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping
Rule 3 Make friends with people who want the best for you
Rule 4 Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today
Rule 5 Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them
Rule 6 Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world
Rule 7 Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient)
Rule 8 Tell the truth—or, at least, don’t lie
Rule 9 Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t
Rule 10 Be precise in your speech
Rule 11 Do not bother children when they are skateboarding
Rule 12 Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street
Summary
Rule 1: Stand up straight with your shoulders back.
When we look at nature, we quickly begin to notice a pecking order. Even lobsters demonstrate some kind of rank-and-file among themselves. The top lobster will show dominance by fighting other lobsters, and female lobsters will be attracted to that individual. This happens through nature, including with humans. There is an order to society that we all know deep-down in ourselves. We all have some sense of where we fall within society.
Part of the problem is that we often physically demonstrate and live according to where we perceive ourselves to be. So, if someone knows they are at the bottom of society, they will tend to slouch, experience more pain, and live shorter lives. If someone knows they are at the top of society, they keep their shoulders back and tend to live longer lives. Just our posture alone can make a physiological difference within ourselves.
So, then, the choice is ours as to how we present ourselves to others and to our own selves. If we choose to stand up straight with our shoulders back, then our serotonin levels will flow plentifully and others around us will notice. Furthermore, if we follow other important life habits regarding sleep and food intake, we will also see other effects in our lives. But a big part of it all comes down to how we carry ourselves in regard to how we see ourselves in the rank of society, just like lobsters do. Standing up straight with our shoulders back helps us live to the fullest sense to let our lights shine to pursue our rightful destinies.
Rule 2: Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping.
People will go to great lengths to take care of a pet, like a dog. They will administer medication, take them on walks, and monitor their diet, but when it comes to themselves, they often do not have the same oversight of themselves. In fact, lots of people do not take care of themselves at all in any meaningful way. Why is that?
The reason goes back to an old story from one of the most foundational religious texts of all, the Bible. In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve sinned against God by doing what he had said not to; they listened to the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit. From that very moment, they felt shame from their nakedness. Because of what happened here, people have an innate self-disgust, self-contempt, shame, and self-consciousness. That is why children even from a young age know they need to be dressed so others do not see them naked. They feel these kinds of shameful feelings from an early age.
We each do not exist for only the benefit of ourselves. That is part of the reason why people closest to others around them are so impacted when someone commits suicide. Our lives and how we take care of ourselves impacts those around us—for better or worse. But to do that, we must think of ourselves with a higher regard than we currently do.
The second rule, then, is to treat yourself like you are someone worth helping, just like you would a child or a pet. We must each figure out where we are going so we can truly discipline and take care of ourselves. Our personal vision and direction in our lives are irresistible forces able to transform our lives. . . .
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