Do you want to know the purpose of this life? Are you intrigued to find that elusive meaning in your daily life? If these are the questions which do not let you sleep at night, then your worries end today.
Today we will discuss the book 12 Rules for Life, which Jordan Peterson writes. This is an exciting book in equal parts covering essential topics for philosophy, psychology, and self-help.
The author gives necessary suggestions to develop our life. The book will help us understand the meaning and purpose of our life so that we can succeed by taking ourselves in the right direction. So let’s understand all these 12 rules one by one.
Rule 1: Stand with your shoulders straight
You are standing with your shoulders straight means opening yourself up to the world. Meaning keeps your head up and shoulders back and feel brave like a soldier. Psychology has long recognized that good posture helps create a good state of mind.
Standing straight with our shoulders around is accepting the responsibility of our life. Good posture helps us to live with the courage we want to live with. The author says that the stance of people with good character Often is good because character plays a vital role in our life, so start making good posters from now on. Do not bow down without reason; try to say what you want.
Rule 2: Treat yourself as if you are responsible for helping someone
In this, the author tells us about the law of the Bible that “Love your neighbor as yourself.” He explains that this order is as vital for caring for our neighbors as it is for caring for ourselves. That’s why many of us are much better off helping others than helping ourselves.
For example, if you are asked to care for a sick animal, most of us will, in our sensibility, take care of it according to a protocol designed for us. The animal will be taken to the animal doctor only. I will be there and do everything possible to look after the needs of the animals. But when it comes to their needs, do many people need to be more attentive?
Studies show that 20 or 30% of treatment regimens are never followed, and 50% of medicines prescribed to people with chronic diseases should be taken as prescribed. The author says about this that we all deserve a respected lifestyle. You are as important to yourself as you are to others. So take care of yourself and others because it is your moral responsibility.
Rule 3: Make friends with people who want the best for you
In this, the author tells about the incredible power of friendship responsible for good or evil in our lives. Being good friends means more than just those with whom we can do funny things.
Good friends sometimes support, encourage, and even make fun of us, but they try to do us good with their behavior. In this way, good friends are those people who help us to improve our abilities and allow us to be a better version of ourselves.
Many people knowingly or unknowingly keep making wrong friends continuously; sometimes, when people consider their values low, they make such friends who do not only mean friendship. Whereas its opposite, friendship means fun and support.
Therefore, make sure that you keep friendships with such people only. This is a good thing, and there is no selfish thing in it that you only make friends with people who are good for you; you get to learn something from them. Because such friends will not let you fall apart when you are weak and will always help you to keep moving forward
Rule 4: Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not who you are today
Because of our society and education system, many of us have habitually compared from the beginning. When we are very young, we start looking to our peers or competitors to know our standards for success and failure.
With this, the problem is that comparison with others prompts us to see his goodness, so we often start considering ourselves less; in this way, the comparison begins making us weak.
Comparison becomes a big problem when you start thinking that people will be better people than you. By comparing your yesterday, you motivate yourself to be better today, which gives you the real benefit. So instead of comparing yourself to someone else, do it yourself. For this, the author tells some essential ways to implement them in your life:
- Recognize your strengths and weaknesses.
- Today, focus on removing one of yesterday’s shortcomings and increasing one good.
- With this, you will start comparing yourself and eventually move towards your goal quickly by becoming better.
Rule 5: Don’t let your kids do anything that you dislike about them
This rule is about parenting. This chapter is the most shocking chapter of this book because the author tells many such things that have been restricted in North America today. For example, any parent is prohibited from physically hurting their child and forbids mothers who disrespect their teenage child from doing so.
He talks about good parenting as well as bad parenting. Good parenting means that both partners raise the child, and in lousy parenting, one partner puts full responsibility for raising the child on the other partner. He suggests such people do good parenting so that the parenting of people who contribute positively to society can be done well.
The authors encourage the parents to be disciplined so that they teach children to behave well in discipline. Apart from this, he says that parents must be kind, caring.
That’s why all parents should understand that if you disrespect your children in front of others, others will also try to treat them in a way you may not like. So try to be a good friend and teacher and be just a parent to your kids.
Rule 6: Set up your house in the correct order before you criticize the world
The author explains in Chapter 6 that “life is tough for some people”. There is a lot wrong in the world, but at the same time, everything is fine. The writer explains that all the great people tried to improve themselves and give something good to the world despite the challenges to make their life essential and focused on moving towards their goals by crossing them. So we must do the same to become like that. For this, follow these important tips:
- Take responsibility for your work
- And Replace your destructive habits with helpful habits at work
- Stop doing the work that you feel is wrong from now on and do good work, whether it is a small good deed or a big one
Rule 7: Follow what is meaningful
In this chapter, the author says that to cope with suffering, we often look for the easiest way to “find the way to happiness”, sometimes this path is correct, but sometimes, it is wrong. Therefore, in such situations, do what is right; by doing this, you feel inner happiness and satisfaction. With this, you can solve your problem by doing the right thing.
There is a way to achieve happiness, and any goal in life is sacrifice. Sacrifice improves the future, so do not be afraid to sacrifice the enjoyment of others and necessary for your purpose. Because even though starting the right things may seem complicated, they make life very happy and easy.
Rule 8: Tell the truth – or, at least, don’t lie
This chapter begins while studying clinical psychology at the author’s school when a young patient asked him a question he did not want to answer.
Because it could hurt the patient’s feelings, the author did not want to lie, and telling the truth could make the patient sad, so he thought of a way and told as much truth as was necessary, then started talking about his goodness. This also answered the patient and the writer spoke his point truthfully.
Most people tell small lies to themselves at times. And, most of the time, we don’t realize or admit we’re doing it. But the worst lie is the one we tell ourselves but don’t accept. Because dishonesty is very harmful to us and others. When we lie, we are unknowingly making our character weak.
So to make your character strong, first of all, recognize, accept, and start speaking the truth. Start it with yourself. Because we listen to ourselves more than listen to someone else, we talk to ourselves, so we tell fewer and fewer lies and always try to speak the truth.
Rule 9: Assume that the person you’re listening to may know something you don’t
In this, the author explains the critical difference between the actual conversation. A good conversation is when you have a two-way conversation while talking to another, use expressions, and at the same time try to listen and understand the other person.
To run any good relationship, it is necessary, to be honest with heart and behavior, so use this method to make your point valuable among others.
Apart from this, as we know that everyone has their thinking and, attitude, purposes, in such a situation, we should understand them and think about ways to move forward together. By doing this, you will be able to know, learn something new from everyone, and it will also help build good relations with others.
In such discussions where both people are ready to speak and listen, they can communicate their thoughts well to each other.
Good communication is an excellent technique for building a better life and good relationships with others. The beginning starts with words, so if you can talk to someone openly, you can explain your thoughts to them very well.
Rule 10: Be precise in your speech
In this chapter, the author talks about communicating well with focus. Inspire us to be aware of our perceptions and circumstances. We hardly understand the whole situation in any situation at all times; in fact, we know only those who experience it with their senses.
We always try to decide the value of things and people around us. Even our favorite thing does not mean anything to us when we are not in a good situation.
But despite this, we should keep hope and find something possible in every situation because even adverse conditions can sometimes prove to be an excellent opportunity to make some new and good path in our life.
Therefore, when facing a crisis of despair, we should focus on positive and valuable things while avoiding negative things. So be confident and face everything.
Rule 11: Do not disturb children while skate-boarding
Peterson begins with the story of a town where the administration removed skateboarders from where they skated. Peterson believes that discrimination creates a problem somewhere in our world. The rules made in every culture were made only for the benefit of the people, so by eliminating the rules based on gender or caste issues, equality rules should be made which give priority to ability.
Because the regulations made by gender or caste do injustice, no matter who is with them. He further explains that seeing is necessary for someone’s strength to be guessed suddenly because by competing, you can decide how powerful someone is and how he can benefit us.
Rule 12: When you meet a cat on the street, pet it
Try to do something good every day, at least three things a day. Whether it is feeding a cat on the street, nurturing it, supporting someone in your staff in the office, or doing something to make a family member feel better. This will give you internal satisfaction, and thus you will improve daily.
Conclusion
So friends, in the book “12 Rules for Life”, you understood how the minor things in our life affect our lives, which help to make your life good and evil. With the help of the book, you must have come to know about the vital meaning and purpose of your life.
Now by adopting these 12 rules in your life, you can help yourself to be happy and move forward. You do not have to depend on anyone; you can confidently put your point of view in front of everyone. Will be able to decide his good and evil. Now include these 12 rules in your life to start a good life.
12 Rules for Life Book Review
“12 Rules for Life” is an inspirational book in which Jordan Peterson explores the concepts of personal development, life’s purpose, the significance of relationships, and contributions to society through 12 essential rules.
His experiences and profound insights inspire readers to improve themselves. The book employs his discipline, precise articulation, and personal examples, which greatly assist in understanding needs and organizing one’s life.
If you wish to enhance your life, this book is a must-read.
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