Jordan Peterson's Best Lessons
Going over the greatest lessons Jordan Peterson has ever taught me
Right around the time my ex-wife left me, I stumbled onto a speech by a former psychology professor from the University of Harvard. They say that God puts people in your life at exactly the time that you need them and that's how I felt about Jordan Peterson. Although he became widely known for his controversial stance on transgender pronoun laws, he is also famous for the amount of help his speeches have been for young men my age. His words were so powerful that I had to go out and buy his book 12 Rules For Life immediately. So, for the sake of sharing his lessons with others who may need them, these are the greatest things I learned from Jordan Peterson.
Stand Up Straight With Your Shoulders Back
Literally the title of the first chapter to his book 12 Rules for Life, there is something about standing up straight with your shoulders back that seems so simple, it almost feels like it was obvious. The very action is far more powerful than one would initially believe. Standing up straight improves one's confidence, pride, and it's nearly always an effective method if you're trying to make a good first impression. It may be hard for you to believe that such a simple change can have such a drastic effect on how much confidence you have in yourself but it's true. When I finally got myself into the habit of standing up straight, I began to wake up every morning ready to take on the world.
Make Your Bed & Clean Your Room
Like standing up straight, making your bed & cleaning your room every morning doesn't seem like life-changing advice but it is. First of all, and I can't stress this enough, you should get into the habit of taking care of what you have if you're grateful for it. If you're trying to get your shit together and change your life, then you need to aim low enough to be able to do so. If your life goals are to bring change by improving the world, then how do you expect to accomplish that if you can't even keep your room clean. Whether your intentions are to improve your life or the entire world, both will require you to become efficient at creating order out of chaos. One of the best ways that you can begin to gain some momentum towards doing that is by making your bed and cleaning your room.
Pick Up Your Suffering
Pick up your suffering... and bear it, so that you can be a better person.
That is a direct quote from the first speech that I ever heard from Jordan Peterson. Pick up your suffering... That's what life is, it's suffering. Every single person who has ever lived has gone through their own suffering in one form or another. When you're going through tremendous amounts of suffering, there are two ways that you can deal with it. You can bear the weight of your suffering on your shoulders and soldier on so that you can reduce it or you can be resentful and let it ruin your life. It's impossible to know whether or not you will be able to reduce your suffering but one thing you can count on is that no matter how bad your suffering may be, life will go on. If you can make the amount of suffering in the world just a little bit less, then that would be a good thing.
The Pursuit Of Purpose Over Happiness
Out of all of the lessons that I've learned from listening to Jordan Peterson's speeches, this is the one that had the greatest impact. So many people hold on to the belief that they should be pursuing happiness. That concept has never made much sense to me... No matter how happy you might be on any given day, that happiness isn't permanent. There are going to be days in your life where it's impossible to be happy, like the day a parent dies or when a family member gets sick. If you're still happy during times like those then you have deeper issues than you might think. Thus it would be healthier for you to be in the pursuit of purpose. If you can find a reason to want to get out of bed every single morning, even on those days when you're just not happy, then you'll know that your life has meaning. It's far better, in my opinion, to always feel like you have a purpose than to always feel happy.
About the Creator
Carlos Guerra
Born on 09-07-95 in Miami, Florida.
Are you a fan of my work?
Follow me on Instagram @Carlos_War @Carlos_thewriter, DM me for requests/feedback
Writers & Readers need to stick together, if you enjoy my work, please subscribe 🧐🤔
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.