Preface

I am going to tell you about a book named 12 rules for life that I read and enjoyed a lot. The author of this book is Jordan Peterson. This book was published in 2018. 

This book was liked by the people so much that 1 million copies were sold in 4 months. In this book, 12 rules are written to make our life better. Which I have implemented in my life. 

So those rules are:-

1}. Stand up straight with your shoulders back. 

2}. Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping.

3}. Make friends with people who want the best for you.

4}. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today. 

5}. Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them.

6}. Set your house in perfect order before you criticise the world.

7}. Pursue what is meaningful, not what is expedient.

8}. Tell the truth or at least don’t lie.

9}. Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t.

10}. Be precise in your speech. 

11}. Do not bother children when they are skateboarding.

12}. Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street.

These are the important 12 rules which are written in this book, now I will share the complete explanation of these 12 rules. 

1. Stand up straight with your shoulders back. 

You will fight the big problems of life and also win, again and again, and you will start living like a living person. And to do this, you have to first show confidence like a winning person. which is the best way to stand up straight with your shoulders back.

This simple thing will make you a positive and attractive person and will increase the serotonin level in your body. Which reduces the chances of getting many diseases.

So according to this first rule, always scream big like a winning lobster, by standing up straight with your shoulders back.

2. Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping.

Who do you love the most in your life? Maybe from your parents, then your life partner, your family, your children, your friends. The one you love the most in your life, you care about them most. 

Example One: If a child has any health problem, then his parents take him to the doctor to get medicines. If the doctor asked the child to stop eating outside, parents would not allow him to eat outside food, no matter how much he cries.

And in the same way, they take care of him by doing many things. Taking care of others is a great thing, but when it comes to your own, I’m sure you don’t give your health the same treatment.

Example Two: When parents have evening sickness, they do not take medicines and do not take care of themselves.

Why don’t they love themselves? 

The author says that our parents and we ourselves do not take care of ourselves, Because there is also a reason other than love, which does not motivate us to take action for ourselves.

The reason is that we do not consider ourselves responsible for our own selves. 

Parents think their children are their responsibility, similarly, children also take care of their old parents when they start understanding them as their responsibility.

But the problem is that we never take our own responsibility, which is very wrong. Today many people eat bad things, don’t exercise, and waste their time on useless things.

Because somewhere they aren’t taking responsibility for their growth, which leaves them behind in life, Therefore the second rule is to Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping.

3. Make friends with people who want the best for you.

One boy thinks he will make a youtube channel he decides and start making videos with great effort first video second video and in the same way, he makes many videos.

Finally, his hard work starts paying off, his subscriber reaches 1000 from 0. He is very happy and to share his happiness he goes on social media to tell everyone, where he sees another boy who has started the channel long after him.

But he has 10 times more subscribers than him, now imagine how the boy would feel seeing this. 

Similarly, a boy learns some dance steps with great effort, and he feels very proud after learning but when he sees another boy on the internet at a younger age, who performs the same steps very well, now imagine how he feels about his dance comparison.  

Similar things might have happened to you when you have compared yourself with others. Therefore it is very necessary that we should stop comparing ourselves with others. 

4. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today. 

After becoming mature, you must come to know how you can solve your problems. Everyone has their own personal problems. 

If you are able to satisfy someone else while doing some work and you yourself are not satisfied while doing the same work, accept that thing.

Sometimes we do things to prove to others. But before doing those things, we must think about whether that work is suitable for us or not.

If the work you are doing is not matching with your desire and passion then you should think why am I doing this work? Before doing any work, you should think if this work will satisfy me.

You can never progress in a work in which you are not interested. Until you are completely sure that you want to do any work, do not do that work.

Keep your life in front of you and see what you are doing wrong, and where the problem is. Somewhere you are doing any such work from which you are not satisfied?

So you ask yourself how I can come out of this. By doing this, even the biggest problem can be solved.

5. Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them.

Children are very sensitive so It is your responsibility as a parent to take care of your child’s character.

Peterson says that you should not let your child do those things due to which you start not liking those things. There is a lot of focus on the learning of children.

Paterson has given 3 principles for the discipline of parents. 

1}. Not so many rules for kids.

2}. Don’t push rules on kids. 

3}. Parents’ duty is to mould kids so that society will like them.

1. Not so many rules for kids.

We should keep the rules limited for the children, we should not impose too many rules on them.

Because if we impose more rules on them then they will not follow those rules. They will start getting angry, they will start teasing you, and will not listen to you.

Therefore, only as many rules should be imposed on them as is necessary for them.

2. Don’t push rules on kids.

You should at least force them to enforce the rules. If you do this, then the children will feel that you are forcing them. You should tell the importance of those rules, and you should explain them to children with ease and love.

3. Parents’ duty is to mould kids so that society will like them.

It is the responsibility of the parents to make the child like society. Your children will learn from you what they hear and see.

If you are fighting in front of your children, then your children will learn by watching you, they will also go out and fight with other children.

It is the responsibility of the parents to teach their children what is good or bad.

6. Set your house in perfect order before you criticise the world.

Peterson believes that it is more important to make your home perfect before criticising the world. You have to drop the things which you think are wrong. 

We cannot rule anywhere else without bringing peace to our home. Before saying anything to others, you should look at yourself, look at your home.

For example: Suppose there is a fight in your neighbourhood, you go there and try to resolve the dispute and those people are not listening to you. Because they will say that the disputes in your own house are not resolved, how will you resolve our problem?

Before blaming others, we should see that if there is any deficiency in you, you might have made such a mistake sometimes.

7. Pursue what is meaningful, not what is expedient.

Make your life meaningful, life should be such that it has some meaning. Peterson says that this is the difference between successful and unsuccessful people.

Successful people reach their goals by sacrificing a lot in their life. We should never be proud of our knowledge, that we have more knowledge than you.

Having the meaning of living your life is more important than what you want in life.

Instead of having fun at the moment, think about your future and your whole life. And look at what your passion is, and where you live. What is your truth? And start following that.

Ask yourself what you can do to make this world a better place. And what do you have to do today that will work for you in the future? Make your life meaningful and not a joke. You find your life purpose, And try your best to complete it.

8. Tell the truth or at least don’t lie.

You will get two options step by step in your life. Truth and lies, you can either survive for some time by lying or tell the truth and see what will happen next. 

Most of us prefer to lie, but by doing so, we start making our character weak. Because we are hiding our truth.

Peterson does not believe that we cannot survive long by lying. Our lie will definitely come in front of someone at some point, our lie will definitely be caught at some point or the other.

Lies never last long in front of others, for once a lie will save you but not for long.

That’s why we should always speak the truth. The truth will hurt us but it does not harm us, it is the right thing for us.

9. Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t.

When you engage in a genuine conversation, you are on an adventure and you have no idea what you will get to explore. 

And the important part of this type of conversation is not to listen and understand the other person’s point of view. We can understand and learn from others only by listening to them.

While talking to someone, do not judge them ahead of time, listen to them completely and understand the whole way.

We have to talk to others to understand them, and you will understand that only when you listen to them. If you interrupt them in the middle of their conversation, then they feel that you have no interest in talking to them.

First listen to their words, even if they are saying wrong, then you present your thoughts in front of them. Always think that the person in front of you knows more than you, and you have to learn something from them today.

Then your interest will be in them and you will be able to connect with them well. We always get to learn something from others, it depends on us how soon we recognize it.

If we keep this thought process in our mind then we will be able to connect with others easily.

10. Be precise in your speech.

Whenever many people talk among themselves, it is very important to make sure that what you are saying is straight on point. And your argument should be very clear.

For Example: While doing it in front of anyone, don’t say what they had done before or how bad that person is. Rather, reaching directly to the root of the problem with help of that solution can also be found.

It is very important for our brain to understand the root of the problem and till we do not understand it, we keep getting anxiety. 

We should never argue because an argument is not a solution to any problem, rather it makes the problem worse.

We should try to stay away from the argument and even if such a situation comes, then we should speak our words in front of them in a complete manner.

If our words are correct, then the person in front will understand them.

11. Do not bother children when they are skateboarding.

The authors say that risk, encouragement, and excitement are related to each other. When we are excited and encouraged about something, then we definitely do that work, regardless of its consequences.

Whenever we do some challenging work, we feel more powerful than before and are ready for new experiences.

If you want to do something that you have never done before and you are very excited about that thing, then you will definitely do that work. Try to do things that will help you overcome your fear.

You may know something about yourself that you didn’t know before.

Athletes already know that if they do not give their best performance in the first place, they may not get a chance again.

While giving his performance, his entire focus is just on the action, at that time he does not think about any kind of logic.

Unless you fully utilise your power and face your life challenges, Till then you will never know how powerful you are.

12. Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street.

Sometimes a small good deed can make us feel better.

For example: Feeding a dog or a kitten on the side of the road and playing with it makes you feel good.

In this book, the author tells about a cat named Ginger who used to live near his house. And she was very beautiful and very friendly, whenever someone called her, she used to wag her tail loudly.

We feel happy by feeding a poor person and by playing with children, giving them things of their choice, which makes children happy, we are also happy to see them. 

Whenever you spend time with your life partner or family, then you feel good. You don’t have to wait for happiness to come in your life but you have to design happiness in your life.

When you live your life like this then you realise how good life is. And we can make our life happy by enjoying these small moments. 

To conclude

In this book, the author has mentioned these 12 rules for life. Apply these rules to your life to make it more happy and worthy. It tells us to set simple principles that can help us become more disciplined, behave better, act with integrity, and balance our lives while enjoying them as much as we can.If you also liked this book, then you should also suggest it to your friends and relatives, they can also get to learn something from this book.