12 Rules for Life Summary

 

One-sentence Summary: Rules for Life is a self-help booklet for young people that outlines a basic set of rules that may help us become more disciplined, interact better, act with integrity, and balance our lives while we enjoy them as much as we possibly can.

"One million copies sold" are four words that every writer hopes to hear at least once in their career. However, four months after the release of your second book, you would not really hope to hear them. But then, "12 Rules for Life" by Jordan Peterson is more than a book. It was a long process for Peterson to put together the blueprint for a happy life in his first book. Although the book failed to sell more than 500 copies, but his second book was a huge success.

Peterson's "12 Rules For Life" has taken the world by storm since its release in January of 2018 and its accompanying global tour. Peterson's Patreon page raked up more than $60,000 a month in contributions, and he has sold more than one million copies of his books.

Only time will tell whether he's just hit on a nerve at the perfect moment, or if the tens of thousands of individuals who have messaged him about how the book has altered their lives are correct. To begin, let's have a look at three of his twelve rules:

1. In order to point out that the street outside your front door is unclean, you need to first clean the area in front of your own entrance.

2. Take care of yourself as you would a child in your care.

3. Do what is important, not what is convenient.

To understand why Peterson's book is so popular, it is necessary to comprehend these underlying principles. Let's get this party started!

Lesson #1: The first lesson is to accept responsibility for your own life before passing judgement on others.

Life is not fair. That's something we all learn in our own way. In different ways, some of us have been affected earlier, while others have been affected later, and others have been affected by horrific strikes. But gradually, we all come to terms with it. There are only four rational reactions to adversity that may be found in Leo Tolstoy's brief, philosophical work, "A Confession":

1. Cluelessness, like a youngster who refuses to accept the facts.

2. Excitement, as if on a hedonic treadmill with a drug user.

3. Suicide

4. Keeping on, no matter how hard things become.

While Tolstoy came to the same conclusion about the meaning of life as Peterson, he picked the final choice, which says a lot about their shared philosophy: no matter how unjust life becomes, you should never blame the world. If you think about it, someone has it worse than you. For example, consider Viktor Frankl.

Although the future may seem grim at times, you'll discover that the difficult times will pass if you concentrate on taking responsibility and keeping your own home in order.

Lesson #2: In the same way that you would care for a loved one, treat yourself well.

A prescription from your doctor may seem necessary, but have you ever questioned whether or not you really need it? Many individuals do it on a regular basis. According to Peterson, it's neither arrogant nor clever. Subversive self-punishment is the goal. So, we tend to care more about others than we do about ourselves because of that.

According to Peterson, our incapacity to cope with the absurdity of life is to blame for this. We, like Adam and Eve, indulge in our evil sides from time to time and believe that we deserve retribution for our transgressions. But, as is the way of life, we were all expelled from Eden. We all have both the light and the dark inside us. The two are inseparable.

As a result, his second guideline is to treat yourself like a loved one: do what is best for you, even if it doesn't always make you happy. This implies that instead of only pursuing happiness or success, we should seek a middle ground.

Lesson #3: Don't seek happiness via pleasure; instead, seek purpose through sacrifice.

There are several ways to balance your bright and dark sides. Even though you'd prefer to wake up and go to work, it may be necessary to remain in bed to become healthy. It may also mean working late on a Friday. Even though it seems to be a matter of choosing pleasure above significance, it is always a matter of sacrificing for the greater good.

In Peterson's view, this is an excellent coping technique since it keeps you from going overboard with pleasure or being so righteous that you go insane. All sacrifices are not created equal. Volunteering on a Saturday is more meaningful than working overtime to pay for a vacation, since it's for the greater good.

When you sacrifice, you're not giving up something, but rather delaying it until you gain something even greater, like a sense of completeness or satisfaction. Because of this, it's excellent for honing your self-control.

Peterson drew an example that I'll use to close. Initially, the lotus flower is completely submerged in the lake's murky depths. It takes time, but ultimately it bursts through the surface and into the light. Being a Lotus flower is not the best use of one's time, in my opinion.