MAY 30, 2025

Key lessons from
12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson

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12 Rules for Life is a book by Jordan Peterson. It gives clear, actionable guidance for living with responsibility, resilience and meaning amid everyday chaos. 

“To stand up straight with your shoulders back is to accept the terrible responsibility of life, with eyes wide open. It means adopting the burden of self-conscious vulnerability.” 

Stand up straight

“Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping. People are better at filling and properly administering prescription medication to their pets than to themselves.”

Take care of yourself

“Make friends with people who want the best for you. We are not happy, technically speaking, unless we see ourselves progressing and the very idea of progression implies value.” 

Choose friends well

“Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today. You’re not everything you could be, and you know it.”

Focus on self-improvement

“Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them. Attend to the day, but aim at the highest good.”

Be a wise parent

“Set your house in perfect order before you criticise the world. Start to stop doing what you know to be wrong. Start stopping today.” 

Set your home in order

“Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient). Set your ambitions, even if you are uncertain about what they should be.”

Seek meaning in life

“Tell the truth – or, at least, don’t lie. If your life is not what it could be, try telling the truth. In Paradise, everyone speaks the truth.”

Speak the truth

“Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t. True thinking is rare - just like true listening. Thinking is listening to yourself. It’s difficult.”

Listen with humility

“Be precise in your speech. Say what you mean, so that you can find out what you mean. Act out what you say, so you can find out what happens.”

Be precise in speech

“If you stunt the heroic impulse, you shrink the individual. You weaken society. Risk allows us to develop strength, not safety.”

Embrace risk boldly

“If you pay careful attention, even on a bad day, you may be fortunate enough to be confronted with small opportunities of grace. Take them.”

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