40 Profound Life Rules from Dr Jordan B Peterson
A quick bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Peterson
"Jordan Bernt Peterson (born June 12, 1962) is a Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. His main areas of study are in abnormal, social, and personality psychology, with a particular interest in the psychology of religious and ideological belief, and the assessment and improvement of personality and performance."
Dr Peterson was asked on Quora:
“What are the most valuable things everyone should know?”
Here are his 40 maxims (many come from philosophical thought)
1 - Tell the truth.
2 - Do not do things that you hate.
3 - Act so that you can tell the truth about how you act.
4 - Pursue what is meaningful, not what is expedient.
5 - If you have to choose, be the one who does things, instead of the one who is seen to do things.
6 - Pay attention.
7 - Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you need to know. Listen to them hard enough so that they will share it with you.
8 - Plan and work diligently to maintain the romance in your relationships.
9 - Be careful who you share good news with.
10 - Be careful who you share bad news with.
11 - Make at least one thing better every single place you go.
12 - Imagine who you could be, and then aim single-mindedly at that.
13 - Do not allow yourself to become arrogant or resentful.
14 - Try to make one room in your house as beautiful as possible.
15 - Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.
16 - Work as hard as you possibly can on at least one thing and see what happens.
17 - If old memories still make you cry, write them down carefully and completely.
18 - Maintain your connections with people.
19 - Do not carelessly denigrate social institutions or artistic achievement.
20 - Treat yourself as if you were someone that you are responsible for helping.
21 - Ask someone to do you a small favour, so that he or she can ask you to do one in the future.
22 - Make friends with people who want the best for you.
23 - Do not try to rescue someone who does not want to be rescued, and be very careful about rescuing someone who does.
24 - Nothing well done is insignificant.
25 - Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.
26 - Dress like the person you want to be.
27 - Be precise in your speech.
28 - Stand up straight with your shoulders back.
29 - Don’t avoid something frightening if it stands in your way — and don’t do unnecessarily dangerous things.
30 - Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them.
31 - Do not transform your wife into a maid.
32 - Do not hide unwanted things in the fog.
33 - Notice that opportunity lurks where responsibility has been abdicated.
34 - Read something written by someone great.
35 - Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street.
36 - Do not bother children when they are skateboarding.
37 - Don’t let bullies get away with it.
38 - Write a letter to the government if you see something that needs fixing — and propose a solution.
39 - Remember that what you do not yet know is more important than what you already know.
40 - Be grateful in spite of your suffering.
There you are, 40 rules for life from a psychology professor with over 30 years in the field. Make of it what you will, but hopefully you get something out of it, as I certainly have.