Book Review: Twelve Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

Book Author: Jordan B. Peterson

There is something comfortable about the numerical nature of a set of rules. They are defined and they are also finite. It’s a comforting idea to think that you can take a finite set of rules and principles, apply to your life, and need no other compass or input.

Overall, I dislike rules being presented instead of a framework for creating your own rules. Better to understand evolutionary theory and create your own rules than copy pasting someone else’s. But still its interesting to see someone’s rules they’ve selected – they aren’t terrible.

Rule 1: Stand Tall with your Shoulders Back

Dominance hierarchies are as old as life. Your place in the hierarchy by default is reflected in your posture and your neurochemistry but it doesn’t half to.

There is no separation between your body and your brain. You are one holistic organism and your brain is cued by your body and vice versa. The way you move, emote, and behave impacts the way you feel and think. The way you feel and think drive how you walk, talk, and act… they are entangled.

There is a feedback loop here and we can literally hack our neurochemistry by adjusting our posture and moving our body to produce more useful emotional states.

There are empowering states and there are disempowering states. When you are feeling powerful, unafraid, courageous do you think you are more or less likely to overcome challenges? This is why it is so critical, in any situation, to start with state. This is something Tony Robbins spends quite a bit of time.

Wherever you are, there you go. This is your life and you are the master of it So, stand confident and proud. Stand tall, shoulders back, chest out, like you are the lord of the land. Take a deep breath and smile. Get your physiology activated to get your mind in a peak state.

Remember: state first and to get state, emote with your body. Stand proud.

Rule 2: Be Your Best Friend

Let’s be honest, if someone you respected showed up on your door with a problem, in tears, hurting, in pain–what would you do to console them? How would you support them? With love, kindness and empathy?

When you are hurting, struggling, failing, do you do the same? Are you supportive, kind, and loving to yourself? Or do you beat yourself up, curse yourself, rebel against your own tyranny? Do you feel guilty you aren’t working when you ‘should’ be? Do you reward yourself when you say you will? Or do you pile one more thing on top of yourself.

How do you treat yourself? I’m guessing if you are like me then you struggle to give yourself any slack but you freely give it to others. You encourage and cheer for them while you denigrate and boo yourself.

The author describes a somewhat convoluted, but somehow elegant story of Adam and Eve and basically knowing ourselves and all of our shames we find it hard to treat ourselves with respect. You know every failure and every screw up and you remember because let’s face it, the human mind likes to focus on the negative. It’s easy to remember.

But remember if you are going to hate on the bad, you have to love on the good.

Rule 3: You Are Your Peers

Be careful who you associate yourself with for you will soon become them.

Rule 4: Skip the Ratrace

Don’t compare yourself to others. Improve on your personal PR’s and live your own life.

The Rest of It

I stopped reading the book at this point. The ideas here are ideas I’ve heard elsewhere. This book is pretty good if you haven’t been exposed to these ideas before – recommend a skim before committing to an end to end read.