40 Maxims from Jordan Peterson

Canadian academic Jordan Peterson has written the bestseller, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos.  He is currently in Australia for a 3 city tour of thought-provoking presentations.  Love to hear impressions from anyone attending his March 16 Brisbane talk. Share in comments below. Does it blow the mind?

The points he highlights touch on universal wisdom.  What is most intriguing is how he draws from something you cannot put your finger on as well as that which you can. He is an individual with understanding of interconnections among disciplines, people and events and presents information in ways that prompt people to awaken and review their lives to find new meaning. 

In Quora, he was asked this question:

“What are the most valuable things everyone should know?”

Rather than answering long-hand, he got right to the point with 40 maxims.  They resonate with many people as truth though he says they also draw from his own research. Which ones stand out? Would you add any other rules you live by? 

Tell the truth. 
Do not do things that you hate. 
Act so that you can tell the truth about how you act. 
Pursue what is meaningful, not what is expedient.
If you have to choose, be the one who does things, instead of the one who is seen to do things.
Pay attention.
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.
Plan and work diligently to maintain the romance in your relationships. 
Be careful who you share good news with.
Be careful who you share bad news with.
Make at least one thing better every single place you go.
Imagine who you could be, and then aim single-mindedly at that. 
Do not allow yourself to become arrogant or resentful. 
Try to make one room in your house as beautiful as possible.
Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.
Work as hard as you possibly can on at least one thing and see what happens.
If old memories still make you cry, write them down carefully and completely.
Maintain your connections with people. 
Do not carelessly denigrate social institutions or artistic achievement. 
Treat yourself as if you were someone that you are responsible for helping.
Ask someone to do you a small favour, so that he or she can ask you to do one in the future.
Make friends with people who want the best for you.
Do not try to rescue someone who does not want to be rescued, and be very careful about rescuing someone who does. 
Nothing well done is insignificant.
Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.
Dress like the person you want to be.
Be precise in your speech.
Stand up straight with your shoulders back.
Don't avoid something frightening if it stands in your way -- and don't do unnecessarily dangerous things.
Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them.
Do not transform your wife into a maid.
Do not hide unwanted things in the fog.
Notice that opportunity lurks where responsibility has been abdicated.
Read something written by someone great.
Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street.
Do not bother children when they are skateboarding. 
Don't let bullies get away with it.
Write a letter to the government if you see something that needs fixing -- and propose a solution.
Remember that what you do not yet know is more important than what you already know.
Be grateful in spite of your suffering.

Timing speaks

Perfect timing is all there is. Everything flows like a river running downstream unless the mind gets in the way to stifle momentum. Allow yourself to feel the synchrony among all your life choices. Watch what happens as you only see connections, only allow yourself to think and feel that you are doing your best.  You no longer focus attention or thought energy anywhere else.

Notice how you allow time to speak to you. Notice that when you are grateful for the time you give yourself, and how you use time, that life gives you more reasons to feel gratitude.  As you detach from distractions, watch body, mind and perceived conditions. You no longer think or experience things you do not like.  You are always in the right place, right time.

As you respect and value yourself, its amazing how you recognize timing is always perfect. As you choose to see value in everyone, that is what you look for and see, and this is what they show you back. Allow yourself to see something lovable in every other person.  

Drop everything. Be in harmony. See through a lens of equality. Suddenly time is silent.  As you recall you are an unlimited being, its no longer relevant to focus on past or future.  From the moment you have no point of reference in time, you recognize what lives eternally.

"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." -Albert Einstein

Appreciate the little things

Whatever situations are unfolding in your life, you choose where to focus your attention.  You decide how to interpret your unique  experiences, whether you get something meaningful out of each stage of your life journey.  Notice the true nature of any restlessness you feel.  Why find anything wrong where you are, doing what you do? Be creative.  Love something about where you are now. 

Notice your conditioned ways of thinking.  Notice whether you focus on thoughts that trigger sadness, joy or evoke other emotions like anger and fear.  Notice when you focus on gratitude or allow discomfort or dissatisfaction to cloud your focus.

This said, you can always renew appreciation for 'the little things.'   This brings clarity. They may be people, aspects of nature or the environment, conditions or anything that uplifts your spirit. Notice whether you view the glass of life as half full, half empty, or as something else. What happens as you are kind to yourself and show kindness to others? The sun always shines.  You see, you take it with you wherever you go.

Take a few moments to reflect on little things that  bring joy.  What stands out? Share your perspective of 'the little things' that truly make life feel worthwhile.

"It is good to appreciate that life is now. Whatever it offers, little or much, life is now - this day - this hour."  - Charles Macomb Flandrau

"None of us has gotten where we are solely by pulling ourselves up from our own bootstraps. We got here because somebody bent down and helped us." - Thurgood Marshall

See through the barriers

As you grow aware of your own resistance, you begin imagine what it feels like to surrender.  If you ask yourself how, you are blocking the flow of what comes naturally.  The only barrier to being yourself is fear.  The degree to which you hold back from surrendering everything to love reveals the nature of your suffering.  See through the barriers.  Love is constant.  Only mental acceptance comes and goes.  Discover 365 Paths to Love now.  You have nothing to lose.  Allow what is to reveal itself. Nurture attitude of gratitude.

“For me, yoga is not just a workout – it’s about working on yourself.” - Mary Glover

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." -Rumi

Appreciation, gratitude & balance

When you appreciate, you recognize the nature of unconditional love and how allowing yourself to feel that increases the intangible value of an experience.  Appreciation is like the absence of doubt, fear, negativity, and all those things that have no relevance to the energy you are vibrating when you feel good.  Consider thoughts of fear do not cross the mind when your focus of attention is on the frequency of love.  You may sense selective awareness, as if the lens of love only sees mesages of love.  As you find the silver lining, see something good in others or in every situation, you appreciate or, make the most of where you are.  You know resistance cannot emerge in allowing.

Gratitude resonates a slightly different energy.  Gratitude is a feeling that emerges as part of the process of sensing accomplishment, like after you overcome an obstacle.  It is then you feel grateful to be where you are after hard work or struggle.  You may feel grateful to be alive after surviving an accident or health issue.  In this way, choosing to feel grateful brings balance.  It brings you from a state of fear back to the inner knowing of the love that is.  A spark of doubt still resides within you about the possibility of having to endure pain and suffering again.  You recall what unwavering acceptance feels like by feeling gratitude, but do not dwell there every moment. You falter slightly.