Transcription
bestbookbids.com brings you the book summary of Beyond Order by Jordan Peterson. The companion volume to 12 Rules for Life offers further guidance on the perilous path of modern life.
In 12 Rules for Life, clinical psychologist and celebrated professor at Harvard and the University of Toronto, Dr. Jordan P. Peterson, helped millions of readers impose order on the chaos of their lives. Now, in this bold sequel, Peterson delivers 12 more life-saving principles for assisting the exhausting toll that our desire to order the world inevitably takes.
In a time when the human will increasingly impose itself over every sphere of life, from our social structures to our emotional states, Peterson warns that too much security is dangerous. What's more, he offers strategies for overcoming the cultural, scientific, and psychological forces causing us to tend toward tyranny, and teaches us how to rely instead on our instinct to find meaning and purpose, even and especially when we find ourselves powerless.
While chaos in excess threatens us with instability and anxiety, unchecked order can petrify us into submission. Beyond Order provides a call to balance these two fundamental principles of reality itself and guides us along the straight and narrow path that divides them.
About Jordan Peterson
Jordan Peterson is a Canadian YouTube personality, clinical psychologist, and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. He grew up in the wastelands of northern Alberta. He earned his PhD and post-doctorate in clinical psychology from McGill University before working as a professor at Harvard University.
Peterson's various TV appearances for commentary on personality, religion, and cultural Marxism have made him famous. More recently, in 2016, Peterson released a series of YouTube videos that criticized new discrimination laws based on gender identity. Based on these videos, he received significant media coverage, ranging from criticism to praise.
Peterson describes himself politically as a classic British liberal and traditionalist, so he supports individual liberty and maintaining tradition. That said, he doesn't align with a right-wing ideology, even though he is often miscategorized as right-wing.
Peterson has deeply experienced the world. He has flown a hammerhead roll in a carbon fiber stunt plane and explored an Arizona meteorite crater with astronauts. He's also taught mythology to lawyers, doctors, and business people. He has consulted for the UN Secretary-General and served as an advisor to senior partners of major Canadian law firms.
On with the Summary
Rule Number One: Do not carelessly denigrate social institutions or creative achievement.
Although Peterson describes himself politically as a British liberal, he is keen to point out that liberals need to remember that social institutions exist for a reason. The reason they are maintained over long periods is they are doing many things very well. That said, Peterson also offers advice to conservatives. Although social institutions are important, conservatives must also be open to new ideas and ways of thinking. We should not marginalize those who are seeking to improve and innovate how society has been doing things. The world will change, and you have to be ready to adapt. So, Peterson suggests the readers look at successful individuals and creative inventions as inspiration. All successful societies have a bottom-up hierarchy. This means you can have an impact on the world, but you must also accept the balance of society.
Rule Number Two: Imagine who you could be, and then aim single-mindedly at that.
Your mind has the potential to change your future self. Your mind has the potential to change your future self. Peterson describes imagination as the key to improving ourselves. The most successful individuals had to imagine something that had not been seen or done before. They challenged the social order and offered their chaos. So, encourage your imagination and use visualization to make these ideas a reality.
Rule Number Three: Do not hide unwanted things in the fog. Best to find out what is true. Best to disperse the fog, and best to find out if the sharp objects that were working there are real or fantastical. There's always the danger that some of them are real, but it is better to see them than to have them occluded by the fog, because it at least sometimes avoids the danger that you were willing to see.
Jordan Peterson. Peterson describes the fear we develop as we grow older. Many of us are nostalgic about our younger years when things were easier and trust had not yet been broken. As we grow older, many of us become scared of ourselves, others, and the world around us. Peterson describes the fog as a dark time in your life. We are afraid of not knowing what we want, or knowing exactly what we want but failing to acquire it. We're afraid that failure is the most likely outcome. Finally, Peterson highlights we are also afraid of defining failure. This is because if we then fail, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we were to blame. The outcome of these fears is we don't let ourselves know what we want. We are also afraid of letting other people know what we want. This is because, number one, we worry other people will tell us what we want, even though we want to remain ignorant. Number two, these people might decide to prevent us from getting what we want and need.
Peterson describes the fog that hides as a refusal to notice, attend to, and communicate emotions as they arise. To be successful, you must notice, attend to, and communicate to others the emotions you have regarding what you do and don't want. When you can do this, you and your loved ones will help you determine your purpose. This is particularly important because Peterson believes you cannot have happiness without purpose. You cannot have happiness without purpose.
Rule Number Four: Notice that opportunity works where responsibility has been abdicated.
Taking responsibility yourself offers you the chance to make advantages of areas where others have abdicated responsibility. That said, most people choose to abdicate responsibility. Most people choose to abdicate responsibility. Peterson uses the example of playing games. People tend to create more narrow restrictions than the game allows. This means they limit themselves and they are unable to explore all possibilities. So, try to break through this unusual order in your life and start taking more responsibility. This will create meaningful paths that encourage happiness.
Rule Number Five: Do not do what you hate.
Peterson believes that life is too short to be spending time doing what you hate. Although there will be times that you have to overcome challenges, you should not make it the active decision to deliberately do what you hate. Do not make the active decision to deliberately do what you hate. For example, you must find a career that you enjoy. Work takes up such a significant portion of your time that you should not do a job that you hate.
Rule Number Six: Abandon ideology.
This rule recommends moving away from strict ideologies. Although we should respect ideas that have stood the test of time, we should not follow them blindly. So, we should admire people and ideas, but also challenge them.
Rule Number Seven: Work as hard as you can on at least one thing and see what happens.
Peterson uses diamonds as a metaphor to explain the importance of working hard. When exposed to extreme heat and pressure, coal can be turned into diamonds. Diamonds become one of the hardest and most beautiful substances in the world. So, place yourself under pressure by working hard to see what the outcome is.
Rule Number Eight: Try to make one room in your home as beautiful as possible.
We think we bought our great paintings with luxuries, elaborate frames to glorify them, but we do it at least as much to insist to ourselves that the glory of the painting itself ends at the frame that bound in. That bordering leaves the world we are familiar with comfortably intact and unchanged. We do not want that beauty reaching past the limitations imposed on it and disturbing everything that is familiar.
Jordan Peterson. This rule builds on one of the fundamental features of Peterson's first book, 12 Rules for Life. In this first book, Peterson talks about how you must sort out your own house before helping others. A practical example of this is making sure your bedroom is clean before doing anything else. Peterson believes that making one room as beautiful as possible is not merely useful for aesthetic reasons. This room can actually act as motivation. He believes that beauty shows us how the world could be, but it isn't. So, this room can motivate you to go out into the world and create more beauty. Peterson also accepts that beauty can be scary. If we are summoned by beauty, this can further highlight our own imperfections. That said, having just one room in your home offers a balance where you don't feel overwhelmed, but are prompted to consider ways you and the world can improve.
Rule Number Nine: If old memories still upset you, write them down carefully and completely.
Memories can either upset you as a perpetrator or a victim. Either way, you should not let these memories impact on your life today. The best way of addressing these emotions is to write them down carefully and in lots of detail. You will then be in a better position to address these emotions and stop them from influencing your decisions.
Rule Number Ten: Plan and work diligently to maintain the romance in your relationship.
Most people rely on intuition and passion to maintain their relationships. These approaches will lack consistency and ultimately lead to an unhappy relationship. So, Peterson recommends identifying what you want and need from the relationship. This allows you to better communicate these needs to your partner. You must respond with seriousness if your partner isn't communicating with you effectively. You must also avoid being naive about the beauty of love carrying your relationship. Relationships require hard work, and you should act as if all-out effort at all times is essential for your relationship success. You should also divide the requirement of your household in a matter that you both find acceptable. So, do not subject your slavery, but also do not expect your partner to do more without repercussions.
Rule Number Eleven: Do not allow yourself to become resentful, deceitful, or arrogant.
Being a human guarantees that we experience uncertainty. Nature can hurt us in painful ways. Society and individuals' acts of evil can make us suffer. That said, this doesn't mean that we can't still be a good person, or that society can't be improved. If we all held back our resentment, deceit, and arrogance, the world would be an infinitely better place. The best way to defend yourself against these negative concepts is through diligence and continual purpose. Find purpose in your life and diligently reject resent, deceit, and arrogance.
Before we go on to the last rule, I just want to pause this summary and take a moment to say thank you for watching and listening to this summary. We've currently uploaded more than 700 free video, audio, and written book summaries at bestbookbits. Well, if you become a fan of us at bestbookbits.com, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and follow us on Spotify or wherever you listen to our podcast. You can also help keep best book bits financially live by checking out our products and services out in the links and show notes below, such as downloadable PDFs, subscribing to our email newsletter, consuming our courses, and joining in the Circle coaching program. Thanks again for being a fan, and on with the summary.
Last Rule: Rule Number Twelve: Be grateful in spite of your suffering.
We often love other people despite and because of their limitations. Peterson encourages readers to think of suffering in the same way. We can be thankful for our existence despite our suffering. We can be thankful for our existence despite our suffering, but we can also be thankful that our suffering makes our experiences of love, happiness, and trust even more special. Being grateful for your suffering can help you discover part of your antidote to the abyss and the darkness.
Final Summary
Beyond Order and Peterson's first book, 12 Rules for Life, act like King and Yang. 12 Rules for Life describes the importance of order in a chaotic world, but Beyond Order highlights that a bit of chaos is essential for innovation and positive change. Although the left needs to understand that our social institutions are tried and tested, the right needs to understand that creativity, change, and innovation are essential in a chaotic world. Peterson encourages us all to adopt this balance by following his 12 more rules for life.
To recap the rules:
1. Do not carelessly denigrate social institutions or creative achievement.
2. Imagine who you could be, and then aim single-mindedly at that.
3. Do not hide unwanted things in the fog.
4. Notice that opportunity works where responsibility has been abdicated.
5. Do not do what you hate.
6. Abandon ideology.
7. Work as hard as you can on at least one thing and see what happens.
8. Try to make one room in your home as beautiful as possible.
9. If old memories still upset you, write them down carefully and completely.
10. Plan and work diligently to maintain the romance in your relationship.
11. Do not allow yourself to become resentful, deceitful, or arrogant.
12. Be grateful in spite of your suffering.
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