My sister once asked me to write some life
advice down in a baby book to be given to her daughter when she grew up. Basically, I had to consider the question,
“What are the most valuable things everyone should know?” I thought about the mistakes I had made in my
life and came up with some advice such as “Don’t trust dentists,” and “Never
open a third bottle of wine.” Having had
a little more time to consider, I would like to add, “It may be very hard to
get anyone except your mum to read your short stories,” and “Never schedule an
English lesson with a university student at 9am (because they probably won’t turn
up).”
Recently I found someone who has put much
more thought into making rules for life.
A Canadian psychologist, Jordan Peterson, wrote a successful book
based on 12 of his rules for life. I
enjoyed reading it and found a longer list of rules for life he had posted on
the internet. I’d like to print a few of
them below. Which ones do you agree
with?
A selection of Jordan Peterson’s rules for
life:
Tell the truth.
Do not do things that you hate.
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 retain
the romance in your relationships.
Be careful who you share good news with.
Be careful who you share bad news with.
Compare yourself to who you were yesterday,
not to who someone else is today.
Work as hard as you can on at least one
thing and see what happens.
Maintain your connections with people.
Ask someone to do you a small favour
so that he or she can ask you to do one in the future.
Do not try to rescue someone who does not
want to be rescued, and be very careful about rescuing someone who does.
Do not let your children do anything that
makes you dislike them.
Do not transform your wife into a
maid.
Pet a cat when you encounter one on the
street.
Do not bother children when they are
skateboarding.
*
I wish I had known some of these things
earlier. I could have avoided a lot of
mistakes. I never would have bought that
maid’s costume for my wife’s birthday, for example.
Vocabulary:
to turn up – to appear; to attend
a psychologist – someone who studies the
human mind and human behaviour
to pursue – to try to get; to chase
expedient – convenient and practical in the
short-term
to assume – to suppose or think something,
without proof
diligently – with care and hard work
to retain – to keep
to do someone a favour – to do something
kind or helpful for someone
to transform something – to change the
nature of something
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