Beyond Order is the sequel to Peterson’s international bestseller, 12 Rules for Life. In Beyond Order he provides 12 additional rules for living a happier, more fulfilling and successful life. While 12 Rules for Life offers an antidote to chaos, Beyond Order asks the reader to go further. Neither complete order nor complete chaos will bring you fulfillment. Thus, Peterson’s 12 rules in Beyond Order encourage readers to open themselves to the realm of the beyond. This is essential to adapting to an ever-changing world.
Lesson 1: Let the innovators inspire you
Although Peterson describes himself politically as a British liberal, he insists that liberals must remember that social institutions exist for a reason. The reason they are maintained over long periods of time is that they provide many benefits. At the same time, Peterson offers advice to conservatives. While social institutions are important, conservatives must be open to new ideas and ways of thinking. We must not marginalize those who seek to improve and innovate the way society works. The world will change, and we must be prepared to adapt.
Peterson therefore suggests that readers look to successful people and creative inventions for inspiration. All successful companies have a bottom-up hierarchy. This structure allows you to have an impact on the world, but only if you accept the balance of the society. Once you accept this balance, you must seek beneficial solutions. However, only those solutions to significant problems that can be repeated without getting worse with each repetition are viable.
Lesson 2: Imagination is the key to success
Your mind has the potential to change your future self. Peterson describes imagination as a key to self-improvement. The most successful individuals had visions of things no one had seen or done before. They defied the social order and offered their chaos. We are all part of nature and culture. Culturally, a fantastic story has the potential to inspire us with unparalleled motivation. This is why our imagination is an invaluable asset. It allows us to willingly face the unknowns of the world around us.
So encourage your imagination and use visualization to make these ideas a reality.
Lesson 3: Life can make us afraid to grow up.
Peterson describes the fear we develop as we get older. Many of us are nostalgic for our younger years, when things were easier and confidence was not yet broken. As we get older, many of us become afraid of ourselves, others and the world we live in. According to Peterson, the dark times in our lives are like a fog. We fear not knowing what we want or knowing exactly what we want but not being able to get it. We fear that failure is the most likely outcome. Finally, we are often terrified to define failure. Indeed, when we fail, we know without a doubt that it is our fault. The result of these fears is that we do not let ourselves understand what we want.
In addition, we are afraid to let others know what we want. This is because:
- We fear that others will tell us what we want, even though we would like to remain ignorant.
- These people might decide to prevent us from fulfilling our wishes.
According to Peterson, people tend to hide the things they don’t like in what is called fog. This fog is the refusal to consider emotions when they emerge, and the inability to communicate them to oneself and those around us. To be successful, you must be able to notice and communicate your emotions about the things you want and don’t want to do. If you can do this, you and those around you are able to help you determine your purpose. This is especially important because Peterson believes that there can be no happiness without purpose.
Once you have defined your goal, you need to invest your efforts in achieving it. Ask yourself how hard you are willing to work to achieve the things you are passionate about. The amount of effort you put into your passion will determine whether it can become an effective goal.
Lesson 4: Taking responsibility promotes happiness
Taking responsibility offers a chance to excel in areas where others have abdicated. People tend to avoid responsibility and procrastinate because they look for easier ways to satisfy their desires. Social media is a great example of this. Likes, followers and comments give us an instant dose of dopamine. On the other hand, when we do the work, we expose ourselves to more opportunities. Often, we get more benefits tomorrow when we sacrifice today’s pleasures. In the end, nothing compares to the sense of accomplishment that comes with achieving our goals. Responsibilities, no matter how great, create meaningful journeys that foster happiness.
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Lesson 5: Find a Career You Love
Peterson believes that life is too short to spend your time doing what you hate. While you may be challenged at times, you shouldn’t deliberately decide to do things you don’t enjoy. For example, you should find a career that you enjoy. Work takes up so much of your time that it doesn’t make sense to do a job that makes you unhappy.
Lesson 6: Never blindly follow ideas
This rule recommends staying away from strict ideologies. While we should respect ideas that have stood the test of time, we cannot blindly follow them. Instead, we should admire people and their ideas, but question them. In addition, it is good to be open to people and groups with opposing views. We are moving towards a world in which only our opinions are seen as good. The problem is that this creates a dichotomy where people with different opinions are seen as the enemy. This leads us to a fantasy world where we are surrounded by enemies who want to destroy us, hence the need to defend ourselves. This is what is happening with modern politics. The good news is that we can change it by respecting the ideas of others rather than accepting or rejecting them.
The solution to the problem of blindly following an ideology is to focus on small tasks that we can accomplish on an individual level. We should then accept that we are responsible for the outcome of our actions on an individual level. Specifically, Peterson recommends humility in cleaning your room and taking care of your family. These individual responsibilities give your life meaning without God or ideology. If you can find something meaningful to you and commit to it, you will feel fulfilled. Once you master these responsibilities, you can begin to consider tackling bigger issues that affect more people.
Lesson 7: Diamonds become beautiful when put under pressure
Peterson uses diamonds as a metaphor to explain the importance of working hard. When exposed to extreme heat and pressure, coal can turn into diamonds, which are one of the hardest and most beautiful substances in the world. So put yourself under pressure by working hard and see the results.
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Lesson 8: Start your day by making a piece beautiful
This rule builds on one of the core features of Peterson’s first book, 12 Rules for Life. In his first book, Peterson explains that you should clean up your own house before you help others. A practical example is to make sure your room is clean before you do anything else. Peterson believes that making a room as beautiful as possible is not just useful for aesthetic reasons. The room can actually serve as a motivator. He believes that beauty shows us how the world could be. Ultimately, a tidy room becomes a motivation to go into our imperfect world and make it better.
Peterson also notes that beauty can be scary. If we are surrounded by beauty, it can bring out more of our own imperfections. That said, having only one room in our home provides a balance where we don’t feel overwhelmed but are encouraged to think about how to improve ourselves and the world.
Lesson 9: Don’t Let Memories Hold You Back
Memories can be upsetting to you as a perpetrator or victim. In either case, you should not let these memories impact your current life. The best way to deal with these emotions is to write them down carefully and in great detail. This will help you deal with your emotions and prevent them from influencing your decisions. If you are emotionally influenced by a memory, you have not fully processed it. Articulating that memory and writing it down in as much detail as possible will speed up processing.
Lesson 10: Communicate Your Needs to Your Partner
Most people rely on intuition and passion to maintain their relationships. These approaches lack consistency and ultimately lead to an unhappy relationship. Peterson recommends relying instead on your willingness to listen and negotiate. This allows you to better communicate your wishes to your partner. You need to respond seriously if your partner does not communicate effectively with you.
You should also avoid being naive about the beauty of the love that carries your relationship. Relationships require hard work, and you must act as if a constant effort is essential to the success of the relationship. You need to divide the household chores in a way that you both find acceptable. So, don’t subject yourself to slavery, but don’t expect your partner to do more without repercussions either.
Finally, Peterson points out a critical change that all partners should implement in their relationship. Talking to each other for at least 90 minutes a week provides the time needed to develop moments of romance and intimacy.
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Lesson 11: Find Your Purpose to Stay Positive
Being a human being is strongly associated with uncertainty. Nature can hurt us in painful ways. Society and individual acts of malice can hurt us. However, this does not mean that we cannot be a good person or that society cannot 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 against these negative concepts is to be diligent and have an ongoing purpose. Find purpose in your life and reject resentment, deception and arrogance.
Lesson 12: Be grateful for your suffering
We often love others despite and because of their limitations. Peterson encourages his readers to view suffering in the same way. We can be grateful for our existence despite our suffering. At the same time, we can be grateful that our suffering makes our experiences of love, happiness and trust even more special. Being grateful for your suffering can help you discover an antidote to the abyss and the darkness.
Final Summary and Review of Beyond Order by Jordan Peterson
Beyond Order and Peterson’s first book, 12 Rules for Life act like Yin and Yang. 12 Rules for Life describes the importance of order in a chaotic world. In contrast, Beyond Order emphasizes that a little chaos is essential for innovation and positive change. While the left must understand that our social institutions are tried and true, the right must accept that creativity, change and innovation are essential in an environment bristling with chaos.
The author provides 12 additional rules for living:
1. Don’t belittle social institutions and creative achievements.
2. Have a picture in your mind of the person you would like to be, and work determinedly to become that person.
3. Don’t put the things you don’t like in the fog.
4. Pay attention to the fact that opportunities come with responsibilities.
5. Don’t spend all your time on things you hate.
6. Free yourself from ideology.
7. Choose a goal, work as hard as you can to achieve it, and see where it takes you.
8. If you can’t spruce up your whole house, tidy up at least one room.
9. If you are plagued by old memories, write them down in great detail.
10. Make an effort to keep romance alive in your relationship.
11. Don’t get caught up in resentment, arrogance and lies.
12. Cherish what you have despite your pain.
