Dr. Jordan Peterson, aka “The Lobster King” and “Our dad from the internet” for the connoisseurs.
I’m kidding, but he is a brilliant clinical psychologist that has way of communicating powerful truths about how to work on our weaknesses. His lectures have helped me immensely in my personal development as a young adult, and hopefully these powerful insights can help you too.
“You’re a fool when you start something new, and if you’re not willing to to be a fool you’ll never start any thing new, and if you never start anything new you won’t develop”
And this isn’t to say that you should let go of your responsibilities and quit your job.
This mentality is all about seeing the opportunity in failing at something new in order to transcend, aiming at something meaningful in our lives rather than conforming to a job or pursuits that make us miserable.
How to go about improving
If your job is making you unhappy, possible solutions include educating yourself more, improving social skills and upping your interview ability. It doesn’t happen overnight, but having an aim and a strategy on how to get there is all you need.
It’s best laid out by Greg Reid.
“A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed up by action makes your dreams come true”
And more importantly, the steps we take should be challenging enough to push ourselves forward, but not impossible enough that we don’t achieve them. Trust the process, and change can happen.
“There’s no stasis, there’s only backwards. So if you’re not moving forwards you’re moving backwards.”
Peterson references the Matthew Effect: to those who have everything more will be given, from those who have nothing everything will be taken. This comes from the well known bible verse Matthew 25:29.
Do not stay in one place. Because once you get a move on, more opportunities will come, and of course the opposite is also true.
How to go about improving
It’s far better to do something everyday, no matter how small, than it is to do nothing. After all, like Bruce Lee famously said:
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
Learn to be articulate “Because thats the most dangerous thing you could possibly be”
Something we’re never taught well in our educations is how to communicate well. There is a staggering difference between writing for a grade and writing to transmit a message that can impact others.
Think about people you admire, think about their ability to convey a message in a way that’s powerful, and easy to understand, for example a few people I admire for their communication abilities:
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Barrack Obama
- John Mayer (if you haven’t heard him explain something, look him up, it’s amazing)
- Anderson Cooper
- Dr. Jordan Peterson
- Even a lot of great writers here on Medium like Zulie Rane and Jon Brosio
The ability to formulate ideas and communicate them succinctly and directly, supercharges the way we are understood. In our jobs, in our personal lives, and for the world.
How to go about improving
Read. For understanding.
“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.” -Jim Rohn
I believe all communication is a derivative from reading. Think about it, we all started school learning letters, then words, then sentences. The more we have seen, the more we can draw upon to express ourselves. And it shouldn’t end just because we graduated. We can all be better communicators if we practice the craft often. Medium is a beautiful place for that.
“A schedule is not a bloody prison”
They should instead be laid out around hopes and desires, this forever changed the way I thought about scheduling.
Dr. Peterson explains that a schedule shouldn’t be a rigid to-do list bound by time constraints that act as prison walls.
Nobody likes deadlines, worse if they’re self imposed and unrealistic.
This is exactly what I used to do, so my Monday schedule would shift around my desk all week, becoming a coaster at some point.
How to go about improving
A schedule should be about planning out a day that you would like to have and work towards that.
“And you know, you’re useless and horrible so you’ll probably only hit (your schedule) with about 70% accuracy, but that beats the hell out of zero”
And it’s not a bad thing. It’s information, whatever you manage to accomplish, use it as your personal baseline to improve incrementally the next week or the next day even it’s by one or five percent. That way you can begin a process, and it’s better than what you were doing before.
“Start to stop doing all the stupid things that you know are stupid that you know that you shouldn’t be doing. And start doing some of the things that aren’t stupid that you know you should be doing”
This sounds like a riddle, and it’s deceivingly obvious. I still have a little voice in my head, a feeling I get when I know I’m wasting my time. And yet I still don’t act upon it.
How to go about improving
I’ve found that this easier said than done. I get caught watching funny things on Instagram or fall down the landslide that it is Tik Tok.
A strategy that has worked for me is using my own momentum according to the Pareto Principle in proper Peterson fashion. Where 20% of actions I take give me back the energy that will kickstart the other productive 80%.
Here’s how that works in 3 steps
- I realize I’ve wasted an hour on YouTube or what have you, and I know I need to be productive again.
- I glance around the room to find something easy to improve, like picking up a pair of socks off the floor, or straightening out some papers on the desk.
- Once I’m up and moving I think of another thing to improve around the house that takes a little more time, like washing the dishes.
I build momentum from idle to where I want to be, and that usually propels me to get back into my working grove, especially now in this remote work world we’re in.
I love the directness of Dr. Peterson’s lectures, which are sensations on YouTube. Sometimes the best advice is that that you need to hear instead of things you want to hear. And reflecting and implementing these has made my life better and more productive as a result.
Thank You Dr. Peterson.
