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Jordan Peterson and the Inner Voice
An analysis of the fourth rule of life.
Chapter 4 from 12 Rules for Life is entitled:
“Compare Yourself to Who You Were Yesterday, Not to Who Someone Else Is Today.”
Jordan Peterson begins this chapter with a detailed description of how we are never satisfied. No matter what accomplishments to which we attain, there is ‘a critical internal voice’ that ‘condemns our mediocre efforts.’
For some time, social psychologists recommended that those suffering from such self-condemnation should protect their mental health with ‘positive illusions.’ A strategy that Peterson condemns in the harshest of terms.
JBP comes up with a more straightforward solution:
“If (your) internal voice makes you doubt the value of your endeavors — or your life, or life itself — perhaps you should stop listening.”
He goes on to recommend avoidance of the extreme options of success and failure, and instead to be content to play the game of life across multiple games with acceptance of varying degrees of success or failure.
