42 Rules for Life

1. Tell the truth.
2. Pay attention.
3. Don’t be too civilized.
4. Be precise in your speech.
5. Promote the best in people.
6. Do not do things that you hate.
7. Don’t let bullies get away with it.
8. Nothing well done is insignificant.
9. Be grateful in spite of your suffering.
10. Dress like the person you want to be.
11. Maintain your connections with people.
12. Do not hide unwanted things in the fog.
13. Do not transform your wife into a maid.
14. Speak the truth about unpleasant things.
15. Be careful who you share bad news with.
16. Be careful who you share good news with.
17. Read something written by someone great.
18. Stand up straight with your shoulders back.
19. Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street.
20. Pursue what is meaningful, not what is expedient.
21. Reality isn’t made out of matter, but what matters.
22. Act so that you can tell the truth about how you act.
23. Make friends with people who want the best for you.
24. Do not bother children when they are skateboarding.
25. Do not allow yourself to become arrogant or resentful.
26. Make at least one thing better every single place you go.
27. Don’t avoid something frightening if it stands in your way.
28. But also remember to not do unnecessarily dangerous things.
29. Try to make one room in your house as beautiful as possible.
30. Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.
31. Don’t try to rescue someone who does not want to be rescued.
32. Be very careful of rescuing someone who wants to be rescued.
33. Imagine who you could be, and then aim single mindedly at that.
34. Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them.
35. Notice that opportunity lurks where responsibility has been abdicated.
36. Do not carelessly denigrate social institutions or artistic achievements.
37. Plan and work diligently to maintain the romance in your relationships.
38. Treat yourself as if you were someone that you are responsible for helping.
39. Work as hard as you possibly can on at least one thing and see what happens.
40. If old memories still make you cry, write them down carefully and completely.
41. Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.
42. Remember that what you do not yet know is more important than what you already know.
43. Ask someone to do you a small favor so that he or she can ask you to do one in the future.
44. If you have to choose be the one who does things, instead of the one who is seen to do things.
45. Write a letter to the government if you see something that needs fixing, and propose a solution.
46. The person you are listening to might know something you need to know, listen so they will share it.
47. If you can’t order your own life, you shouldn’t be trying to order anything more complicated than that.

— Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, 42 Rules for Life (Original Quora Post / Foundation for '12 Rules for Life')