I’ve been listening to Jordan Peterson’s new book and it reminded me of this email from last year.

“To stand up straight with your shoulders back is to accept the terrible responsibility of life, with eyes wide open. It means deciding to voluntarily transform the chaos of potential into the realities of habitable order. It means adopting the burden of self-conscious vulnerability, and accepting the end of the unconscious paradise of childhood, where finitude and mortality are only dimly comprehended. It means willingly undertaking the sacrifices necessary to generate a productive and meaningful reality (it means acting to please God, in the ancient language).”

― Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

I’ve been reading this book again after listening to it last year.

It really is a tremendous book. Highly recommend.

A theme in the book is what I would call “being a grown up”.

This quote from the book puts it well.

Open your eyes and face reality.

Accept your responsibility to participate in it and make things better.

Understand your vulnerabilities and move forward anyway.

Gladly take on the sacrifices necessary to improve the lives around you.

These ideas seem particularly important in a time of difficulty like we are facing now.

Now is the time to stand up straight with our shoulders back, not to shrink or shirk our responsibilities.

Make it a great day.

Jake