If you have your internal critic under control, use it to your advantage. The critic should look at internal and external imperfections and identify what can be fixed and what cannot.Most issues can’t be solved immediately. It can be tempting to skip this step, but persevere. Start small, be honest with yourself without being too harsh and act consistently, for the future is not determined.

Using Self-Criticism As a Life Improvement Tool

“If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there.”

"Why refuse to specify [the outcome]? Because while you are failing to define success, you are also refusing to define failure, to yourself, so that if and when you fail you won’t notice, and it won’t hurt. But that won’t work! You cannot be fooled so easily. You will instead carry with you a continual sense of disappointment in your own Being and the self-contempt that comes along with that and the increasing hatred for the world that all of that generates."

"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...It means willingly undertaking the sacrifices necessary to generate a productive and meaningful reality."

If goals aren’t specified, the person will wander around in life with a dull ache of continued hopelessness and a vague sense of failure.Refusing to acknowledge an issue is an issue in itself and worsens that you wish to ignore. The pain from failing to begin is greater than the one for trying and failing. So, admit your failures, list your goals, act on them and keep track of your accomplishments to avoid that.

Jordan Peterson On Goal Setting

We can’t ever know all the factors that led to an outcome and by comparing ourselves to others in any domain we do so as if we could. This arrogance leads to conclusions that are unrealistic, and too often detrimental to one’s self-esteem and sense of empowerment.Instead of comparing yourself to others, focus on improving your own life and making it as good as possible.

Jordan Peterson On Self-Criticism

Enlighten yourself and focus on the issues at hand, always aiming for a better future. By doing so before acting you can properly identify who and where you are and then find out what to do.

Jordan Peterson’s Road To A Better Future

"Orient yourself properly. Then–and only then–concentrate on the day. Set your sights at the Good, the Beautiful, and the True, and then focus pointedly and carefully on the concerns of each moment. Aim continually at Heaven while you work diligently on Earth. Attend fully to the future, in that manner, while attending fully to the present. Then you have the best chance of perfecting both. "

"The first step, perhaps, is to take stock. Who are you? When you buy a house and prepare to live in it, you hire an inspector to list all its faults–as it is, in reality, now, not as you wish it could be. You’ll even pay him for the bad news. You need to know. You need to discover the home’s hidden flaws. You need to know whether they are cosmetic imperfections or structural inadequacies. You need to know because you can’t fix something if you don’t know it’s broken–and you’re broken. You need an inspector. The internal critic–it could play that role, if you could get it on track; if you and it could cooperate."

We all contribute to the outcomes of life. Once we understand the outcomes, it becomes our responsibility to nudge them towards more stable and beneficial situations.Peterson believes our contributions can have one of two effects, it can either tilt the world up towards Heaven, or down towards Hell.

Jordan Peterson On Personal Responsibility

<div><div>The human body telegraphs the state of its mind to the world. If a person slouches, they present themselves as defeated. However, if a person stands up straight, it means they may have taken a hit but are not defeated.Standing up straight means taking responsibility for oneself and willingly make the sacrifices necessary to generate a productive and meaningful reality. Doing so also implies to others you are capable of such.</div></div>

Jordan Peterson On The Link Between Body And Mind

"When the internal critic puts you down using comparisons, here’s how it operates: First, it selects a single, arbitrary domain of comparison. Then it acts as if that domain is the only one relevant. Then it contrasts you unfavorably with someone truly stellar, within that domain. It can take that final step even further, using the unbridgeable gap between you and its target of comparison as evidence for the fundamental injustice of life. That way your motivation to do anything at all can be most effectively undermined."

Is a Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology. He has taught at Harvard and the University of Toronto and is an accomplished scientist on the psychology field. Dr. Peterson is currently one of the world’s most popular public thinkers and writer of the bestseller 12 Rules for Life.

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson

"You could help direct the world, on its careening trajectory, a bit more toward heaven and a bit more away from Hell. Once having understood Hell, researched it, so to speak–particularly your own individual Hell–you could decide against going there or creating that. You could aim elsewhere. You could, in fact, devote your life to this. That would give you a Meaning, with a capital M."

Since discovering Jordan Peterson's YouTube channel last year, I've become completely amazed by the amount of incredible information produced by this single individual. His book, "12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos" is the first book that I've ever pre-ordered in my entire life, and I've bought roughly 100 books in the last three years.

JORDAN PETERSON

Similar ideas

Focus on the Present Moment

Surviving An Asteroid

Budgeting myths