Rector’s eNews 26: 21 August 2024

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From at least the 1980s, Americans in particular have been in the thrall of literature (and podcasts or video clips more recently) aimed at self-improvement, people conducting better lives and leadership. There have been countless expressions of ideas on related topics such as in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey in the 1990s and these have had an impact in their own way on a number of South Africans.

More recently, in 2018, Jordan Peterson, a Canadian professor and psychologist from the University of Toronto came forward with the Twelve Rules for Life. This overview quickly became the number one bestseller in North America and, indeed, the world and, naturally, he thus had a huge impact on many lives.

Quite recently, a parent emailed me to say that he was in mainly Whatsapp dialogue with his two teenage children, a son at Michaelhouse and a daughter at a girl’s school, on the merits of Peterson’s Twelve Rules for Life. He has conducted weekly or fortnightly discussions with his children and made the points articulated below under the headings Jordan Peterson outlined in his Twelve Rules. The parent told me of his own thoughts, but not of his son’s or daughter’s responses which might have been less expansive! My referral to this may make you wish to find out more about Jordan Peterson of whom I had not heard before I was alerted to his Rules which are generally self-explanatory. I was also interested in the idea of parents having a weekly or fortnightly conversation with their children with personalised references on the more general topics or statements of Jordan Peterson, or anyone else.

I will cover four of these this week and four over each of the next two weeks in the eNews. I have quoted selectively for obvious reasons.

Rule 1: Stand up straight with your shoulders back

 Parent: My thoughts are that when you slump over with a poor posture, you are not standing up for yourself. Or your beliefs. Or others. When we stand tall in the face of adversity we are noticed, and when we notice ourselves, we may build more confidence. With more confidence, good things come, and when good things come there are more healthy hormones called neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin which flood through our bodies.

When we feel good sometimes even about the average things in life, we loop quite beautifully into a positive spiral. I have watched you both tackle many things in your life, including big lock forwards and knee surgery, and it always seems that you have greater success when your energy is high. So keep standing tall.

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