12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos | Part 2

Imagine If You Cared about Yourself as Much as You Cared about Your Pet

If you can treat your dog like a king, you can treat yourself like one too.

My brother adopted a cat during the pandemic. Growing up, we wanted a pet more than anything in the world, but our parents always said no.

Well, now that we’re full-fledged adults in our 20s…who still live with their parents, we politely got permission from them to adopt a furry friend for the family!

My brother named him Punchy after the cat in the game Animal Crossing.

I love Punchy.

I would do anything for Punchy.

I would die for Punchy.

Punchy has a bad habit of not drinking enough water. When it’s put in a bowl, it isn’t appetizing to him and he’ll go the whole day thirsty. The poor thing.

To solve this, we got Punchy a fountain so that the trickling sound of water will encourage him to drink. When people come over, they always comment on the fact that we purchased a fountain for a cat.

I can see why it looks excessive.

But if Punchy had a preference for the finest of waters sourced from the melting glaciers of the Appalachian Mountains, I would personally move our family to the mountainside and summit once a week to fetch it for him.

I love that cat so much, even though all he does is eat, sleep, and wake me up at 7 am. He doesn’t need to do anything special to earn my affection. He just needs to exist and be happy.

For all you pet lovers out there, you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t have a pet, I sincerely hope that there is someone/something in your life that you love unconditionally.

It will give you an indication of how well you should learn to treat yourself.

This is the second installment in a series of articles on Jordan Peterson’s book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, where he uses his expertise in psychology to suggest the principles needed to live a good life.

This is the previous installment if you missed it:

The second rule for life is the following:

“Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping”.

Why don’t you care about yourself more?

Humans are graced with something called consciousness. We are aware of who we are, our mortality, and every single one of our flaws. Some of these flaws are real and some are overstated in our minds.

You might think that you’re not intelligent because you can’t solve problems as quickly as your co-worker. Maybe you see yourself as unattractive because when you look in the mirror you only notice the scars. Maybe you can’t even look at yourself in the mirror anymore because a 12-year-old beat you at Tetris.

Okay, that last one might be personal.

The existence of these flaws is what makes us feel like we don’t deserve to be treated as well as we treat others. They skew the perception of our own value because we are hyper-aware of what is wrong with ourselves.

When we value something less, we don’t put it first.

You’re just as important as your pet.

As much as we are okay with our own suffering, we don’t believe that others should suffer. Especially not our pets. That shows our humanity. We are capable of caring for what we find important.

But it’s essential that you take care of yourself too. Failure to do so ends in tragedy for the things and people you put so much work in to look after.

If you neglected your physical health to the point where you ended up in the hospital, your cat would be sad and miss you. If you neglected your mental health, your dog would worry about you.

Taking care of yourself extends to taking care of all other aspects of your life. You’re important to your pets. And If your pets are important to you then you need to take good care of yourself.

Jordan Peterson also emphasizes that treating yourself well doesn’t always mean doing whatever you want or what makes you immediately happy. Making the choice that you need can be truly difficult.

Our cat Punchy hates taking his medication. He would be much happier overindulging on treats every day. As a result, we have to wrap him in a blanket. Force-feeding a kitty burrito isn’t fun, but we know that it’s what he needs. We can’t give in to the easier choice because that would be irresponsible and lazy.

These are some questions from the book that help you to figure out what kind of choices you should make:

“What might my life look like if I were caring for myself properly? What career would challenge me and render me productive and helpful, so that I could shoulder my share of the load, and enjoy the consequences? What should I be doing, when I have some freedom, to improve my health, expand my knowledge, and strengthen my body?”

If we could transfer a fraction of the love and care we provide for our pets towards ourselves, we would be soaring towards new heights. It’s not just in our best interest, but also our pets’ and the people we love.

I said I would do anything for Punchy, so that includes taking care of myself.