We all know at least one person who keeps moving forward no matter what life throws at them.
They land the promotion, finish that degree after hours, and somehow still have the bandwidth to train for a weekend half-marathon.
It’s tempting to call it luck.
Yet after years of studying motivation—and trying (and failing) to keep my own houseplants alive—I’ve noticed the real separator is habit selection.
Jordan Peterson hammers this home in lecture halls and podcasts every week.
He doesn’t frame success as “doing everything right.”
He frames it as refusing to keep the patterns that quietly drag us down.
Below are the seven habits he urges people to drop—and how ditching them has made a measurable difference in my own life.
1. Blaming everyone but yourself
Peterson’s first rule of thumb is brutal in its simplicity: “Pick up your responsibility. Pick up the heaviest thing you can, and carry it.”
When I avoided ownership—blaming deadlines on my boss or yoga-class tardiness on traffic—nothing changed.
Once I admitted, I overslept, my mornings got sharper.
Responsibility feels heavy, but it’s lighter than chronic excuses.
A 2017 Gallup report found that employees who feel personally accountable are 2.5 times more likely to be engaged at work.
Turns out the mental load of excuse-making drains more energy than the task itself.
2. Living in chaos instead of creating order
You might have read my post on clearing mental clutter, but I’ll repeat the headline lesson here: environment writes your mindset.
Peterson’s viral “clean your room” advice isn’t a meme—it’s a neurological reset.
Big Think summarizes his position: start with the space you control, then scale outward.
I committed to a five-minute evening reset—clearing dishes, folding a blanket, jotting tomorrow’s agenda.
Those micro-tidy rituals cascade into sharper focus the next morning.
Order breeds momentum.
3. Twisting the truth to avoid friction
On X, Peterson condenses a core rule: “Tell the Truth—Or, At Least, Don’t Lie.”
Lying—especially the tiny “harmless” kind—kept me spinning.
I once told a client I was “nearly finished” when I hadn’t opened the draft.
The stress of keeping that story straight wiped out the energy I needed to actually write.
Drop the fib. A clear “I’m behind—here’s my new timeline” invites collaboration instead of panic.
4. Nursing resentment and envy
Peterson calls unchecked envy a gateway drug to self-sabotage.
I felt that sting scrolling a friend’s travel photos while I was buried in edits.
Catching myself, I messaged her for tips on budget lodging instead of stewing.
That single conversation sparked my own (affordable) trip six months later.
Action softens envy; inaction feeds it. Notice the jealousy, then channel it into your own plan.
5. Drifting without meaningful goals
“Meaning is what makes life bearable,” Peterson reminds us.
But meaning needs structure.
Productivity writer James Clear puts it bluntly: “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
I used to set vague intentions like “write more.”
Now I schedule 45-minute writing sprints at 7 a.m., Monday through Thursday.
The calendar alarm is my system; the finished chapter is the by-product.
6. Surrounding yourself with destructive companions
Peterson is candid: choose friends who want you to win.
After a Friday coffee where a pal mocked my plan to teach weekend yoga, I realized I left more deflated than inspired.
We’re still cordial, but I’ve shifted regular meetups to those who ask, “How can I help?”
If success is contagious, so is stagnation. Pick your cluster wisely.
7. Finally, procrastinating on daily disciplines
Peterson labels procrastination willful blindness: you could act, but you choose not to.
My workaround is the “two-minute rule”: if an action takes less than 120 seconds—sending that invoice, rolling out the mat—I start it immediately.
Momentum beats motivation.
A Stanford study shows that people who break tasks into bite-size steps are 20% more likely to finish complex projects.
Small starts avert the sinkhole of avoidance.
Final thoughts
No surprise twist here—the road to sustainable success isn’t glamorous.
It’s paved with unsexy choices: telling the truth, wiping the counter, hitting send on the tricky email.
Drop the seven habits above and you’ll feel space open up—mentally, physically, relationally.
Success becomes less of a finish line and more of an upward spiral fueled by everyday integrity.
Give yourself grace during the swap-out process, but stay firm.
Habits harden quickly; set them with intention.
Your future self is counting on you to make the tougher—and ultimately lighter—choice today.
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