Dr Jordan Peterson is currently my favourite hero on the Internet.
The author of ’12 Rules for Life’, he’s a professor of psychology who had a meteoric rise in popularity over the recent years for his ability to communicate simple ideas that lead to massive changes in people’s lives.
One of Dr Peterson’s most popular advice is to… clean your room.
Yup.
Mind-blowing.
That same instruction that your mom has been nagging you to do for years has become somewhat of a meme on the internet after Peterson’s advocacy.
He’s become an Internet father figure for many disenchanted young men in the world today, whose lives were completely transformed after listening to his talks.
The joke was that when your mom asks you to clean your room, you shrug it off.
But when Dr Peterson asks you to clean your room, you become enlightened and get your life in order!
I never thought much of it in the first 25 years of my life – a quarter of a century of my mom going to great lengths to persuade me to do it.
But when Jordan Peterson tells me to clean my room – the heavens open up and I start to see the light…
…and also the bottom of my desk… after clearing heaps of clutter.
The concept is simple: the simplest and most effective way to change your life is to start with what is in your immediate reality. And that begins with your physical environment.
But why though? Here are three reasons why you should start right away:
3 Reasons Why Cleaning Your Room is the Secret to Transforming Your Life
Reason #1: You regain control over your environment and your mind.
Whether we are aware of it or not, we’re all highly affected by our environment.
Imagine: you’re at a party – the music is booming, the room is vibrant with colourful strobe lights and there is a crowd of people dancing around you.
Not exactly the best place for you to sit down with your textbook and study for your finals right?
Now imagine you’re standing in the middle of a junkyard, full of trash, broken furniture and mechanical parts, with a dense cloud of black smoke and the smell of burning metal filling your nose.
I don’t think that’s the first place you think of to plan your next romantic getaway with your partner.
You get the idea.
Our internal processes change with our external environment.
The most important external environment that you need to ensure is in the best state is your living quarters – your room!
Your room is your local landscape – it is the first thing you wake up to in the morning, the last thing you experience before you go to bed.
With this, it makes sense that you want to make your room neat and beautiful – making it a safe haven for you to unwind and find peace.
Why do you think we’re so attracted to clean, beautiful environments? They make us feel at ease and in turn, make it easier for us to live, breathe and make good decisions.
The act of cleaning your room is not merely a chore, it is symbolic of setting your life in order.
You’re regaining control of your mind by first regaining control over your environment.
And that can be a powerful force to build momentum in improving the quality of your life.
Reason #2: You relieve stress and enjoy a sense of peace every time you come home.
If you’re into minimalism or have been on the Marie Kondo movement, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
When you clean your room, you will yourself to exercise deliberation with everything that comes into your environment, and you eliminate everything that doesn’t serve you.
By tossing out the trash and ‘unburdening’ yourself with things that are no longer relevant in your life, you’re creating space and opening up a vacuum for better quality things to come into your life.
Also, decluttering relieves stress and can be powerfully therapeutic.
Having a messy environment can unknowingly be creating a sense of dread.
Life is already difficult enough the moment you step out of your front door. Take time to clean up the mess within your house, and you’ll notice a remarkable difference in the way you feel.
Cleaning up doesn’t have to be a painful chore. Do it while listening to your favourite music or podcast.
Pro-tip: I like to time myself every time I do it so I can challenge myself to clean up my room in the fastest time possible. It becomes a fun game now.
Reason #3: You build the most powerful personality trait for success.
The Big Five Personality model sheds light on 5 factors that make up an individual’s personality: extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, conscientiousness and neuroticism.
Of all the five dimensions, one of them is highly correlated to a person’s ability to achieve goals and be successful – and that is conscientiousness.
Conscientiousness is a person’s tendency to be diligent, organized, neat and systematic.
Conscientious individuals are generally hardworking and are more likely to strive dutifully towards their goals and exercise prudence.
To me, the most important aspect of conscientiousness is self-discipline.
As a result of this self-discipline, highly conscientious individuals naturally do well in school and work.
Regardless of how high or low your level of conscientiousness, you are building up self-discipline each time you make the effort to clean your room.
As your self-discipline muscle grows stronger, you’re able to use it in other contexts such as your career, health and relationships.
You become more productive, you find less resistance to go to the gym and you are able to set healthy boundaries with the people in your life.
And it all starts by cleaning your room.
—
The rule is simple: clean your room, clean your life.
I can’t believe as an adult, I’m only starting to understand that now.
Don’t bother trying to change the world. Start by changing what is in front of you.
Imagine how amazing the world would be if everyone just focuses on what’s in front of them and take responsibility to clean up their immediate surroundings.
Don’t underestimate the power of cleaning your room!
Summary
The concept is simple: the simplest and most effective way to change your life is to start with what is in your immediate reality. And that begins with your physical environment.
3 Reasons Why Cleaning Your Room is the Secret to Transforming Your Life
Reason #1: You regain control over your environment and your mind.
The act of cleaning your room is not merely a chore, it is symbolic of setting your life in order.
Reason #2: You relieve stress and enjoy a sense of peace every time you come home.
Reason #3: You build the most powerful personality trait for success.
You build up self-discipline each time you make the effort to clean your room. As your self-discipline muscle grows stronger, you’re able to use it in other contexts such as your career, health and relationships.
Dr Jordan Peterson is currently my favourite hero on the Internet.
The author of ’12 Rules for Life’, he’s a professor of psychology who had a meteoric rise in popularity over the recent years for his ability to communicate simple ideas that lead to massive changes in people’s lives.
One of Dr Peterson’s most popular advice is to… clean your room.
Yup.
Mind-blowing.
That same instruction that your mom has been nagging you to do for years has become somewhat of a meme on the internet after Peterson’s advocacy.
He’s become an Internet father figure for many disenchanted young men in the world today, whose lives were completely transformed after listening to his talks.
The joke was that when your mom asks you to clean your room, you shrug it off.
But when Dr Peterson asks you to clean your room, you become enlightened and get your life in order!
I never thought much of it in the first 25 years of my life – a quarter of a century of my mom going to great lengths to persuade me to do it.
But when Jordan Peterson tells me to clean my room – the heavens open up and I start to see the light…
…and also the bottom of my desk… after clearing heaps of clutter.
The concept is simple: the simplest and most effective way to change your life is to start with what is in your immediate reality. And that begins with your physical environment.
But why though? Here are three reasons why you should start right away:
3 Reasons Why Cleaning Your Room is the Secret to Transforming Your Life
Reason #1: You regain control over your environment and your mind.
Whether we are aware of it or not, we’re all highly affected by our environment.
Imagine: you’re at a party – the music is booming, the room is vibrant with colourful strobe lights and there is a crowd of people dancing around you.
Not exactly the best place for you to sit down with your textbook and study for your finals right?
Now imagine you’re standing in the middle of a junkyard, full of trash, broken furniture and mechanical parts, with a dense cloud of black smoke and the smell of burning metal filling your nose.
I don’t think that’s the first place you think of to plan your next romantic getaway with your partner.
You get the idea.
Our internal processes change with our external environment.
The most important external environment that you need to ensure is in the best state is your living quarters – your room!
Your room is your local landscape – it is the first thing you wake up to in the morning, the last thing you experience before you go to bed.
With this, it makes sense that you want to make your room neat and beautiful – making it a safe haven for you to unwind and find peace.
Why do you think we’re so attracted to clean, beautiful environments? They make us feel at ease and in turn, make it easier for us to live, breathe and make good decisions.
The act of cleaning your room is not merely a chore, it is symbolic of setting your life in order.
You’re regaining control of your mind by first regaining control over your environment.
And that can be a powerful force to build momentum in improving the quality of your life.
Reason #2: You relieve stress and enjoy a sense of peace every time you come home.
If you’re into minimalism or have been on the Marie Kondo movement, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
When you clean your room, you will yourself to exercise deliberation with everything that comes into your environment, and you eliminate everything that doesn’t serve you.
By tossing out the trash and ‘unburdening’ yourself with things that are no longer relevant in your life, you’re creating space and opening up a vacuum for better quality things to come into your life.
Also, decluttering relieves stress and can be powerfully therapeutic.
Having a messy environment can unknowingly be creating a sense of dread.
Life is already difficult enough the moment you step out of your front door. Take time to clean up the mess within your house, and you’ll notice a remarkable difference in the way you feel.
Cleaning up doesn’t have to be a painful chore. Do it while listening to your favourite music or podcast.
Pro-tip: I like to time myself every time I do it so I can challenge myself to clean up my room in the fastest time possible. It becomes a fun game now.
Reason #3: You build the most powerful personality trait for success.
The Big Five Personality model sheds light on 5 factors that make up an individual’s personality: extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, conscientiousness and neuroticism.
Of all the five dimensions, one of them is highly correlated to a person’s ability to achieve goals and be successful – and that is conscientiousness.
Conscientiousness is a person’s tendency to be diligent, organized, neat and systematic.
Conscientious individuals are generally hardworking and are more likely to strive dutifully towards their goals and exercise prudence.
To me, the most important aspect of conscientiousness is self-discipline.
As a result of this self-discipline, highly conscientious individuals naturally do well in school and work.
Regardless of how high or low your level of conscientiousness, you are building up self-discipline each time you make the effort to clean your room.
As your self-discipline muscle grows stronger, you’re able to use it in other contexts such as your career, health and relationships.
You become more productive, you find less resistance to go to the gym and you are able to set healthy boundaries with the people in your life.
And it all starts by cleaning your room.
—
The rule is simple: clean your room, clean your life.
I can’t believe as an adult, I’m only starting to understand that now.
Don’t bother trying to change the world. Start by changing what is in front of you.
Imagine how amazing the world would be if everyone just focuses on what’s in front of them and take responsibility to clean up their immediate surroundings.
Don’t underestimate the power of cleaning your room!
Summary
The concept is simple: the simplest and most effective way to change your life is to start with what is in your immediate reality. And that begins with your physical environment.
3 Reasons Why Cleaning Your Room is the Secret to Transforming Your Life
Reason #1: You regain control over your environment and your mind.
The act of cleaning your room is not merely a chore, it is symbolic of setting your life in order.
Reason #2: You relieve stress and enjoy a sense of peace every time you come home.
Reason #3: You build the most powerful personality trait for success.
You build up self-discipline each time you make the effort to clean your room. As your self-discipline muscle grows stronger, you’re able to use it in other contexts such as your career, health and relationships.