Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life and the traditional 12 Steps

While Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life and the traditional 12 Steps from programs like Alcoholics Anonymous come from very different origins—psychological philosophy vs. addiction recovery—they do share some striking thematic overlaps:

🧠 Shared Themes

• Personal Responsibility

  • Peterson: “Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.”

  • 12 Steps: “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.”

  • 👉 Both emphasize owning your actions and cleaning up your internal mess.

• Truthfulness & Integrity

  • Peterson: “Tell the truth—or, at least, don’t lie.”

  • 12 Steps: “Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.”

  • 👉 Honesty is central to both frameworks as a path to healing and growth.

• Spiritual or Meaningful Pursuit

  • Peterson: “Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient).”

  • 12 Steps: “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God.”

  • 👉 Both advocate for transcending short-term gratification in favor of deeper purpose.

• Humility & Listening

  • Peterson: “Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t.”

  • 12 Steps: “Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.”

  • 👉 Acknowledging that you don’t have all the answers is a shared virtue.

🧭 Key Differences

Aspect

Peterson’s 12 Rules

Traditional 12 Steps

Origin

Psychology, mythology, philosophy

Spiritual recovery from addiction

Tone

Self-help, intellectual, anecdotal

Spiritual, confessional, communal

Audience

General public

People recovering from addiction

Structure

Standalone principles

Sequential steps with spiritual guidance

So while they’re not interchangeable, they both offer structured paths to personal transformation—one through philosophical insight, the other through spiritual healing.