Look Up, Move Ahead

[January 12, 2026] This article is classic Dr. Jordan Peterson, and I hope you enjoy it because he has tremendous insight into the minds of us all. He begins by asking a simple question, “What should move forward in time with us, and what should be let go as if it’s dead wood?” Look up, move ahead.

“A little bit of fire at the right time can stop everything from burning to the ground.” – Dr. Jordan Peterson

The more dead wood we burn off when we have the opportunity, the less it accumulates around us. Dr. Peterson uses the analogy of forest fires. People have been trying to prevent forest fires for a long time, as symbolized by Smokey the Bear. We believe that forest fires are detrimental because they burn down the forest, kill wild animals, and destroy homes and businesses.

Yet if we don’t allow forest fires to burn, the forest floor will collect dry organic material from the dying of plants. The amount of flammable material keeps increasing over time. At some point, the dry material will catch fire, and the fire itself will be so intense that it burns the topsoil completely off. At that point, the forest is gone, and there is nothing left, other than a desert.

Trees and many plants have evolved to withstand a certain intensity of fire, and some won’t release their seeds unless a fire has occurred. The lesson is that a little fire at the right time can prevent everything from burning to the ground. This is a useful insight, a metaphorical insight into the nature of sacrifice.

It is easier, of course, to let go of something if we decide to let it go. If we do it ourselves, it is much better and easier than if it is taken away from us forcibly. In that case, we’re much more likely to fight for it.

According to Dr. Peterson, much of what we consider to be our own personalities, and are proud of, isn’t our own personalities at all. They are useless idiosyncrasies that differentiate us trivially from other people. They have no value in and of themselves. They’re more like quirks.

Many times, instead of humbling ourselves, we take pride in our shortcomings. That is arrogance. It’s not humility but self-deception and arrogance. That is foolish, and it means we’re clinging to parts of ourselves that are useless and dead.

As we elevate our aim in life, we also create a judge. The new ideal is above us, and we might be terrified of it, which is maybe why we’re afraid when we start a new job.

This is useful because the judge we’re creating by formulating the ideal tells us what’s useless about ourselves, and then we can eliminate it. This is what we must do. Every time we make a judge that’s more elevated, or higher, there’s more uselessness in ourselves that must be burned off.  

The ultimate judge says we must rid ourselves of everything that is not perfect. We don’t need to be perfect. But we should set things up so we can be the way we need to be, and if we were like that, what would I look like?

Dr. Peterson says people are reluctant to do this because that judgment makes us feel intimidated. We are then prone to destroy that ideal because it can crush us. If that is the case, he suggests lowering our ambition a bit so we can withstand those forces. We don’t want to become tyrannical toward ourselves. And we don’t want to throw out the ideal either. We can create intermediate steps.

This is a Phoenix-like process in which we shed all those elements that are no longer worthy of the pursuits we value. This is where we reshape ourselves into something that can better withstand the tragedies of life and serve as a “beacon to the world.”

People can be unbelievably good at things.  

NOTE: Please view the YouTube video for yourself at this link (here).

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Please read my books:

1. “55 Rules for a Good Life,” on Amazon (link here).
2. “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).