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Book Summary Mark Manson
Book Summary Mark Manson
1.
1. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is a book that
challenges the conventions of self-help by inviting the reader
to NOT try, say no often and embrace negative thinking.
1.
1. Not giving a f*ck is about being comfortable with being
different and caring about something more important than
adversity.
A sneaky truth about life. There’s no such thing as not giving a f*ck.
You must give a f*ck about something.
Subtlety #2: To not give a f*ck about adversity, you must first give a
f*ck about something more important than adversity.
If you find yourself consistently giving too many f*cks about trivial
s*it that bothers you, chances are you don’t have much going on in
your life to give a legitimate f*ck about.
Subtlety #3: Whether you realize it or not, you are always choosing
what to give a f*ck about.
Maturity is what happens when one learns to only give a f*ck about
what’s truly f*ckworthy.
The idea of not giving a f*ck is a simple way of reorienting our
expectations for life and choosing what is important and what is not.
The more you pursue feeling better all the time, the less satisfied you
become, as pursuing something only reinforces the fact that you lack it
in the first place. Philosopher Alan Watts used to refer to as “The
Backwards Law” (further reading: the hedonic treadmill).
To not give a f*ck is to stare down life’s most terrifying and difficult
challenges and still take action.
When you give too many f*cks—when you give a f*ck about
everyone and everything—you will feel that you’re perpetually
entitled to be comfortable and happy at all times, that everything is
supposed to be just exactly the f*cking way you want it to be.
Pain and loss are inevitable and we should let go of trying to resist
them.
The greatest truths in life are usually the most unpleasant to hear.
We suffer for the simple reason that suffering is biologically useful. It
is nature’s preferred agent for inspiring change.
Don’t hope for a life without problems. There’s no such thing. Instead,
hope for a life full of good problems.
Nobody who is actually happy has to stand in front of a mirror and tell
himself that he’s happy.
Negative emotions are a call to action. When you feel them, it’s
because you’re supposed to do something. (Tony Robbins discusses
this in detail in Awaken the Giant Within.)
Our problems birth our happiness, along with slightly better, slightly
upgraded problems.
People who feel entitled view every occurrence in their life as either
an affirmation of or a threat to, their own greatness.
If you want to change how you see your problems, you have to change
what you value and/or how you measure failure/success.
Research shows that once one is able to provide for basic physical
needs (food, shelter, and so on), the correlation between happiness and
worldly success quickly approaches zero.
Some of the greatest moments of one’s life are not pleasant, not
successful, not known, and not positive.
The more we choose to accept responsibility for our lives, the more
power we will exercise over our lives. (“Take 100% Responsibility for
Your Life” is Principle #1 in The Success Principles by Jack
Canfield.)
The more something threatens your identity, the more you will avoid
it. Manson calls this, “The Law of Avoidance”
The narrower and rarer the identity you choose for yourself, the more
everything will seem to threaten you. For that reason, define yourself
in the simplest and most ordinary ways possible.
Questions that will help you breed more uncertainty in your life.
1.
1. What if I’m wrong?
1.
1. What would it mean if I were wrong?
It’s worth remembering that for any change to happen in your life, you
must be wrong about something.
If it feels like it’s you versus the world, chances are it’s really just you
versus yourself.
Action isn’t just the effect of motivation; it’s also the cause of it.
Entitled people who blame others for their own emotions and actions
do so because they believe that if they constantly paint themselves as
victims, eventually someone will come along and save them, and they
will receive the love they’ve always wanted. Entitled people who take
the blame for other people’s emotions and actions do so because they
believe that if they “fix” their partner and save him or her, they will
receive the love and appreciation they’ve always wanted.
It’s not about giving a f*ck about everything your partner gives a f*ck
about; it’s about giving a f*ck about your partner regardless of the
f*cks he or she gives.
You are going to die, and that’s because you were fortunate enough to
have lived.
Recommended Reading
If you like The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, you may also enjoy
the following books: