The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
(Quotes and Extracts)
Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck has become a world-wide sensation. In it he puts forth powerful no bullshit ideas that directly deals with how to embrace all aspects of life and not just strive towards the comfortable and seemingly "positive".
There is a big emphasis on the struggle innate to life, how one can transform ones suffering by modulating ones own attitude and relationship to that very process of struggle and "suffering".
Here below is a selection of powerful quotes from the book, however if you wish to read the entire book, here is a link to amazon
Who you are is defined by what you’re willing to struggle for.
Consumer culture is very good at making us want more, more, more. Underneath all the hype and marketing is the implication that more is always better. I bought into this idea for years. Make more money, visit more countries, have more experiences, be with more women. But more is not always better. In fact, the opposite is true. We are actually often happier with less. When we’re overloaded with opportunities and options, we suffer from what psychologists refer to as the paradox of choice. Basically, the more options we’re given, the less satisfied we become with whatever we choose, because we’re aware of all the other options we’re potentially forfeiting.
The more something threatens your identity, the more you will avoid it.
Everything worthwhile in life is won through surmounting the associated negative experience. Any attempt to escape the negative, to avoid it or quash it or silence it, only backfires. The avoidance of suffering is a form of suffering. The avoidance of struggle is a struggle. The denial of failure is a failure. Hiding what is shameful is itself a form of shame.
Pain is an inextricable thread in the fabric of life, and to tear it out is not only impossible, but destructive: attempting to tear it out unravels everything else with it. To try to avoid pain is to give too many f*cks about pain. In contrast, if you’re able to not give a fuck about the pain, you become unstoppable.
Don't just sit there. Do something. The answers will follow.
To be happy we need something to solve. Happiness is therefore a form of action;
But a true and accurate measurement of one’s self-worth is how people feel about the negative aspects of themselves.
To truly appreciate something, you must confine yourself to it. There’s a certain level of joy and meaning that you reach in life only when you’ve spent decades investing in a single relationship, a single craft, a single career. And you cannot achieve those decades of investment without rejecting the alternatives.
Because when we give too many fucks, when we choose to give a fuck about everything, then we feel as though we are perpetually entitled to feel comfortable and happy at all times, that’s when life fucks us.
We suffer for the simple reason that suffering is biologically useful. It is nature’s preferred agent for inspiring change. We have evolved to always live with a certain degree of dissatisfaction and insecurity, because it’s the mildly dissatisfied and insecure creature that’s going to do the most work to innovate and survive.
