⚡️ 10 Powerful Lessons from "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” by Mark Manson.

Hi PH, 👋 This is the second issue of Books In Short, a free weekly newsletter where I share the key insights and ideas from popular non-fiction books. This week I’m sharing 10 Powerful Lessons from "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” by Mark Manson. -- ⚡️ Summary In “The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck”, Manson challenges the self-help industry whose books argue that we should be constantly searching for more happiness and success. Manson points out that this approach will leave you feeling even less satisfied. So, instead of giving a f*ck about everything, you have to choose what to give a f*ck about. 🧠 Key Ideas 1. Avoid Constantly Pursuing Satisfaction The more you pursue feeling better, the less satisfied you become. Constantly pursuing satisfaction will reinforce that you lack it in the first place. The pursuit of positive experience is itself a negative experience, and the acceptance of negative experience is itself a positive experience. 2. Entitlement Is A Sickness Manson believes that self-help books and modern society are obsessed with the idea that we are all unique. The idea has created a society of entitled people who expect everything to go right for them all the time. Entitlement is feeling as though you deserve to be happy without sacrificing for it. “You feel that you’re perpetually entitled to be comfortable and happy at all times, that everything is supposed to just exactly the fucking way you want it to be. This is a sickness.” 3. Accept Reality Self-help books often focus on the goal of constant happiness. Manson suggests that this idea can be harmful. As humans, we are naturally slightly unhappy. We are all supposed to experience unhappiness as it helps us push on and look to achieve genuine success. Instead of aiming for a life without problems, we should aim for a live full of good problems. 4. Take Responsibility When you take responsibility for a problem, you take responsibility for how that problem makes you feel. “Often the only difference between a problem being painful or being powerful is a sense that we choose it, and that we are responsible for it” 5. Choose How You Respond To Life We cannot always choose what happens in our lives or the outcome of our decisions. But we have complete control over how we choose to respond to a problem or failure emotionally. 6. Doubt Your Beliefs Manson encourages us to challenge all our previously held ideas. Doubting ourselves and our actions will help us to improve over time consistently. 7. Reduce Your Ego The more something threatens your identity, the more you will avoid it. Thus, we need to reduce our sense of identity and ego to overcome this. 8. Fear Of Failure Is Your Biggest Enemy Failure is a hugely important part of life. Becoming an expert in anything requires thousands of failures. These failures are what help you to fine-tune your approach through continuous improvement. Fear of failure is your biggest enemy and can lead to stagnation. Instead of worrying about failure, we should just try again. “We can be truly successful only at something we’re willing to fail at. If we’re unwilling to fail, then we’re unwilling to succeed.” 9. Action Is Better Than Inaction If you feel stuck, then just do something. The “do something” principle argues that action often leads to motivation. 10. Say No So You Can Say Yes Being open towards everything will only mean that you spread yourself too thin. Manson explains that you cannot truly enjoy something if you don’t reject the alternatives. “This, in a nutshell, is what ‘self-improvement’ is really about: prioritising better values, choosing better things to give a f*ck about. Because when you give better f*cks, you get better problems.” Also read: ⚡️ 10 Powerful Lessons from “Atomic Habits” by James Clear -- ✍️ Top 3 Quotes “The key to a good life is not giving a fuck about more; it’s giving a fuck about less, giving a fuck about only what is true and immediate and important.” “You can't win if you don't play” “We don’t always control what happens to us. But we always control how we interpret what happens to us, as well as how we respond.”