Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck deals a healthy dose of reality from the point of view of someone who’s seen and experienced things most people never will
There is a lot to be learned from a man who’s traveled the world, nearly fell to his death, experienced the death of a friend, built a successful online business where people ask him for guidance, and then gave up the glamorous lifestyle for a more simple, fulfilled life.
This book has changed the way I see my past and my future. What will you take away from it?
There is a lot to grasp and reflect on, which is why I created this group. Talk and get help from others who’ve done the work. All you need is discipline and commitment.
Four main takeaways from The Subtle Art… were
- Choosing You Values
- Finding H
appiness - Accepting Suffering
- Letting go of Entitlement
This summary is purely intended to be supplemental to the book. If you haven’t read it yet, you’ll definitely want to grab a copy and soak it all in. Personally, I recommend this one on Audible.
Choosing Your Values
Stop giving a f*ck about everything and start giving a f*ck about only a few things.
Those few things should be important. And, you get to choose what those few things are.
That’s the hard part though…knowing your values.
What I have found is it can be so easy to say or think we value one thing, but in reality act in a way that shows we value something else more.
From the text, these are some of Mark Manson’s values:
“Friends. Family. Purpose. Burritos. And an occasional lawsuit or two.”
What are yours? Are they frivolous? Or important? Do you even know what your values are?
Happiness Is Not A Destination
If you think happiness is something you’ll get once you hit a certain milestone, you’re wrong.
Happiness, just like many other things, is about the journey, not the destination.
But its not just not about the journey, it is the journey.
One thing about humans is we’re so often not satisfied with what we have. We feel the need to have more. Well, if you want more you have to work for more.
As Mark Manson explains, happiness comes from from solving problems.
“True happiness occurs only when you find the problems you enjoy having and enjoy solving.”
What are you doing for happiness in your life? Trying to reach something? Or working to solve some problem?
Life is a Form of Suffering
Stop trying to be happy all the time. Stop paying attention to the media and social media of everyone looking like they’re happy all the time.
Suffering is an innate part of the human experience. Avoid it and you’ll suffer more. Accept it, and choose how you want to suffer, and you’ll suffer less.
“We suffer for the simple reason that suffering is biologically useful. It is nature’s preferred agent for inspiring change…This constant dissatisfaction has kept our species fighting and striving, building and conquering. So no—our own pain and misery aren’t a bug
of human evolution; they’re a feature.”
Do you honestly believe you’ll stop suffering once you get that one thing you’ve been wishing for for so long?
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
If I asked you if you felt entitled, you’d probably answer “No!”
But how do you know for sure?
Mark Manson has an interesting view of what it means to feel entitled, and to be honest, I felt a bit entitled once I understood it. I can accept that about myself and now work to change it.
Can you?
Mark hits on it multiple times throughout the book, but this short snippet is a good place to start:
“This entitlement plays out in one of two ways: 1. I’m awesome and the rest of you all suck, so I deserve special treatment. 2. I suck and the rest of you are all awesome, so I deserve special treatment. Opposite mindset on the outside, but the same selfish creamy core in the middle.”
Do you feel like this at all? How would you feel if you stopped believing this?
Write It Out
Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck can be a life changing book if you put them into action.
Putting ideas we read into action can be challenging! You might be thinking:
- There are SO many great ideas in there, where do we even start?
- What if I missed a really big idea on that one chapter I read while I was half asleep?
- How can I organize all this information in a nice clean way?
That’s why I created this group, free for you, to guide you through some of the ideas Manson talks about. Review the important big ideas and challenge yourself with questions and think about how you can apply The Subtle Art… to your life.