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    “I grew up in a wealthy family.  Money was never a problem.  On the contrary, I grew up in a wealthy family where money was more often used to avoid problems than solve them.  I was again fortunate, because this taught me at an early age that making money, by itself, was a lousy metric for myself.  You could make plenty of money and be miserable, just as you could be broke and be pretty happy.  Therefore, why use money as a means to measure my self-worth?” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

      “We all have values for ourselves.  We protect these values.  We try to live up to them and we justify them and maintain them.  Even if we don’t mean to, that’s how our brain is wired.  If I believe I’m a nice guy, I’ll avoid situations that could potentially contradict that belief.  If I believe I’m an awesome cook, I’ll seek out opportunities to prove that to myself over and over again.  The belief always takes precedence.  Until we change how we view ourselves, what we believe we are and are not, we cannot overcome our avoidance and anxiety.  We cannot change.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

        “Uncertainty is the root of all progress and all growth.  As the old adage goes, the man who believes he knows everything learns nothing.  We cannot learn anything without first not knowing something.  The more we admit we do not know, the more opportunities we gain to learn.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

          “Growth is an endlessly iterative process.  When we learn something new, we don’t go from ‘wrong’ to ‘right.’  Rather, we go from wrong to slightly less wrong.  And when we learn something additional, we go from slightly less wrong to slightly less wrong than that, and then to even less wrong than that, and so on.  We are always in the process of approaching truth and perfection without actually ever reaching truth or perfection.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

            “We all get dealt cards.  Some of us get better cards than others.  And while it’s easy to get hung up on our cards, and feel we got screwed over, the real game lies in the choices we make with those cards, the risk we decide to take, and the consequences we choose to live with.  People who consistently make the best choices in the situations they’re given are the ones who eventually come out ahead in poker, just as in life.  And it’s not necessarily the people with the best cards.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

              “We all love to take responsibility for success and happiness.  Hell, we often fight over who gets to be responsible for success and happiness.  But taking responsibility for our problems is far more important, because that’s where the real learning comes from.  That’s where the real-life improvement comes from.  To simply blame others is only to hurt yourself.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

                “There is a simple realization from which all personal improvement and growth emerges.  This is the realization that we, individually, are responsible for everything in our lives, no matter the external circumstances.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck