Skip to content

    “The distractions of the digital age hack the vulnerabilities of our psychology. They give us little microbursts of dopamine that feel good in the moment, but amount to very little in the grand scheme of things.”

    Mark Manson, Blog

    Mark Manson Quote on Problems and How A Problem-Free Life Should Never Be The Goal

      “Problems never stop; they merely get exchanged and/or upgraded.”

      Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

      Beyond the Quote (274/365)

      Let’s be clear: the goal shouldn’t be to live a problem-free life. There is no such thing as a problem free life. How could it be? The very act of staying alive and healthy is a forever shape-shifting landscape of compiling problems that confront us afresh every minute of every day. So, what is the goal then?

      Read More »Mark Manson Quote on Problems and How A Problem-Free Life Should Never Be The Goal

      Mark Manson Quote on How Being Desperate For Something Doesn’t Help You Get It

        “The more you desperately want to be rich, the more poor and unworthy you feel, regardless of how much money you actually make.  The more you desperately want to be sexy and desired, the uglier you come to see yourself, regardless of your actual physical appearance.  The more you desperately want to be happy and loved, the lonelier and more afraid you become, regardless of those who surround you.  The more you want to be spiritually enlightened, the more self-centered and shallow you become in trying to get there.”

        Mark Manson, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

        Beyond the Quote (177/365)

        The more desperate you are, the more intense your feelings of lack become. Sometimes desperation comes from a lack of a need. These intense feelings are legitimate survival mechanisms designed to keep you alive. When you are desperately hungry, it implies that you would do just about anything for food. When you are desperately ill, it means that you would sacrifice almost anything for health. When you’re desperately sad, it means you would likely try anything for happiness again. But, desperation can be self-imposed from a lack of a want, too.

        Read More »Mark Manson Quote on How Being Desperate For Something Doesn’t Help You Get It

        Mark Manson Quote on Experiences and How To Find The Ideal Balance Between Breadth and Depth

          “Yes, breadth of experience is likely necessary and desirable when you’re young—after all, you have to go out there and discover what seems worth investing yourself in.  But depth is where the gold is buried.  And you have to stay committed to something and go deep to dig it up.  That’s true in relationships, in a career, in building a great lifestyle—in everything.”

          Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

          Beyond the Quote (163/365)

          With every major category in life—relationships, career, lifestyle—we must choose how to optimally invest our time. With time being our most precious resource, this is no easy task. How much time should we spend with our family versus our friends? With our current friends versus new friends? On our career versus our vacations? On tasks related to our career versus tasks that might expand our career options? On consuming things produced versus producing things to be consumed? On acquiring more versus minimizing and using less? What Manson points to above, however, is a fundamental insight that can help guide you in this effort.

          Read More »Mark Manson Quote on Experiences and How To Find The Ideal Balance Between Breadth and Depth

          The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck [Book]

            The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

            By:  Mark Mason

            From this Book: 33 Quotes

            Book Overview:  In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be “positive” all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.  For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. “F**k positivity,” Mark Manson says. “Let’s be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it.” In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is—a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected modern society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.

            Buy from Amazon!  Listen on Audible!

            Great on Kindle. Great Experience. Great Value. The Kindle edition of this book comes highly recommended on Amazon.

            Post(s) Inspired by this Book:

            1. 23 No Bullsh*t Mark Manson Quotes from The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
            2. Mark Manson Quote on Problems and How A Problem-Free Life Should Never Be The Goal (Beyond the Quote 274/365)
            3. Mark Manson Quote on How Being Desperate For Something Doesn’t Help You Get It (Beyond the Quote 177/365)
            4. Mark Manson Quote on Experiences and How To Find The Ideal Balance Between Breadth and Depth (Beyond the Quote 162/365)
            5. The Story of Buddha and How Happiness is Not the Absence of Suffering

              “The only way to be comfortable with death is to understand and see yourself as something bigger than yourself; to choose values that stretch beyond serving yourself, that are simple and immediate and controllable and tolerant of the chaotic world around you.  This is the basic root of all happiness.  Whether you’re listening to Aristotle or the psychologists at Harvard or Jesus Christ or the goddamn Beatles, they all say that happiness comes from the same thing: caring about something greater than yourself, believing that you are a contributing component in some much larger entity, that your life is but a mere side process of some great unintelligible production.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

                “Commitment gives you freedom because you’re no longer distracted by the unimportant and frivolous.  Commitment gives you freedom because it hones your attention and focus, directing them toward what is most efficient at making you healthy and happy.  Commitment makes decision-making easier and removes any fear of missing out; knowing that what you already have is good enough, why would you ever stress about chasing more, more, more again? Commitment allows you to focus intently on a few highly important goals and achieve a greater degree of success than you otherwise would.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

                  “While investing deeply in one person, one place, one job, one activity might deny us the breadth of experience we’d like, pursuing a breadth of experience denies us the opportunity to experience the rewards of depth of experience.  There are some experiences that you can have only when you’ve lived in the same place for five years, when you’ve been with the same person for over a decade, when you’ve been working on the same skill or craft for half your lifetime.  Now that I’m in my thirties, I can finally recognize that commitment, in its own way, offers a wealth of opportunity and experiences that would otherwise never be available to me, no matter where I went or what I did.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

                    “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.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

                      “If people cheat, it’s because something other than the relationship is more important to them.  It may be power over others.  It may be validation through sex.  It may be giving in to their own impulses.  Whatever it is, it’s clear that the cheater’s values are not aligned in a way to support a healthy relationship.  And if the cheater doesn’t admit this or come to terms with it, if he just gives the old ‘I don’t know what I was thinking; I was stressed out and drunk and she was there’ response, then he lacks the serious self-awareness necessary to solve any relationship problems.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

                        “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.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

                          “Freedom grants the opportunity for greater meaning, but by itself there is nothing necessarily meaningful about it.  Ultimately, the only way to achieve meaning and a sense of importance in one’s life is through a rejection of alternatives, a narrowing of freedom, a choice of commitment to one place, one belief, or (gulp) one person.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

                            “Life is about not knowing and then doing something anyway.  All of life is like this.  It never changes.  Even when you’re happy.  Even when you’re farting fairy dust.  Even when you win the lottery and buy a small fleet of Jet Skis, you still won’t know what the hell you’re doing.  Don’t ever forget that.  And don’t ever be afraid of that.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

                              “Our most radical changes in perspective often happen at the tail end of our worst moments.  It’s only when we feel intense pain that we’re willing to look at our values and question why they seem to be failing us.  We need some sort of existential crisis to take an objective look at how we’ve been deriving meaning in our life, and then consider changing course.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

                                “Improvement at anything is based on thousands of tiny failures, and the magnitude of your success is based on how many times you’ve failed at something.  If someone is better than you at something, then it’s likely because she has failed at it more than you have.  If someone is worse than you, it’s likely because he hasn’t been through all of the painful learning experiences you have.” ~ Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck