Top Takeaways: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
Top Takeaways from The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
- Your energy should only be directed at things that matter to you and bring meaning to your life because that is a productive use of your time
- The key to living a good life is to care about fewer things, and only those which align with your personal values
- We live in an age where we have so much stuff thrown at us that we have a hard time prioritizing what we should care about and it is easy to make comparisons and feel we do not measure up to others. Caring about too many things makes us feel bad about ourselves
- The constant desire for more positive experiences is itself a negative experience. Accept that sometimes life is crappy, experiences are crappy
- Accept your mortality and understand that in our short lives we have a limited number of things we can and should care about
- Instead of wanting a life with no problems (impossible), aspire for a life with good problems – each time we solve a problem it creates a new set of upgraded problems
- Happiness = finding problems you enjoy having and enjoy solving
- Ask yourself what kind of pain/struggle you are willing to accept to get to where you want to be in life
- The journey to the top doesn’t stop, we continuously travel the path, solving problems along the way and learning new processes as we upgrade our problems
- You are not special/unique in your suffering
- The issue with comparison is most people are average at most things (maybe exceptional at one thing), but we are presented with extremes regularly – best of the best and worst of the worst of humanity (tech & mass marketing ruining people’s expectations for themselves)
- How we measure success influences how we view our experiences, problems, and where we are in life
- Taking responsibility for our problems does not mean we are at fault for them
- Growth = endlessly iterative process
- Rejecting alternatives is freeing, as is committing to one thing/person because you are relieved of second guessing the alternatives
- Confronting our mortality allows us to cut through and eliminate the superficial, fickle values life presents us with and prioritize what matters
