2018 Book Review #1 "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck"

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

by Mark Manson

This book was my first venture into this emerging category of sort-of "anti-self-help" books. I don't really know what to call this, but I love it. I never really thought of myself as the type of person who would read self-help books, but I really think this book has gotten me into the genre. You don't have to be a sad sack of person to read a self-help book. You could even be a type-A sociopath that everything think has all their shit in a row and ducks together and you could still desperately need a self-help book. Actually scratch that; you most definitely need this book. After finishing this one, I have actually now started about three other ones. Don't worry, those reviews will be coming soon.

Mark Manson (no relation to Marilyn Manson, oh well) is a blogger with his own website (markmanson.net),which is also worth a read. What I got from this book was pretty much not that we shouldn't not give a fuck about everything, but we need to choose carefully what we choose to invest our fucks in because they are precious and limited and not to be wasted.

Mark also makes his readers consider that we aren't all as special as we think. This isn't just for people who think they are the shit, but also people who think they are literal shit. Basically you aren't as great as you think and you aren't as horrible as a person as you think and if you think other people are thinking about your greatness or horribleness all the time you are probably wrong because most people aren't wasting their own personal fucks on what you are doing over there in your little bubble.

I really appreciated this because as harsh as it may seem, a lot of us need to hear this. I know I worry too much what other people think of what I do or say or wear or whatever, but the truth is most of them probably don't care. What matters is if you like yourself and if you let your self-worth depend on what other people think of you, you won't like yourself very much--and also you're probably wrong! Don't assume other people are judging you, let alone even thinking about you in general. It may seem harsh, but it is also very freeing. Thanks Mark, I needed that.

The other part of this book that really resonated with me was that he said we need to not pick what we want to do in life, but rather focus on the struggle we are willing to have. Mark basically says that you can't be a actor if you aren't willing to wait tables in LA for years and fail at auditions over and over until your big break. You have to also love the struggle (or at least accept it as a part of your life for the foreseeable future) if you want the success that will eventually come with it.

This book was very eye-opening and there is definitely something in it for everyone. I don't think you really need to read the entire book to get what you need out of it either. There were definitely parts about relationships or self-righteousness that I didn't feel I got anything out of, but I think may be exactly what someone else needed. I will definitely come back to this book in the future because I really believe there are aspects that I can't relate to simply because I haven't experienced the feelings he was referring too, but that doesn't mean I never will.

Mark Manson is truly pushing boundaries in this genre along with other authors you are changing what it means to write a "self-help" book and I am loving it.