The goal is to take your mind—a wonderful thing that has spent its life learning to <a href="https://markmanson.net/your-two-minds">chase various creatures </a>—and teach it to stop chasing <a href="https://markmanson.net/the-meaning-of-life">meaning </a>and <a href="https://markmanson.net/real-cost-of-freedom">freedom </a>and <a href="https://markmanson.net/how-to-be-happy">happiness </a>because those only serve to move it further away from itself. To teach it to achieve what it desires by giving up what it desires.

Trying too hard to get what you want in life—like love, respect, and happiness—often has the opposite effect: you end up lonely, dejected, and miserable. But there’s another curve, one that you’ve probably never seen or heard of before—and that’s largely because I make a lot of this shit up. That’s the inverted curve:<a href="https://markmanson.net/why-the-best-things-in-life-are-all-backwards#footnote-7">7 </a> The inverted curve is the bizarro “Twilight Zone” curve, where effort and reward have a negative correlation—that is, the more effort you put into doing something, the more you will fail to do it.

Diminishing returns

The goal is to take your mind—a wonderful thing that has spent its life learning to <a href="https://markmanson.net/your-two-minds">chase various creatures </a>—and teach it to stop chasing its own tail. To stop chasing <a href="https://markmanson.net/the-meaning-of-life">meaning </a>and <a href="https://markmanson.net/real-cost-of-freedom">freedom </a>and <a href="https://markmanson.net/how-to-be-happy">happiness </a>because those only serve to move it further away from itself. To teach it to achieve what it desires by giving up what it desires. To show it how the only way to reach the surface is to let itself sink.And how do we do this? <a href="https://markmanson.net/how-to-let-go">By letting go </a>. By giving up. By surrendering. Not out of weakness. But out of a respect that the world is beyond our grasp.

And how do we do this? By letting go . By giving up. By surrendering. Not out of weakness. But out of a respect that the world is beyond our grasp. By recognizing that we are fragile and limited and but temporary specks in the infinite reaches of time. You do it by relinquishing control, not because you feel powerless, but because you are powerful. Because you decide to let go of things that are beyond your control. You decide to accept that sometimes, people won’t like you, that often you will fail, that usually you have no fucking clue what you’re doing.

Do read this complete link! The best thing I read in recent times.

Trying too hard to get what you want in life—like love, respect, and happiness—often has the opposite effect: you end up lonely, dejected, and miserable. Here's why.

Diminishing returns

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