The Feedback Loop from Hell

• Many self-help gurus teach you new forms of denial and pump you up with exercises that feel good in the short term, while ignoring the underlying issue. Remember, nobody who is actually happy has to stand in front of a mirror and tell himself that he’s happy.
• Pain s...

Do something now, even if it’s really small, and let good actions cascade as a result.

• If you are able to not give a F*ck about the pain your goals require, you become unstoppable.
• Finding something important and meaningful in your life is perhaps the most productive use of your time and energy.
• You can’t merely be in love with...

• Instead of striving for certainty, we should be in constant search of doubt: doubt about our own beliefs, doubt our own feelings, doubt about what the future may hold for us unless we get out there and create it for ourselves.
• Openness to being wrong must exi...

• The key to a good life is not giving a F*ck about more; it’s giving a F*ck about less, giving a F*ck about only what is true and immediate and important.
• The more you pursue feeling better all the time, the less satisfied you become.
• Any attempt to escape the...

• If someone is better than you at something, then it’s likely because she has failed at it more than you have.
• If we’re unwilling to fail, then we’re unwilling to succeed.

….…“The more something threatens your identity, the more you will avoid it.”

• 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.
• Once we understand that r...

• The way to be happy and fulfilled, Manson says, is to not give a F*ck about everything we’re told to care about.
• Instead, get clear on what truly matters, focus your choices on those few priorities, and accept that in spite of that, you’ll still make stupid mistakes ...

• Fault is past tense.
• Responsibility is present tense.

Maturity == to become more selective about the F*cks you are willing to give.

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 one person.

1. Pleasure is a false god: People who focus their energy on superficial pleasures end up more anxious, more emotionally unstable, and more depressed.
2. Material Success: Many people measure their self-worth based on how much money they make or what kind ...

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.

• Confronting the reality of our own mortality is important because it obliterates all the crappy, fragile, superficial values in life.
•  Simple optioning for your own values in life, already makes you beautiful, already makes you successful, and already makes you loved...

1. Be comfortable with being different, not being indifferent.
2. Find something meaningful to give a F*ck about – otherwise you’ll waste energy on meaningless worries.
3. You always have a choice over what to give a F*ck about – as we get older, we realise wh...