Book Review: Everything is F*cked

If you liked The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, then this new book by Mark Manson might get you interested.



The moment I heard that there will be a new book, I didn't think twice of buying the book on the day it was released. After reading the Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, it made me view my life unlike ever before. We tend to care about everything that's going on with our lives, that sometimes, we actually forego of those that truly matter. The book helped me realized to focus my energy and attention on those things that I care about the most. With that being said, I really looked forward to what this new book has to offer. 

(I also made a book review for The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck which you can read here!) 

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QUOTES


"Because heroism isn't just bravery or guts or shrewd maneuvering. These things are common and are often used in unheroic ways. No, being heroic is the ability to conjure hope when there is none."

"...you can't simply change yourself; nor, I would argue, should you always feel you must."

"The fact is that we require more willpower to achieve self-control. It turns out our emotions are instrumental in our decision making and our actions. We just don't always realize it."

"The overindulgence of emotion leads to a crisis of hope, but so does the repression of emotions."

"...accepting our emotions and working with them rather than against them."

"When we stop valuing something, it ceases to be fun or interesting to us. Therefore, there is no sense of loss. no sense of missing out when we stop doing it.  On the contrary, we look back and wonder how we ever spent so much time caring about such a silly, trivial thing, why we wasted so much energy on issues and causes that didn't matter. These pangs of regret or embarrassment are good:  they signify growth. They are a product of achieving our hope."

"Our values aren't just collections of feelings. Our values are stories."

"The only way to change our values is to have experiences contrary to our values. And any attempt to break free from those values through new or contrary experiences will inevitably be met with pain and discomfort. This is why there is no such thing as change without pain, no growth without discomfort. It's why it is impossible to become someone new without first grieving the loss of who you used to be."

"This is our challenge, our calling: To act without hope. To not hope for better. To BE better. In this moment and the next. And the next. And the next."

"Adulthood is the realization that sometimes an abstract principle is right and good for its own sake, that even it hurts you today, even if it hurts others, being honest is still the right thing to do."

"The principled values of adulthood are unconditional- that is, they cannot be reached through any other means. They are ends in and of themselves." 

"...he decided that the only logical way to improve the world is through improving ourselves - by growing up and become more virtuous -  by making the simple decision, in each moment, to treat ourselves and others as ends, and never merely as means."

"Don't hope for a better life. Simple be a better life."

"Therefore, self-improvement is not the cultivation of greater happiness but, rather, a cultivation of greater self-respect."

"When we deny ourselves the ability to feel pain for a purpose, we deny ourselves the ability to feel any purpose in our life at all."

"The only true form of freedom, the only ethical form of freedom, is through self-limitation. It is not the privilege of choosing everything you want in your life, but rather, choosing what you will give up in your life."

"Ultimately, the most meaningful freedom in your life comes from your commitments, the things in life for which you have chosen to sacrifice."

"Don't hope for better. Just be better.
Be something better. Be more compassionate, more resilient, more humble, more disciplined."

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BOOK REFLECTION


Every time I pick up a book, I always have these pre-conceived notions of what it would be like and how it's going to end... and every time, I am always wrong how the book will be.

Every Thing Is F*cked is a book about hope (you can see it in the book cover), and of course, I thought it will talk about how to have hope... hope that life will get better, hope that all the things you want in life will come true. But no, the book tells me to stop hoping. It tells me to just become better than I was yesterday, to focus on growing and to look for my values, to stop avoiding pain. 

One of the things that I love that the book pointed out was that our emotions play a huge part in our lives. I've always been known to be too emotional and that made me feel like I'm weak. But Manson emphasized that our feelings are also very important in making decisions. We don't ignore it, but rather, we work around with it, rationalize it and find better alternatives that are aligned with our feelings and values.

Another thing that I liked about the book is the emphasis on pain. That pain is constant in this world. We live most of our lives trying to avoid pain, finding ways to divert it. If we want to grow, we should confront pain. There's an adage that says "no pain, no glory" and that is very true. You definitely know you're growing and improving when you experience some sort of pain.

The world we live in now is somehow f*cked up, as Manson would cite it, and that is on us. But we can still have a sliver of hope, however. Hope, that we ourselves, will become better than we are before. 
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There are yet so much I can talk about the book, but if I do try and write them all up here, I might not be able to finish! I seriously think this book is worth giving a try. Go ahead and give your own interpretation of the book, I'd love to hear them! :)

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5 Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing this. I’m definitely adding this to my reading list!

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  2. Ooooh! I didn't know that there's another one too! I'm so excited right now. Definitely going straight to my cart! Thank you!

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    Replies
    1. You’re welcome! And I hope you also enjoy the book! :)

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  3. I'm not a fan of the book title, but it sounds like a good read based on your review.

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