I wanted to know what all the hype was about this book. It has been on numerous top 10 lists including Amazon Charts and New York Times Bestseller List. The book points out a different perspective on how we think of things. One of the biggest takeaways was to not stress about everything little thing and really just to choose your battles wisely. Mark Manson writes, “The key to a good life is not to give a f**k about more, it’s about caring about less, giving a f**k about only what is true, immediate and important.” He talks about specific things and ideas in life that seem counterintuitive, but yet as I pondered the concepts, they made total sense. We are conditioned to think and act a certain way, which is not always the right way, but that is all we know. Reading this book gave me a new perspective on how to think and experience things!

Some key quotes that resonated with me:

· Be comfortable with being different

· To not care about adversity you must first care about something more than adversity

· You are always choosing what to care about

· Suffering inspires change

· Pain spurs action

· Pain is what teaches us what to pay attention to

· Hope for a life of good problems

· Happiness comes from solving problems

· True happiness occurs only when you find the problems you enjoy having and enjoy solving

· You mess up by denial or victim mentality

· DON’T TRY: “Ever notice that sometimes when you care less about something, you do better at it?”

· Stare down life’s most terrifying and difficulty challenges and take action

· What are you willing to struggle for?

· The knowledge and acceptance of your own mundane experience will actually free you to accomplish what you truly wish without judgement or lofty goals

· You will have growing appreciation for life’s basic experiences: please of simple friendship, creating something, helping a person in need, reading a good book, laughing with someone you care about

· What standards do we measure ourselves?

· As soon as you stop wanting something, you get it

· Choose what matters and COMMIT!

· Commitment gives you freedom!

· What is your legacy? To understand and see yourself as something bigger than yourself

· Life is about not knowing and doing it anyway

· It’s not about controlling what happens to us, but how we respond to what happens to us

· There is nothing to be afraid of.. EVER!