The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F_ck

Before we can look at our values and prioritizations and
change them into better, healthier ones, we must first
become uncertain of our current values. We must
intellectually strip them away, see their faults and biases,
see how they don’t fit in with much of the rest of the world,
to stare our own ignorance in the face and concede,
because our own ignorance is greater than us all.
Manson’s Law of Avoidance
Chances are you’ve heard some form of Parkinson’s law:
“Work expands so as to fill up the time available for its
completion.”
You’ve also undoubtedly heard of Murphy’s law:
“Whatever can go wrong will go wrong.”
Well, next time you’re at a swanky cocktail party and you
want to impress somebody, try dropping Manson’s law of
avoidance on them:
The more something threatens your identity, the
more you will avoid it.
That means the more something threatens to change
how you view yourself, how successful/unsuccessful you
believe yourself to be, how well you see yourself living up to
your values, the more you will avoid ever getting around to
doing it.
There’s a certain comfort that comes with knowing how
you fit in the world. Anything that shakes up that comfort—
even if it could potentially make your life better—is
inherently scary.
Manson’s law applies to both good and bad things in life.
Making a million dollars could threaten your identity just as
much as losing all your money; becoming a famous rock
star could threaten your identity just as much as losing your
job. This is why people are often so afraid of success—for