Subtle art of not worrying too much

The subtle art of not giving a F*uck.

Once you get over the rather unusually high use of the F word in this book, it is actually a very readable book. With a lot of wisdom as well.

I have had this book for three years but never picked it up to read as the title put me off. It appeared to be a cheap trick to get attention.

Mark’s advice is not substantiated with a lot of psychological research but is certainly supported by counterintuitive logic. The fixation on being happy and striving for perfection and other such conventional life advice is what we are used to.

Mark argues that by always trying to be that ‘perfect’ person or being ‘happy’ we are only reminding and reinforcing our lack of these states of mind. Read that again. And again.

This concept reminds me of the book Conversations With God by Neale Donald Walsch. He also argues that if we seek god’s blessings as ‘wanting’ happiness, that is what we get. Always ‘wanting’ it.

Being who we are and at peace with our emotions helps us remain authentic. Embracing our limitations and failures improves our chances of working on them and getting better. Pretending that all is well, reduces these chances.

Being worried about everything makes us less capable of doing anything about any of those things. Focusing on what is ‘now’ and ‘important’ is a better approach than staring at a long list of to-dos. This is similar to ‘Eat that Frog’ concept I shared last week.

1.???Not being overly worried about something does not mean we don’t care. We are just okay not being too worried. And if you are different from others, it is okay. Of course, don’t have criminal intent.

2.???We will always have problems. Don’t make a huge deal out of trivial things. Conserve your energy for what is truly important. Find a bigger worthier cause to worry about.

3.???Select wisely what you want to care about. Everything else leads to unnecessary anxiety.

My?post on LinkedIn with a more detailed note has had over 31k views and 300+ reactions. You can read it?here .

Note. The F word is overly used only in the first few pages. I suspect it was Mark’s method of shocking us or gaining attention. And he did it well. So, if you did not want to read the book because of the offensive title, just bear it for the first 20 odd pages.

Consider making Commitments. Not resolutions.

Earlier today I started what will be a series of short videos on LinkedIn leading up to the new year. I will be talking about one key commitment we can make with ourselves. No resolutions, just commitments to start small.

See today's post and video?here .

My recent LinkedIn Posts

I recently wrote on customer-centric behaviour at Decathlon, and how selection/hiring and training can help in turning our staff into customer fanatics. Read it?here .

Who celebrates a FedexDay at work? No, not Federal Express. It is Atlassian the company behind Jira and Trello. Read more about this day?here .

In my pro-bono coaching, I get a lot of questions about job-hopping. I have summarised some of my thoughts in a post and you can read it?here .

???? ???????? ???????????????????? ???? ????????????????. ???????? ??????????????, ??????????????, ????????, ????????????, ??????, ???????????????????? ???? ????????????????. I wrote this deep post which I would love to see your reactions to. You can read it?here .

Recent interviews

I was recently interviewed by?Rohit Dev ?on my roller coaster journey.?Here ?is part 2 of the interview. For Part 1 check?here .

I also spoke with Sachin Garg, Regional Director of ASQ recently on his Customer Centricity series. You can check the recording?here .

Meet Dr Suman Shree in our next Qualitist Show

I will be talking to Dr Suman Shree on 25 December at 1100 IST to be streamed live on LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube. Dr Suman Shree is a distinguished Qualitist and will share her knowledge of the intersection of Quality and Healthcare. You can register on LinkedIn?here .

Stay connected

If you like this newsletter and my work please do share it along. I will be grateful. I am building a community of people interested in managing better and any help will be deeply appreciated.

You could follow me on?LinkedIn , subscribe to my?YouTube ?Channel, like my?Facebook ?page, get my weekly?Revue newsletter ?or just plain write to me if you want to connect.

Stay safe. Safe happy. Manage Better.

Regards,

Anshuman