{"id":2083,"date":"2017-05-07T14:03:20","date_gmt":"2017-05-07T14:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/?p=2083"},"modified":"2017-10-02T07:43:50","modified_gmt":"2017-10-02T07:43:50","slug":"the-subtle-art-of-not-giving-a-fuck-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.foxymonkey.com\/the-subtle-art-of-not-giving-a-fuck-book-review\/","title":{"rendered":"The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck [Book Review]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The

Treat your life as a precious gift, find what interests you and stop worrying about the little things. This is what this book is all about.<\/p>\n

We are all going to die one day. Once you really realise that, our annoying colleague at work, buying the next iPhone or being jealous of the neighbour\u2019s sports car only goes so far.<\/p>\n

We only have a limited number of fucks to give.<\/p>\n

You cannot fix everything because your time and resources are limited. List the things that actually matter to you and focus your energy on those. Give a fuck only when it matters!<\/p>\n

If there is only one thing I could take from this book it would be this:<\/p>\n

We achieve happiness only via solving problems we care about.<\/strong> The pleasure we get is the icing on the cake. Solving the actual problem is what makes us smile. It makes us look back with satisfaction and a sense of achievement.<\/p>\n

Imagine this: You have a guaranteed income and can sit around at home instead of going to work. Who wouldn\u2019t want that?<\/p>\n

The first week would be great. The second week less great, and by the fourth week, we would start getting dissatisfied because we don\u2019t have a bigger TV at home. After buying a new TV we would want to move to a better house, get new furniture etc.<\/p>\n

We would be unhappy having some temporary happiness dosage breaks. A human being is a creature that will start creating problems when sitting idle or have nothing to think about. It\u2019s not our fault, it\u2019s actually deeply rooted in our nature! Distress happens to wake us up and make us take action to evolve and survive.<\/p>\n

This is why it is extremely important to create the problems we want to have! Think of building your own outdoor wood-fired oven or running a marathon.\u00a0That would be much more satisfying than directly ordering a pizza. There will always be problems. Happiness lies in solving the ones that matter to us.<\/p>\n

The lesson? Surround yourself with hard problems, do not aim for shortcuts. It\u2019s only by solving those problems that you get the reward. If you don\u2019t make the effort of surrounding yourself with problems, then other problems will get created automatically anyway.<\/p>\n

This chapter got me seriously thinking. What problems should I throw to myself? Here are a few ideas:<\/p>\n