Mark Manson, a blogger who's helped me

Mark Manson has a site with a bunch of long essays that once have been blog posts. It’s markmanson.net.

He’s also written a book, “The subtle art of not giving a f*ck.”

I’m not sure how I came across him, but, hey, I did. Probably some blogger was writing about how much he liked Manson’s stuff. Kinda like this.

I highly recommend him. I’ll be writing more about him. He’s helped me.

The road to subscribing

After a couple of weeks of reading Manson, I decided to become a subscriber. For $48.00 a year I get full access to his site. Not just the tons of stuff he provides for free to everyone with a browser, but the “premium content” for people who pay $6.00 a month, or $48.00 a year. Well worth it, I say.

He reeled me in by offering to swap me an eBook called “3 ideas that can change your life” for my email address. Then he sent me an email every day with a link to a tasty blog post. I’d read the blog post and follow links to other posts. Eventually, I’d get to a premium content post and be asked subscribe. After a week or two of that, he reeled me in. I’m glad he was so politely persistent and so useful.

The three ideas

I thought swapping my email for an eBook was a pretty good deal. I thought it was an even better deal after I got the eBook.

Here’s my quick summary—more to remind me than to inform you. If you want to be fully informed, do the swap and get the ebook. You can get it by going to this page .

First: the list

1. Two minds.
2. 80/20 your life.
3. Believe not what’s true, but what’s helpful.

Two minds

You have two minds. A thinking mind and an observing mind.

The thinking mind thinks. And thinks. And thinks. And thinks. Most of the time it’s entirely out of control. And it causes dissatisfaction and suffering.

The observing mind can observe the thinking mind. Or it can become “fused” with it. Then there’s only thinking. And thinking and thinking.

Once you get used to “defusing” the thinking and observing minds, the observing mind can observe the thinking mind. Better decisions result.

80/20 your life

Apply the Pareto Principle to your life. Get rid of the shit that provides you with no value. Not as useful to me as the other two.

Believe not what is true, but what is helpful

This one I like a lot.

Enough to write another whole post about it. Later.

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