MarkManson.net

My online media company that has owned and managed a variety of web properties over the years, but primarily it's just my popular self-development blog: MarkManson.net

CEO and Founder

I don't spend much time on LinkedIn, so the best way to contact me is via email.

Just to give you a brief idea of who I am: I write stuff and apparently millions of people read it. Over 20 million books sold, 3x #1 New York Times Bestsellers and my site MarkManson.net is, well, popular.

My newsletter is called "Your Next Breakthrough". It's one idea, one question, and one exercise each week that could spark your next breakthrough. No fluff, no filler, no BS. Just five minutes each week that might change everything. Sign up to it here: https://mrk.mn/3lKSV88

You can also find me hanging out on Instagram as @markmanson and on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@IAmMarkManson

Worrying is a cheap replacement for caring. 
Complaining is a cheap replacement for fixing. 
Outrage is a cheap replacement for supporting.

It’s easy to tear down. It’s much harder to build up.

Mark Manson

The Buddha once said that hatred was like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Let go of your resentments. Life is too short.

It's a simple fact of life: if you want to do something incredible, something that makes you stand out above the rest, then you have to become comfortable being different—that means being misunderstood, criticized, even hated.

Self-discipline is the ultimate form of self-care.

Bravery is not the absence of fear. Bravery is feeling the fear, the doubt, the insecurity, and deciding that something else is more important.

Life advice is like clothing—try it on and if it doesn’t fit, discard it and try something else.

"Your blessing in life is when you find the torture you're comfortable with."

– Jerry Seinfeld

The trick to self-improvement is to make plenty of mistakes… 
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But to never make the same one twice.

The most useful trait you can train within yourself:
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To stop seeing failure as a bad thing.

If your self-discipline feels difficult, well, you’re doing it wrong. And in this week’s episode of The Subtle Art pod, Drew and I are going to enlighten you with some important wisdom around this. Stop running yourself into the ground, and start running at a very consistent and repetitive pace.

To listen to "5 Ways to Be Self-Disciplined Without Making Yourself Miserable", I’ve left the link in the comments 👇 

#selfdiscipline #motivation

Struggling to get motivated, read this 👇

Most people only commit to action if they feel a certain level of motivation. And they only feel motivation when they feel emotional inspiration.

And how often to you think people feel emotionally charged to put in the effort to go bust their asses? Yeah, a lot less often than you think. 

Think about it. People only become motivated to study for the exam when they’re afraid of the consequences. People only pick up and learn that instrument when they feel inspired by the people they can play for. These are emotionally-driven actions.

We feel lethargic and apathetic towards things we want to do because we lack the motivation. And we lack the motivation because we don’t feel any overarching emotional desire to accomplish something. Like go to the gym, as reader Lindsay shares:

“I used to have a lot of motivation before the age of 25. I would exercise regularly, keep a clean apartment, get dressed up every single day, put my all into my college courses and job. It felt like motivation was just…there.

Fast forward to today and I’m 31 with three kids, all under 6 years old, and the realities of life have set in. I’ve been telling myself for six years that I will get back into the gym, but the motivation just isn’t there like it used to be. 

I keep lying to myself and making excuses because life’s harder than it used to be. I tell myself I’ll workout when the motivation strikes…only, the motivation never strikes and then my 2-year-old takes a dump in the cat’s litter box and I tell myself, ‘Ah, this is why I never work out’.” 

😳

Problem is, we typically think motivation works something like this:

Emotional Inspiration → Motivation → Desirable Action

But the thing about the motivation chain is that it’s not only a three-part chain but an endless loop.

Your actions *create* the emotional inspiration and move on to motivate your future actions. Motivation starts with taking action. Always.  Go, try it. Do something, anything really, and then harness the emotional reaction to that action as a way to begin motivating yourself.

If you liked this story, you’ll love my ebook full of reader stories. I’ve put together a FREE PDF download packed with a ton of two-way conversations I’ve had with my readers the last couple of years. Grab it from the link in bio 👇

A lot of people mistake patience for the ability to wait for something. But this isn’t quite true. Patience isn’t simply being able to wait for a reward, *it’s our attitude towards waiting*.

For example, I might *be able* to wait for the pizza I ordered an hour and a half ago, but I can do so in one of two ways:

1. Patiently—calmly working on this draft, reading a book, and just enjoying my time alone before my large jalapeño-pepperoni pie with extra garlic sauce arrives;

2. Impatiently—pacing around my apartment, calling the restaurant (again!), and chewing on my t-shirt to soothe my hunger pangs.

Obviously, one of these options is better than the other—better for me, better for the delivery guy, better for my T-shirt.

But the evidence suggests that we’re becoming worse at this. We’re becoming more impatient.

Why on earth is this? Get the answers in my article. Link in comments 👇

Steven Pressfield looks back on his life’s work with a clear-eyed view of what it takes to achieve one’s dreams. Including self-sabotage and the grueling war we all fight within our own minds. AKA The Resistance. This is an insightful and useful episode, with wisdom that could help you no matter where you are in life. 
Link in comments 👇

In this week’s newsletter, we’re discussing how it’s easy to overreact, but difficult to stay level-headed. Happy Monday.

markmanson.net

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things | Your Next Breakthrough

Here’s my list of the 11 best books on politics, in no particular order. Link in comments…

I have a metaphor that will either make or break your Monday.

Taplio

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