CHARMAIN NAIDOO: The impotence of being earnest
'There’s not an angel in sight. No mantra, no chanting or sitting still or listening to your inner voice. No manifesting or visualising or candle lighting. He just says it'
I’m reading what I think is one of the most illuminating, and refreshing pop psychology/ self help books I’ve ever come across – aptly named The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.
It’s a bit of a mystery, really, that this book should be so rivetingly affecting in terms of how it’s making me view my world and myself in it in deeply psychological ways.
A mystery since Mark Manson, who wrote it, is a blogger who describes himself as an entrepreneur, world traveller, former dating coach and psychology nerd: not a student of Freud or an acolyte of Jung or a follower of Maslow, Piaget, Pavlov… fill in a world renowned psychologist name here. Basically, Mark Manson’s premise is this: Life sucks, so suck it up and get on with it. Stop giving such a fuck about it. Choose what you choose to give a fuck about. On positivity, Manson says, “Let’s be honest; sometimes things are fucked up and we have to live with it.” On the need to be extraordinary – as we are told over and over again we can be or at least we should strive to be – Manson says: “Not everyone can be extraordinary - there are winners and losers in society, and some if it is not fair or your fault.” Reassuring, right?On the seeking of happiness (my favourite myth buster since I am a great happiness seeker, a follower of fashion in the happiness seeking genre): “The path to happ...
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