Mark Manson's Blog, page 13

The Uncomfortable Truth

The following is an excerpt from the first chapter of my new book Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope. The book comes out worldwide on May 14th. You can pre-order the book from Amazon or get a signed copy from Barnes and Noble. You can pre-order internationally from a list of vendors here.

If I worked at Starbucks, instead of writing people’s names on their coffee cup, I’d write the following:

One day, you and everyone you love will die. And beyond a small group of people for an extremely...

5 Skills to Help You Develop Emotional Intelligence

An astronaut is probably the most difficult job to land on the planet. Of tens of thousands of applications, NASA selects roughly half a dozen each decade. The application process is rigorous and highly demanding. You have to be a total badass to qualify. You have to have deep expertise in science and engineering. You need at least 1,000 hours of piloting experience. You have to be physically fit and strong. And, most of all, you have to be a smart motherfucker.

Lisa Nowak was all of these t...

5 Skills You Need to Be More Emotionally Intelligent than the Average Three-Year-Old

An astronaut is probably the most difficult job to land on the planet. Of tens of thousands of applications, NASA selects roughly half a dozen each decade. The application process is rigorous and highly demanding. You have to be a total badass to qualify. You have to have deep expertise in science and engineering. You need at least 1,000 hours of piloting experience. You have to be physically fit and strong. And, most of all, you have to be a smart motherfucker.

Lisa Nowak was all of these t...

A No-Bullshit Guide to Meeting the Right Person

A sizable portion of the dating pool is made up of people who think that all of the people they meet and date are untrustworthy, shallow, selfish, and manipulative.

Yet, as I’ve written previously, if all of your relationships end in psychological ruin, then that says more about you and less about the opposite sex (or whoever you’re dating). Your sample size sucks. And your ability to choose a romantic partner sucks.

There are millions of attractive, confident, emotionally stable, amazing,...

“Who the Fuck Am I?”: The Ultimate Guide to Personal Values

For the last few years, I’ve had an idea for a satirical self-help article called, “The Productivity Secrets of Adolf Hitler.” The article would feature all the popular self-help tropes—goals, visualizations, morning routines—except expressed through the exploits of Hitler.

“Hitler starts his day at 5 AM each morning with a quick round of yoga and five minutes of journaling, he’s able to focus his mind on his highly ambitious goals.”

“Hitler discovered his life purpose in a beer hall in his...

7 Strange Questions That Help You Find Your Life Purpose

One day, when my brother was 18, he waltzed into the living room and proudly announced to my mother and me that one day he was going to be a senator. My mom probably gave him the “That’s nice, dear,” treatment while I’m sure I was distracted by a bowl of Cheerios or something.

But for fifteen years, this purpose informed all of my brother’s life decisions: what he studied in school, where he chose to live, who he connected with, and even what he did with many of his vacations and weekends.

A...

If Self-Discipline Feels Difficult, Then You’re Doing It Wrong

When I was in college, there were some people on the internet who claimed that you could train yourself to sleep as little two hours per day. Keep in mind, this was back in the early 2000s when we all still believed random shit we read on the internet.

Here’s how the story went: There was a hyper-productive sleep schedule that had been discovered by military scientists. They were testing the limits of sleep deprivation on soldiers and made this startling discovery. Supposedly, great historic...

What’s the Problem with Masculinity?

Meeting Pablo Escobar’s brother turned out to be one of the more disappointing moments of my life. In Medellin, Colombia, you can go to the Escobar house. In fact, there’s a whole tourism industry that’s sprouted up around Escobar and the old cartel. Much of this tourism is promoted and encouraged by the Escobar family themselves, as it’s ostensibly the only way they have to make much money these days.

When you meet him, Roberto Escobar is a short, hunched-over old man. He’s nearly blind and...

5 Books That Explain Why It Seems the World Is So Fucked

It’s the end of 2018 and if you aren’t freaking out about something, then… well, then I’m freaking out that you’re not freaking out. Tell the rest of us: what’s your secret? Because the rest of us are pretty sure the world is going to hell in a flaming handbasket. And not only do we not know why, but we don’t know what to do.

We live in a strange and contradictory time. On the one hand, the economies of the world are doing great! On the other, unless you’re wearing $2,000 Prada shoes and bru...

5 Principles for Making Better Life Decisions

One day, when I’m a multi-billionaire, I’m going to buy a massive plot of land out in the frigid wasteland of the northern Yukon and build a vast complex of unnecessarily poorly-designed buildings. There will be no roads that lead there. No utilities. No central heating. And insufficient staff to maintain the structure. I’ll then call it, “The Hall of Fame of Bad Decisions.”

It will be perfect. Because not only will the hall itself be a bad decision, but anyone who ever attempts to visit it...