| "Five minutes each week that might change your life." | 119 people had a breakthrough last week. Read this newsletter on MarkManson.net. | | | TWO THINGS FOR YOU TO THINK ABOUT A few pursuits will generate most of your happiness. A few people will meet most of your needs. A few projects will result in most of your success. What if the answer to improving your life isn't to do more? What if the answer is to focus on less? | Reflect: Then consider sharing this thought with others. | | | ONE THING FOR YOU TO ASK YOURSELF What can you cut out of your life that will immediately improve it? | Recommended: Use these as journaling prompts for the week. | | | ONE THING FOR YOU TO TRY THIS WEEK Cut one thing out of your life that dramatically improves it. Let me know how it goes. | Remember: Small changes lead to lasting breakthroughs. Reply to this email and let me know how it went. | | | NEW THIS WEEK It's Never Too Late to Turn Your Life Around (ft. Brandon Novak) – Brandon Novak showed all the signs of becoming a highly successful, rebellious young man. A professional skateboarder in his early teens and by his twenties, a regular on world-famous TV shows. But drugs and alcohol were always lurking in the shadows, and he soon fell head-first into the dark trap of his addictions. He endured bouts of homelessness, committed every petty crime imaginable, and even resorted to sex work to feed his addictions. Not only is Brandon still alive right now, he's 9 years sober and has found a deep and meaningful life purpose, running his own rehab centers and taking care of his elderly mother. In this latest podcast episode: the hilarious and heartening story of how he turned it all around. And trust me, if he can do it, so can anyone else. | Big Announcement: Australia and New Zealand Tour I'm excited to announce that after five years, I'm returning to Australia and New Zealand for a live event tour this November. It will be a fun evening of humor, insights, and a few surprises. There will be chances for Q&A and meet and greets as well. If you are, or will be, in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth, or Auckland in November, I'd love to see you there. Click below to learn more. Dates and tickets | Cut out the crap Sponsored by 1440 One thing I've cut out of my life that has dramatically improved it: junk news. Traditional news is full of noise and clickbait titles designed to suck unsuspecting news junkies into an all-consuming cycle of outrage. And that's no good for anybody, least of all you. These days, I get my news from 1440—a daily digest for unbiased, fact-centric news. Every morning, 1440 analyzes over a hundred sources and sends me a 5-minute read covering everything from politics to sports. With 1440, I experience news without the noise and get to make up my own mind about the important issues of the day. Oh, and did I mention it's completely free? Sign up for news without motives | |
LAST WEEK'S BREAKTHROUGHS In last week's newsletter, I asked you to lean into the willingness to be disliked for something and notice the freedom it gives you. For Meghan, doing this paradoxically made her new friends: "For most of my life, I have struggled with social anxiety. This issue is especially bad at work, where the (self-imposed) pressure to have a good relationship with colleagues has made work far more uncomfortable and draining than it should be. Recently, I realized that my colleagues' opinion of me absolutely should not matter, and not being friends with any of them has zero impact on my life. The worst case scenario is that they see me as 'weird' and limit their interactions with me to professional matters, which honestly suits me just fine. Amazingly, since deciding that I don't care what they think, my anxiety has improved dramatically. I suddenly feel more comfortable joining in conversations about matters unrelated to work and fumble over my words far less. Now that I have relaxed, they seem to be more at ease around me as well. I've even started to enjoy getting to know some of them as we all open up a bit more." This is a perfect example of the Backwards Law in action. The only way you can get what you truly want in life—happiness, love, respect, trust, and so on—is by letting go of your desire for it. Another reader Vanessa let herself be disliked for walking away from a marriage and was surprised by the support that poured in: "I am a 37-year-old female who has very recently split from my husband. I had been disengaged in our marriage for some time and knew it wasn't the right relationship. I know I should have left sooner—finances, elderly and unwell pets and a very real fear of his emotional response kept me there. Then the dogs passed and when I was speaking to a close friend about 'how' you leave a relationship when you have history and entwined finances, their very basic and honest response of 'you just leave' is what finally made it click—ridiculous, I know. This week's suggestion of being willing to be disliked has reminded me how pleased I am to have made the decision at last, and that despite some people hating me for it, I made the right choice for me and I believe for both of us long term. Things are still very 'messy' but the sense of freedom and strength in myself is immense. Just going to add that this sort of thing really brings out the people in your life who support you and wow, I have such an incredible support system in my friends, family and workmates that I have never truly appreciated—I get teary thinking about it!" Most major life problems are what I call "simple, but difficult." That is, they are actually simple to solve—you just leave—but they are extremely difficult to do. Because they are emotionally difficult, we imagine that they must also be complicated—that there must be rules, procedures, and details that we're not understanding. But no, it's usually quite simple—painfully simple. As always, send your breakthroughs by simply replying to this email. Let me know if you'd prefer to remain anonymous. Until next week, Mark Manson #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
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| FOLLOW FOR MORE Want to share this newsletter via text, social, or email? Simply copy and paste the following link: https://markmanson.net/breakthrough/086-the-quickest-way-to-improve-your-life If you were forwarded this message, sign up to receive it each week here. It's free. I never spam. About this newsletter: You are receiving this email because you signed up to my weekly newsletter. Each week, I send you a few powerful ideas, a few questions to ask yourself, and a few things to try in your life. If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter and all other updates from me, you can unsubscribe here. Disclaimer: By sending your breakthrough you are giving us your explicit consent to process the data and share it with our newsletter subscribers, MarkManson.net website visitors and on social media, including any sensitive data such as information regarding mental health, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation. You may opt out and/or request deletion of the data at any time. You acknowledge that once we have shared your breakthrough with the other email subscribers we can no longer delete the data from their mailboxes. Infinity Squared Media LLC, 8605 Santa Monica Blvd, PMB 39160, West Hollywood, CA 90069 | |
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