The Only Certainty: Death as a Compass
I finally had a chance to check out Mark Manson’s self help book and movie “Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fu-k” and it is as powerful as I expected it to be. I do understand why it was a bestseller.
I learned about Manson’s Law of Avoidance which is “people will avoid an action or experience in proportion to how much it threatens their identity and worldview…..it’s true for both positive and negative actions.”
I also learned about how dangerous certainty is. And what a trap it becomes in life. It prevents you from changing your life for the better.
“It’s more effective to look for doubt. What could you potentially be wrong about? what beliefs can be improved upon? What could potentially change? Those are more effective questions.”
The only thing we can be certain of is death. Why be afraid of death if you aren’t trying to fully live.
Death is a wake up call. “You have to pick something and care. Cause it can be gone any moment. When it goes, it goes fast and nobody is prepared for it.”
That’s why it’s good to stand on the edge of a cliff. It raises your body’s awareness and fear, you are wide awake.
“Only in the face of death all the superficial bullshitty values that we buy into fall away.
You start to realize the dumb status games no longer mean anything or that the achievements or the accolades you struggled for so many years for, nobody cares about when you are gone.
When we avoid the question of death, that’s when we get hijacked by soulless, superficial and hateful ideas.
Thinking about death removes all that. It forces you to see that 99% of the shit going on in your day to day life doesn’t f—ing matter.”
Powerful but eternal truths in human life.
“Death is the only certainty in life. Therefore death must be the compass we orient all our values and decisions. How are we using our time? How are we using our limited f—ks? Who are we going to be with?”
As I get older this becomes even more clear. What an incredible and effective tool for living a better life.