I have read lots of books on self-development and productivity and recently finished the book “The Subtle Art of not giving a fuck”. There are a considerable amount of books on self-motivation and “how to be a successful person” out there but I think this book is among the bests. In this post I want to give you an insight about what this book is all about while not spoiling its content because I want you to read it yourself.

These days the COVID-19 virus has spread around the globe and as the officials says the best way to prevent it is to stay at home. Beside spending time on PS4, social network websites such as Twitter and Instagram, I think one of the best things to do is to simply read! In Iran, the government has restricted almost all of social activities including travel, cinemas, theaters, gyms, etc., to keep people at home. However, being at home is difficult. It’s really is. But we can use this time and do some valuable tasks.

The book’s main subject is aiming at our values. The values we think are important while they’re actually not. If you take a closer look on your values, you notice that most of them are not so valuable and don’t deserve the amount of concentration you’re currently putting on them.

When we care about these unimportant values, we automatically forget the things that actually matter. A great example of this is our past! Instead of pay more attention to our current state and future, some of us feel mad about things we have done in the past and always think about them, while they are gone now and there’s nothing we can do about them. We pay so much attention to our inabilities and compare ourselves to others we call successful because they can do things we cannot; while there are things we are good at and they’re not! The book is full of such examples.

The second part of the books focuses on what we call happiness. The author describes that TRUE happiness comes from difficult moments of our lives. It argues that short-term happiness does not last for long; on the contrary, achieving difficult milestones such as monetizing from your first start up or running your first marathon are examples of things that gives you the REAL happiness.

The book then talks about the importance of owning less. This is something most of us know as minimalism. It describes that having lots of things doesn’t give us joy; in contrast, owning less things delivers the true happiness! Because when we own less things (only things that are essential), we don’t have to care about extra-unimportant things we have.

Finally, the book talks about death. The truth that most people don’t want to talk about. They don’t want to think about that they are going to die one day. When we think about this inevitable fact, our brain automatically focuses on things that matters most and stops putting effort on things that are not valuable.

There are actually a lot to talk about this book. I described the content as general as possible to avoid any spoils. As I have mentioned, this is a must-read book; so don’t waist a moment and start reading.