“Personal Growth that Doesn’t Suck” from Rebel Wisdom
“Personal Growth that Doesn’t Suck”
Source: Rebel Wisdom + Mark Manson (Watch or Listen: 59 min)
Contributor: Selena Garcia
“I truly believe that a certain amount of struggle and suffering is beneficial developmentally, intellectually, physically… I think we've lost sight of that.” - Mark Manson
It's nearly impossible to be on social media today without being told you need to "heal your trauma" or "just think positive." Toxic positivity and narcissism in the personal development space are leaving a bad taste in the mouths of many. May this piece from Rebel Wisdom and Mark Manson serve as a pallet cleanser.
Description: “Mark Manson is a hugely popular blogger and bestselling author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck and Everything is F*cked, a Book About Hope. In this conversation with Rebel Wisdom's David Fuller he talks about how you can't wish yourself into a better life, the value of hardship and suffering, and his fascinating background in the world of pickup artistry, and what happened to that subculture."
Mark "believes mental health and self-improvement are not something for the few or the privileged, but rather they should be a right for anyone who has taken on the responsibility to improve themselves."
If you are not familiar—"Rebel Wisdom looks to move beyond ideology. We create our content with the intention of engaging with the whole person – intellect, body, and intuition - to create honest discussions."
So, gather 'round "rebels and renegades," this is for you. In addition to the above, they touch on religiosity and meaning theories, and the catch 22 young men often face being encouraged to become more vulnerable while also being told they're taking up too much space.
As always, take what you want and leave the rest.
“Because the internet and social media tend to promote things that are contrarian and contradictory, we are all flooded with contradictory information. And because we're flooded with contradictory information, we simply don't know what's meaningful and important anymore. Or it's much more difficult to determine what's meaningful and important.” - Mark Manson
(5:40) MARK: “I believe very strongly that western culture, in general, has developed an aversion to what I would call healthy struggle, healthy suffering. I truly believe that a certain amount of struggle and suffering is beneficial developmentally, intellectually, physically. And so I think we've lost sight of that. And a big goal of mine is to bring that into it. And then on a more business side of things, I just think that the old guru model of a guy standing on stage charging people's entire life savings to hear him talk for three days; I just think that's really scummy. I think these are very basic and fundamental ideas, and therefore, they should be disseminated as widely as possible and as inexpensively as possible."
(15:01) MARK: "Overall crisis and meaning, I don't think there's any single clear explanation for it. We see it demonstrated in all sorts of vectors. So, increasing anxiety and depression, and suicide rates, and all these things. Some people point at the secularization of culture. It's that lack of religiosity. And sure enough, when you look at religious groups of people, they tend to do much better on a number of measurements of psychological well-being. They tend to be happier, depressed less often, they tend to live longer, they tend to have more stable relationships. And so there's this sense that we need that cosmic purpose in our life to make everything else more possible.”
(16:06) MARK: “Another theory that gets thrown out a lot is it's called the atomization of culture. So, it's people are becoming more independent. More people live alone. Fewer people live with family members. Elderly people now live in retirement homes. They don't live with their children when they get old. People are having fewer children. They're having children later. So there's less strong familial linkages in people's everyday life.”
(16:38) MARK: “And then a theory that I throw out in Everything Is Fucked is that… And this kind of comes back to what we were talking about making connections between things is that we're so overloaded with information these days, and there's so many contradictions, so much of that information is contradictory. So you read one article today that says veganism is the healthiest lifestyle, and then tomorrow, you read something that completely contradicts it, and you have no idea what to believe anymore. And so, because the internet and social media tend to promote things that are contrarian and contradictory, we are all flooded with contradictory information. And because we're flooded with contradictory information, we simply don't know what's meaningful and important anymore. Or it's much more difficult to determine what's meaningful and important.”
FOR THE FULL TALK, WATCH OR LISTEN. (59 min)
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