The Book That Helped Me Decide What I Should Actually Give a F*ck About

This winter was brutal. After a long and sunless couple of months, I feel like I am finally waking up. As much as I wish my spirit animal would be an enthusiastic teacup pig, I know I embody many more of the qualities of a hibernating brown bear.

I feel better. Between the improved weather, bedtime routine adjustments and yet another change in medication, I am feeling more myself and better able to adapt to life’s inconveniences. Don’t forget the “soft” changes I’ve made in adding more creative and mindful outlets to my day-to-day.

I think the most important adjustment I’ve made involves a change in mindset that I’ve adopted from Mark Manson’s book, “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life,” a book that supports understanding what you value, discovering what is really important and not letting everything else bother you so much.

The book doesn’t pretend that life can exist without problems — life will have problems and that’s all but guaranteed. But Manson asks the reader to determine what problems we wouldn’t mind having. If someone wants to make a ton of money and be highly successful in their career, they may have to deal with the problem of working late and spending most of your time at the office. For one person, working late is a problem they wouldn’t mind having — they love what they do and want to spend lots of time doing it. For someone else, working late means time away from home, which would be a problem they could not happily live with.

Someone who wants kids and who values raising a family will have their own problems — sleepless nights, less free time, hundreds of loads of laundry and the parents’ own needs and wants taking a back seat initially. These are problems that many parents would gladly choose as they raise their kids.

As I surface from a depressive episode that took me out at the knees, I’ve started identifying what I give a f*ck about and what kind of problems I don’t mind having. I give a f*ck about showing up for my family and friends, recognizing the big and small wins with them. This means hustling across this great province to do so, which costs money. I don’t mind having money problems in exchange for healthy relationships because my people make me happy. For someone else, they couldn’t live with money problems and would choose to have another problem instead.

Taking the pressure off to care about everything has significantly improved my mental wellbeing. Being more selective about what I give a f*ck about has made room for the things that are really important, and also recognizing life is not designed to be comfortable at all times. If my expectation is that my life is supposed to be free of hardship, perfectly organized and with gorgeous filtered lighting, I am setting myself up to be sorely disappointed. Instead, I give myself permission to be less than perfectly put together, to choose a few things to care about and work on those and cut myself a little slack for the rest.

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Thinkstock photo via Wavebreakmedia Ltd.