The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach To Living A Good Life is the book that changed the way I view life and opened my mind to concepts I had never thought of before reading this work.

I am a huge fan of Audible, aka the best audiobook site ever. After finishing The Like Switch by Jack Schafer and Marvin Karlins, I was scrolling through Audible and came across this bright orange book with some profane language displayed on the cover. It grabbed my attention, to say the least, most books do not use the F-word in its title, so I had to check this one out and see what it was all about.

I used to be the person who stressed about literally everything. Big or small, did not matter. I freaked out over so many situations that it started negatively affecting my life. I even went on anxiety medication to help me cope, I felt I could not handle all the stress and anxiety on my own.

I wish I had this book back when my anxiety was at its peak. I do not think I would have needed medicine if I knew what I know now as a result of reading this life-changing self-help book.

The premise of the book is that we all care too much about everything. We focus our attention and cares on way too many things, even the unimportant things, which is not only a waste of time but creates unnecessary anxiety. We need to start reprioritizing what we focus on and give so much of our energy to.

Problems will always be present in our lives. A good life is not defined by having zero problems, a good life is a life with good problems. We have the authority to handpick what exactly is and is not our problem, so we need to choose wisely.

One of my favorite scenarios presented in the book that perfectly depicts the overarching theme is the old woman in the grocery store.

Every single person cares about something different. Something super important to one person may be at the absolute bottom of the list for another person. To the old woman, insisting the clerk use her bag full of coupons is at the top of her priority list. She is single, no longer works, and has bountiful amounts of free time.

The teenage clerk becomes frustrated and thinks this old woman is ridiculous and that these '30 cents off' and '10 cents off' coupons mean absolutely nothing, but to her they mean a whole lot.

Think about it. If you are a young teenager you have so much more on your plate than an elderly woman does. You worry about attending school seven hours a day, completing hours upon hours of homework assignments, play sports, and balance a relationship and social life on top of all of that.

If you are a 70-year-old woman, the bulk of your time is spent at home entertaining yourself and meeting up with a friend once a week for lunch. A trip to the grocery store is about as adventurous as it gets, so yes stressing about coupons is relevant to your life but not this teenage boy’s life.

This book delves into so many examples as to how we over-complicate our lives by caring too much about things, and it would be extremely beneficial for everyone to read! I highly recommend you do so, so you too can be enlightened on how to stop giving too many F's!