How do you react when things don’t go as you’d like? You get fired. You say something that makes the girl you’re flirting with run away. Your friend cancels on you at the last minute. Your girl cuts it off.
Most guys will act like the weight of the world was placed on their shoulders—like life as we know it has ended. It’s as if their job, girlfriend, plans, or friend was the only thing they had to live for. They’ll cry themselves to sleep and then bitch and moan to everyone they talk to for the next week or month. Instead of shrugging it off, learning from it, and continuing to live, they complain and get depressed.
This is known as playing the victim. It’s when you view your existence as a burden rather than an incredible opportunity to accumulate new experiences. You think that everyone is out to get you and that you have little control over your own life. You’re just waiting for the next bad thing to happen to you. One way people get trapped in this mindset is by taking themselves too fucking seriously.
The fate of humanity doesn’t depend on your success
When your friend fucks up it’s no big deal, right? He just got rejected by three girls in a row and you’re laughing your ass off and telling him to go for four. But when it happens to you, you start telling yourself that you’re ugly and girls think you’re a creep. What’s the difference? You’re taking yourself way too seriously.
Shit happens. Some things don’t go your way. Our reactions to unwelcoming circumstances define us. When the shit hits the fan will you curl your lip, grit your teeth, and curse the world for daming you once again? Or will you take a step back and realize that such is life, before smiling and proceeding accordingly?
View your life as a comedy, not a soap opera
One way to shift your mindset in times of pain or frustration is to change the lens through which you view life. In these times, when you take yourself seriously, it’s easy to view things as if they were happening in a soap opera—dreary music is playing, people are crying, and only negative emotions surface as a result. Instead you can view the circumstances as if they took place in a hilarious comedy.
You’re the main character, and you just got seriously fucked over. Or you just seriously fucked up. Is the world going to end? No. Focus on the silly, stupid, or ridiculous nature of the situation. This way you can shake your head and laugh it off. Even if the circumstances are heavy this method will allow you to take a step back and view the events that have just unfolded from a clearer, more grounded perspective.
In life, the people who take themselves and their circumstances way too seriously, even the wealthy or successful ones, ultimately lose. Rather than enjoying the things they experience, they focus on the negative and always find a way to spoil their own fun. This is not an invitation to be a lazy hippie, but rather a reminder to have fun and keep a lighthearted approach to life as you progress as a man and follow your goals.
For a blueprint to living a fulfilling, accomplished, fearless life, check out my new book Dominate. Click here for reviews and more info.
Read More: 3 Ways To Stop Being A Little Bitch
Don’t take petty and mundane things and events seriously. Take your lifelong goals very seriously.
You’re right of course : setting priorities and long-term goals is paramount.
However, taking even one’s most important goals too seriously can be damaging. For exemple, if you miss a workout, or binge eat one night, try not to make a fuss about it. It could lead you to give up, thinking : “I can’t do this thing properly anyway !” Instead, if you don’t take your mistake too seriously, you keep on, thinking : “Ok, I made a mistake, but if I’ll resume my proper regimen, things won’t be so bad and I’ll succeed anyway”.
Lol, the fate of humanity could very well depend on our collective success spreading red-pill ideas.
Some of you authors make it very easy to troll. But then again, what do you expect from the writer with a work titled “Dominate”?
The fate of the humanity does not depend on one single person nor on a group of people. The cream will always rise to the top no matter what and the organic social structure of mankind is always self-correcting.
It may not seem this way in the short term but if you look at millennia of human history, you will find this to be the case.
“Every man thinks of changing the world, no man thinks of changing himself.” -Tolstoy
Taking the world too seriously invariably leads to problems, just as if you took every fantasy movie you saw seriously. Playfulness is a quality of enlightenment. A sense of humor is a mark of wisdom.
flush me down the toilet and i’ll come swimming out of the other end with a plumbers license.
Legendary
Lots of words on the problem but almost none on the solution.
Solution? Thats easy. Learn about your brain and its chemistry. It aint about “emotions” its about chemistry. Dopamine and serotonin. Learn to understand where your brain chemistry levels are. Feeling down or anxious?
L-Theanine, L-Tyrosine, Ashgawanda, St Johns Wort, Tryptophan, 5-HTP.
Of course, workout, nutrition, sleep, relax, meditate, read.
Need to feeling energized and focused? Nootropics.
Manage this shit. Own it. Lifes a bitch and then you die. Control this silly shit that todays world effects brain everyday and be a King.
Thanks a lot. I was already looking into medication to control social anxiety. I’ll buy and try some of the things you mentioned.
it is pretty easy, just turn every situation around in your head until you can find the funny in it.
EVERY situation has humor. You just have to find it to make it bearable, that helps to heal it.
Example…WTC, first cheater article was hilarious, that helped to dull the horrible blow to our collective ego that it came to. as was the woman that called her husband just before she jumped to ask him if she left the oven on. yes, it was horrible, but it’s absurd humor helps to dull the pain.
Laughing is a human reaction to help deal with an intolerable pain. That’s why we evolved it… don’t shut it out.
Dammit Jefe! You gave away my secret to happiness!
Seriously though, if you guys don’t see the wisdom in this, then you’re already taking yourself (and this article) far too seriously. The point he’s making is to stop having negative emotions because they drag you back, yet fresh after reading his article, I see quite a few negative emotions springing up in the comments. Everyone could use a little more Big Lebowski in them.
you mean the dude. the big lebowski took himself rather seriously.
That’s just like, your opinion, man.
good advice, but there’s too much shit in the world to always laugh things off. being depressed is not healthy, but being a comedian is not realistic. it doesn’t work for everyone. some people project their charisma through seriousness, not humor. being excessive in either direction is the problem.
bleah, I laughed my way through ‘Rampage’.
A sense of humor and joy in the absurd and ironic is the only thing that makes this sick planet liveable.
I find that covering a girl in semen and then telling all of her friends cheers me up.
I prefer sending the video to her mangina father works wonders on even highly ‘tolerant’ dads.
I think a righteous killing rage is good for a nebbish occasionally.
….see that? That’s a win-win for everyone involved. All upside.
Sometimes, it’s useful to look back at some of the stupid shit you once worried about in order to get perspective.
This works as well for a young guy of 18-20 as it does for a guy who is 60. At the age of 18, you can remember how much you worried about having the “cool” sneakers when you 12, and realize how silly it was to waste so much energy on that. When you are 30, you might remember how you let worrying about getting the cool car distracted you from staying focused on your goals. When you are 60, you might remember how much you worried about getting that divorce, only to realize that it was the best damn thing that ever happened to you. At any age, you can remember being obsessed by getting this chick or that chick, only to realize that they are a dime a dozen.
In fact, if you look back, and you are honest with yourself, most of the things that you worried about were stupid. There are only about 3 or 4 major matters of importance that you need to concern yourself with. Top of the list is taking care yourself. Then comes you career, and of course the studies that are involved in attaining that career. As you achieve success, you want to manage your money with intelligence and wisdom. Material matters and pussy don’t even make the list.
I like your post, sir
As King Solomon once said, the best thing a man can do is to eat, drink, and find enjoyment in his work.
Mediocrity is a gift.
Good post Jefe. Life is always going to throw you curveballs and take a dump on your chest sometimes. Roll with the punches and just keep moving forward. Whining is for children and women.
Sigma versus Sigma
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZQUVZKrH3I
Alphas can go fuck themselves.
You Alphas have a serious problem.
Sigmas.
We fuck you up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZQUVZKrH3I
this article explains why liberals are so stupid.
They take EVERYTHING seriously.
Anyone that has ever stated ‘you cannot joke about…’ is a dramatic case in point.
Don’t take life too seriously. Remember, no one gets out of life alive at the end of it.
“View your life as a comedy, not a soap opera.”
Best advice I’ve ever seen on this site.
“View your life as a comedy, not a soap opera.”
Good piece of advice : try to switch your inner voice’s speech from “it’s the end of the world !” to “I don’t give a fuck”.
But it is easier said than done for some people who tend to get depressed naturally. For those, a healthy lifestyle can help (lifting weight, healthy food, good sleep to keep the hormones in check).
This is why I love this site. So much bro wisdom.
Articles like this are why I love this site. So much bro wisdom.
Good article and advice for anyone.
I use a positive mindset when it comes to my professional work (career) or even a job (contract). The mindset being “well, I’m very skilled (have value) so someone can use my services somewhere”.
That, alone, will even keep employers on their toes (versus you doing the worrying about keeping your job or contract).
One way to feel good about yourself is to GIVE BACK. The rich man who hoardes becomes unhappy and isolated. Or the lone gamer in a town with no competition wakes one morning with no dick in a mccabre never ending dream. Did he go insane? The self-defeating thing is that the insane never see themselves as such.
GIVE BACK
Find a young kid, maybe a younger semblence of yourself and be like his big brother. Take him under your wing and teach him game like a master. Actual paternal father-son bonds are becoming a rarety and we must begin somewhere TO RESTORE THE PATRIARCHY. It is a responsible fathers duty to teach his sons game.
On the flipside of hoarding is WASTING. Popping virgins indiscriminately, for example, is like a housing developer going into the rainforest and clearing a building site but never building. And then clearing another site on and on. Eventually you have a desert. The rainforest provides 80% of the Earth’s fresh oxygen and a town without virgins ain’t no place to raise a kid where daddy eats dirt and can’t enter the house he paid for and he’s tired of being fired like a circus cannon from one black belt ‘experienced’ pussy after another. Wonder why mommy only let him keep his bike helmet. No folks you can’t marry a ho. Only a virgin. You be the teacher, NOT HER, ‘because there ain’t no joy for an uptown boy who’s teacher has told him goodbye’. Little but foreboding and critical things young men should know but aren’t taught by feminazi public school teachers. A boy should know that later in life only virgins make good wives. How many divorced adult betas cry over the fact that no one ever told them that ‘if you weren’t the FIRST man she’s GONE DOWN ON then WHAT THE HELL MADE YOU THINK YOU’D BE HER LAST?’. Didn’t daddy teach you NEVER MARRY A HO? And son, if you only want to go out there and swing it like a water wiggle, well THAT’S WHAT HO’S ARE FO. Only exercise that swing on the ho’s and you’ll be tip-top enough in time to keep the virgins you marry loyal and NAILED. But never marry a ho or they’ll be playing ‘hey they come to snuff the rooster’. And remember you can always get another set of wheels but you only have one dick in life, so don’t wreck it.
If you think about it, the anecdotes we nowadays laugh at are usually fucked up situations we ended up in. With time, we are able to see the funny ridiculous side and laugh about it all. So yeah, why not be conscious of that and tell ourselves “if it’s gonna be funny in the future, I can laugh about it even now”. Great advice.
When anything goes wrong just play the opening theme to Curb Your Enthusiasm in your head.
Good stuff man. Short and to the point. I’m naturally pretty high-strung, but I find that women, and people in general, are attracted to that “unshakable” attitude; like no matter what happens, it’ll sort out, I’ll adjust and move on.
finally a good article. Taking the world AND yourself lightly is the true essence of alphaness.
Why is this article picking on me?
Note to Roosh: Don’t take yourself so fucking seriously.
Poor dear used to happily travel the world.
Now it’s all musings on how awful women are and that he wants to take his ball and go home, with home being siberian Russia or somewhere the ladies don’t have an internet connection and might not have heard of him.
Roosh, when you were “fun and lighthearted” I enjoyed reading what you wrote. Now that you’ve aligned with the social conservatives and grumpy old men, not so much.
It is not materialism that is the chief curse of the world, as pastors teach, but idealism. Men get into trouble by taking their visions and hallucinations too seriously.
-H. L. Mencken
“View your life as a comedy, not a soap opera.”
The Office (US or UK) is a great show to imagine your life as when the world seems to be coming down on you. A lot of the comedy on shows like that come from cringe worthy moments, something we all experience pretty regularly.
Feminists need to read this.
Nah fuck this shit. Sounds like a woman. Be as serious as you fucking want, even if that means making a army, discreetly taking over governments, and then letting all hell break loose to take over the world. IF YOU CAN WILL IT. GOD DAMN IT JUST DO IT!