Mark Manson, author, “You have to develop the ability to be disliked in order to free yourself from the prison of other peoples’ opinions”

People generally want to be liked by others, which is only natural as we are a communal species. But is that need actually detrimental for us?

Mark Manson, a New York Times bestselling self-help author and blogger, says that having the ability to be disliked is a “superpower.” The author of ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck’ and ‘Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope, and Will’ puts out a weekly newsletter in which he provides actionable ideas for his readers and encourages them to send him their “breakthroughs.”

For topic of learning to be disliked, he asked readers to think about two things: “To be liked by all is to be loved by none,” and, “You have to develop the ability to be disliked in order to free yourself from the prison of other people’s opinions.”

One person’s breakthrough on this topic that Manson shared was from a nurse who related how she prioritized her child over the approval of others. The individual explained that she and her husband kept most people away from their child that was born in 2021 for two years.

The reason behind their decision was that their son was diagnosed with asthma and had to be hospitalized multiple times due to breathing problems. It should be remembered that at the time, the covid virus was still tearing through the wider population.

Those who they especially kept away were people that were not vaccinated and refused to wear a face mask. She shared that she “received a lot of support as well as a lot of criticism,” specifically the latter from family members who saw the decision as an attack on them.

The nurse recounted that her in-laws accused her of “convincing” her husband to turn away from his family. “I was the bad guy for years,” she says.

“Instead of being concerned about my son’s well-being, they were most concerned about their selfish wants,” she reflected. “I will forever be OK being disliked by anyone who puts my children’s safety at risk or has no problem overstepping our boundaries.”

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