Mark Manson

I actually find it a lot more liberating to remind myself of all the ways that I'm not special.

Even if I accomplish something, success, however I choose to define it, 99% of my time each day is spent doing very, very average things, worrying about very, very average problems and messing up in very, very average ways.

But I think when you focus on that 99% of the stuff that is like everybody else, it liberates you because you realize like, oh, my problems are actually not that unique.

It's good to be back.

That's a great question.

I mean, it's funny because in the short run, yeah, for sure.

It's exciting to see the sales numbers come in.

It's exciting to see the money come in.

But in the long run, it's amazing that the mind adjusts to the new normal so quickly.

And

those same anxieties and preoccupations and doubts and stuff still exist.

It's just they take a new form.

So it's like before the book, I used to be anxious and insecure of like, well, nobody's going to like my book.

Nobody's going to buy it.

And then when everybody bought the book, now my anxieties and insecurities is like,

well, nobody's going to like the next book.

I'm a one-hit wonder.

This is never going to happen again.

How do I top this?

And so the anxiety is the same.