📚 F*ck Your Feelings, by Ryan Munsey

I recently picked up Ryan Munsey’s book “F*ck Your Feelings”—a book designed to help you overcome the limiting beliefs and habits that stop you from getting the results you want out of your health, work, and lifestyle.

It’s a great read for anyone into mental mastery. 🧠

Here’s some of the big takeaways I’ve gotten from his writing and various interviews so far:

Lesson 1 - Turn Your Situation Into Mutual Advantage

Ryan’s first career breakthrough happened by solving a problem for both himself and his clients. As a fitness coach, he had been using other gyms to train his clients, but often found them lacking in the equipment and availability of that equipment due to high patronage.

So he took a risk: he opened up his own gym. 💪

To keep costs low, he began by renting the space, allowing both him and his clients to save money while obtaining the equipment needed for his program.

Ryan’s lesson here is to solve problems for both yourself and others to maximize the benefit.

(My “How to Compose Like” series is another example—I struggle with practicing my mockup chops these days, but making a YouTube video out of them keeps me doing it and benefits other viewers.)

Lesson 2 - Act As If

Ryan makes a clear distinction in his teachings between “fake it ‘till you make it” and “act as if”. Faking it implies that you’re not what you wish to become, but acting as if means living in accordance with what you believe yourself to be.

Without belief that we are who we say we are, we risk falling back onto our old habits. Make “act as if” your mantra when trying to build new habits or change your lifestyle—use the phrase, “I’m the kind of person who ________”.

(Example: “I’m the kind of person who reads every day.” Then act as if.)

Lesson 3 - Don’t Do What They Do. Seek What They Sought

Very often, when we find mentors or leaders we admire, we think:

The problem with thinking this way is that we’re spending more attention on what they did than what they sought to achieve.

My mentor Rich Webster notes the difference between “efficient” and “effective”: efficiency is about doing things faster, but effectiveness is about spending time on the important, meaningful tasks.

So instead of following the same steps as your mentors, ask yourself:

That kind of question gets you thinking like them, and helps you generate actionable steps that lead towards something effective.