Courage To Be Disliked Summary
Courage To Be Disliked Summary
Courage To Be Disliked Summary
Lesson #1: It Takes Courage To See The World Without Any Filter.
Before we discuss happiness, let’s try to understand why we become sad and worried in the first place.
Almost all of us are controlled by our pasts.
We all hold some kind of bad memories that haunt us even today.
Maybe you had a bad relationship with your parents. Perhaps you were bullied at school.
Maybe you were not good at your studies, and nobody believed in you.
Maybe you grew up with no friends.
It could be anything. It could even be a small memory.
The point is: There is always something in our memories that holds us back even today.
Despite how much we discuss it, we can’t find a way to eliminate them, right?
Because if we could, we would have done that already. And there would be no point in reading this book summary.
But Adlerian psychology argues that traumas don’t exist.
Adler said that we create those emotions to avoid the real issues.
The book shares the story of a spoilt brat who wouldn’t go out of his home because his parents abused him during his
early teenage years.
You might think that it’s because his parents were abusive that the kid turned out to be like that.
But that’s not true according to Adler’s psychology.
His current situation was not a result of his past experiences.
That’s the fundamental idea behind Adler’s psychology: most people create their own unhappiness, and no bad
experience can influence their future.
In other words, one can always change his present.
Your past can’t control you like that.
We can break the cycle of cause and effect using our will.
The kid we talked about has a goal not to go outside anymore as he is not comfortable with others. And he is using his
bad experiences as an excuse to avoid that uncomfortable situation.
You can also say that the kid doesn’t dare to face the unknown.
Every time he thinks about going outside, he lies to himself and thinks about how his parents abused him.
The key to fighting any kind of trauma is to see how we are hiding behind our bad memories and avoiding reality.
Remember that change is simple. It is “us” who make it complicated.
Let’s take another example to understand this idea better.
Lesson #3: Anger Is A Tool That People Use To Take Revenge.
Anger.
We all know it, don’t we?
As soon as we get angry, there is no controlling us.
But unfortunately, most people sought to take revenge in the name of anger.
Remember that you are a human being. You are not a powerless stone that anybody can toss around.
You have the power to choose what meaning you assign to your emotions and respond based on your intelligence.
Don’t believe me? Let me give you an example.
Imagine if your boss spilled the same tea on your shirt instead of a waiter. Would you still go into that rage mode?
I doubt so.
Unless you don’t love your job, you would humbly ignore that incident and show modesty.
Lesson #4: “All Problems Are Interpersonal Relationship Problems,” According To Adler’s Psychology.
What if the world didn’t have any problems? It’d be amazing, right?
But it’s impossible.
The reason is: For such a condition to be true, there should be only one human being in the universe, says Adler.
On the flip side, it’s easy to feel superior by calling a person inferior and competing for irrelevant milestones unrelated
to your ideal self.
Again, you have a choice: you can either use those inferiority feelings to fuel your growth or waste time living your life
as per other people’s opinions.
Lesson #6: See People As Your Comrades, Not Your Enemies.
This would help you get free of worries, and every milestone you will achieve would give you immense happiness.
Look, you can only manage your thoughts.
The reality is that even if you don’t compete with anyone, other people will find ways to compete with you.
You will find many people who would hold a grudge against you for random reasons.
You might even want to take revenge. But beware, don’t fall into that trap.
Revenge is only going to make things worse.
The key, in that case, would be to figure out the hidden goal of that person.
An intelligent person would avoid any direct conflict. That’s because even if you win a power struggle, that person
won’t stop having revengeful thoughts.
The immediate thought would be to win and teach that person a lesson. But remember, you can make wise choices.
You can always resist your emotions and think properly.
Sure, one can always use anger as a tool and then justify that his emotions took over him, but as we now know, it’s not
worth it.
Seeing people as your comrades also helps you better your interpersonal relationships.
But improving your interpersonal relationships doesn’t mean that you blindly start fulfilling everybody’s expectations.
Sometimes, you have to allow the other person to dislike you for your own good.
Let’s learn about it in the next lesson.
Lesson #7: Have The Courage To Be Disliked If You Want Absolute Freedom From Other People’s Judgments.
Absolute freedom comes when you can live your life based on your terms, free from other people’s expectations.
But often, when we discuss interpersonal relationships, there is a conflict between the expectations.
You might find your close friends or relatives disliking you if you don’t do what they expect of you.
Even if you try to satisfy everybody else, you will have to sacrifice your own choices. And unfortunately, even then, you
might have a few left who won’t be satisfied.
So what should one do in such a complicated situation?
The solution here is to draw or define a boundary between you and the other person.
If the other person has unrealistic expectations from you, you don’t have to change yourself. That’s not your task.
You can’t control what other people think anyway.
But does this mean you don’t have to care what other people think and become egocentric? Not at all.
Separating yourself from other people’s expectations doesn’t mean you don’t care.
It’s the other way round.
If someone is trying to manipulate you through his expectations or emotional drama, that is egocentric.
Keep in mind that the other person can only manipulate you if you don’t have control over your emotions.
In that case, you need the courage to be disliked and not be manipulated by your emotions.
People are going to judge anyway.
You can’t satisfy everybody’s expectations, can you?
It’s not your fault if someone dislikes you or misunderstands you because you didn’t meet their expectations.
On the surface, this might look like a scary recipe to push people away from you. But it’s not.
People who aren’t disappointed by your freedom are worth building relationships with. And those who aren’t need to
change their outlook on life.
Good relationships don’t bind people through emotional dramas or conflicts. Instead, they make you freer.
Lesson #8: Both Praise And Punishment Develop A Sense Of Hierarchy Within Relationships.
Talking about good relationships, we think the other person would feel motivated if praised.
But that’s not the reality.
When you praise the other person, you subconsciously make him feel inferior.
For instance, if you reward the dog for doing a specific task during dog training, it will do it again.
But if you punish the dog for the same thing, the dog is likely to avoid doing it again.
One might call this dog training, but it also rewires a dog’s brain and establishes a sense of hierarchy, doesn’t it?
In the same fashion, if you praise or punish someone, you call yourself superior and signal to the other person that he
is inferior.
So what should a person do?
Nothing.
Or maybe you can just say “Thank You.”
This is very subtle, but it might turn into an inferiority complex if not noticed early.
And that’s not it. The relationships we develop at home also impact how we think about interpersonal relationships
with people who are not related to us or belong to other communities.
Remember, we all are equal.
Remember that no race, religion, or ideology can change this fact.
This is also the key to solving all problems within interpersonal relationships.
If you see this in a larger context, we can solve all the world’s problems if we simply treat each other as equals
fundamentally.
That worth doesn’t inflate your ego. Instead, it highlights your true nature.
It gives you freedom and happiness.
Lesson #10: You Can Be Of Worth By Simply Being With Others.
When we think about “worth,” the first thing that comes to our minds is “Net Worth.”
Right?
Wrong. No, a person’s worth is not always calculated by how much money he has.
What if a person is financially poor and can’t help anybody? Will he still have worth?
Yes, definitely.
As we discussed, a person’s worth can be due to many reasons.
For instance, older adults who can’t provide anything also have worth as they can provide emotional support or
knowledge to the young ones.
Their presence itself has a worth that they can provide to the other person.
SALE
The Courage to Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your
Life and Achieve Real Happiness
Hardcover Book
Kishimi, Ichiro (Author)
English (Publication Language)
288 Pages - 05/08/2018 (Publication Date) - Atria Books (Publisher)
Check price on Amazon
Last update on 2022-04-19 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon
I saw many comments on Amazon telling me how bad this book is. But I disagree.
I learned a lot of cool new ideas from this book.
The idea that traumas don’t exist and that we create all those stomach cramps to avoid our real responsibilities was
life-changing.
I could see how often I make excuses to avoid doing the real thing in my life.
For instance, whenever I go outside, I start feeling butterflies in my stomach. Why? Because earlier, I believed that I had
a weak digestive system.
Has the problem been solved now?
Well, not a hundred percent. But now, I know that the past can’t control me anymore. The present can be changed.
This book has provided me with some courage to deal with psychological issues and fears.
Through this book, I could also break through some of my notions of cause and effect.
If you want to take away only one lesson from this book, just remember that no matter how broken your life may be
right now, you have the power to fix it. You just need some courage to do so.
I don’t have anything to criticize this book for. And I highly recommend this book to everyone to read at least once.
• Philosophers who want to dig deeper and investigate the ideas of Adler, Socrates, and Freud.
• People are troubled by their past traumas.
• People who have had any bad relationships in the past.
• Those who are not able to resist emotions like anger or greed.
• Students who are interested in exploring new ideas.
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