Tyler Durden’s Top 5 Tips for Living

1. Don’t be a Mindless Consumer

We’re consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don’t concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy’s name on my underwear. Rogaine, V i a g r a, Olestra.

The people I know who used to sit in the bathroom with p0rnography, now they sit in the bathroom with their IKEA furniture catalogue. You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you’re satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you’ve got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you’re trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.

You are not your job. You are not how much money you have in the bank.

You are not the car you drive.

Reject… the importance of material possessions.

2. Do Something Meaningful

This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time.

Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don’t you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can’t think of a better way to spend these moments?

What would you wish you’d done before you died? You have to know the answer to this question!

If you died right now, how would you feel about your life?

3. Think for Yourself

Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you’re supposed to read? Do you think every thing you’re supposed to think? Buy what you’re told to want?

4. Transcend Temporary, Unfulfilling Relationships

Single-serving sugar, single-serving cream, single pat of butter. The microwave Cordon Bleu hobby kit. Shampoo-conditioner combos, sample-packaged mouthwash, tiny bars of soap. The people I meet on each flight? They’re single-serving friends.

5. The Path to Enlightenment is Hard Work

I don’t wanna die without any scars.

Hitting bottom isn’t a weekend retreat. It’s not a… seminar.

Without pain, without sacrifice, we would have nothing.

And then, something happened. I let go. Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete. I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.

It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.

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