Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher, poet and cultural critic of the 19th century.
He is considered to be one of the most daring and greatest thinkers of all time.
His work is revolutionary, aiming for a “re-evaluation of all values”.
He was one of the biggest precursors of existentialism, which emphasizes the existence of the individual
person as a free and responsible agent, determining their own development through acts of will.
By his famous words “God is dead!”, Nietzsche moved the focus of philosophy from metaphysics
to the material world and to the individual as a responsible person for his own life.
Nietzsche wrote several books, and his teachings have shaped the lives of many people; from
psychologists to poets, dancers to social revolutionaries.
So with that in mind, here ARE 10 IMPORTANT LESSONS THAT WE CAN LEARN FROM FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE:
1) Be a harmonious totality Nietzsche says “One must still have chaos
in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star”.
According to Nietzsche, each of us have two main sides to our personality: a rational
one, the consciousness, the responsible, the Apollonian side and an instinctual one, the
subconscious, emotional, Dionysian side.
In Nietzsche’s view, the way to achieve greatness, the way to achieve a harmonious
totality is to balance the two parts of yourself: the Apollonian side, Apollo being the Greek
god of Sun, of knowledge, and the Dionysian side, Dionysus being the complete opposite,
the god of wine, fertility, and madness.
There is a strong analogy between the duality Dionysus & Apollo and the duality of Yin & Yang,
Dionysus being similar to “Yin” and Apollo being similar to “Yang”.
To have a balanced life, you have to be organized, responsible, logical, but at the same time,
leave room for the more artistic part of yourself, your creative side, your emotional side.
To really shine like a dancing star like Apollo, the god of Sun, you have to embrace your inner
chaos, learn to explore it, listen to your feelings and intuition, and listen to your
Dionysian side.
Sometimes, we use one side of our personality to excess, at the expense of the other.
For example, perhaps sometimes we can be too organized, we don’t leave enough room for
any creative moments, or moments of inspiration.
Other times we might be too chaotic, lacking structure.
While both are essential, we need to know when best to use them.
Life requires us to be organized, for example, to make sure our house is tidy, our children
are fed, and our finances are in order and so on.
Other times, we might want to shake up our routine, go on wild adventures or to get in
touch with our artistic or more sensitive nature.
Even in our jobs, we need both sides too.
For example, an engineer must use the Apollonian side to execute the work, but he also needs
the Dionysian side to discover great insights and invent innovative solutions.
We have to take care of all sides of our nature, to nurture them.
Do not fight against your duality - instead learn to use it to your benefit.
2) Avoid having a reactive life Nietzsche said “Most humans distract their
thoughts; to cease to be aware of life.”
According to Nietzsche, we are too passive, too reactive.
We don’t act as ourselves, we are not honest enough, and we are not ‘noble’ enough.
For Nietzsche, to be passive is not the same as inactive, but rather it means to have a
reactive life.
You can be active, indulge yourself in entertainment activities or in a meaningless job, but, in
essence, you are empty inside, you have no goals, you move without purpose.
Nietzsche invites you to be more honest with yourself, more reflective about your goals
in life, to be brave enough to face reality and fight the obstacles which are blocking
your path from getting what you want from life.
Nowadays, with so much technology and amazing ways to indulge ourselves in aimless entertainment,
we can easily lose ourselves but according to Nietzsche, the worst thing you can do is
to wait for life to happen to you as you distract yourself with these meaningless activities
which don’t benefit you in the long run.
We are all afraid of reaching the heights we are capable of, and to justify that, we
keep lying to ourselves by saying things like “I have never wanted to make a lot of money”,
“I wasn’t really interested in that person” or “I didn’t really want to visit that
place”.
Nietzsche advises us to stop being a passive spectator and take our lives in our own hands.
You can start by avoiding too much TV time, internet time, spending time with toxic people
or staying in a job which isn’t beneficial for you in the long run but instead ask yourself
the hard questions and focus on what you want to get out of life.
3) Avoid holding resentment towards others Nietzsche tells us “To be incapable of taking
one's enemies, one's accidents, even one's misdeeds seriously for very long—that is
the sign of strong, full natures in whom there is an excess of the power to form, to mold,
to recuperate and to forget.
Such a man shakes off with a single shrug many vermin that eat deep into others”.
Resentment is poison and it can consume us deeply.
According to Nietzsche, resentment is a trademark of a slave mentality and a sign of weakness
and it harms no one more than the weak person himself.
In contrast to a weak person, a noble person has an excess of life in himself, he is strong
enough to forget and recuperate, however his revenge can be strong and fast though, and
he doesn’t hold on to the memory of a painful episode for too long.
If you are weak, it might be too difficult to avoid resentment.
The secret is to replenish your soul with positive things, to live your life to the
fullest and to not mind the small people having a negative impact on us from time to time.
This does not mean you will not keep the others accountable for their mistakes and you will
not act against them if justified, it just means that you won’t let this affect your
inner nature.
If somebody close to you hurts you badly, you should see the reality as it is first,
accept the person as they are, take the immediate and necessary steps against that person and,
afterwards, move on, forget and don’t hold on to any resentment.
Also, on a more mundane level, do not complain about the bad things you encounter every day,
do not complain about the idiots, the government, crooks, bankers, malicious people.
Instead, build yourself up, face them from your superior ground, be the better person,
be the noble person.
Avoid arguing for your limitations and keep going towards your goals.
4) Don’t blindly follow the Masters In the words of Nietzsche “Don’t just
swallow the wisdom of the past masters of philosophy.
Rather, strive to build your own path.
Appreciate the masters from the past, but don’t just follow them blindly.”
Nietzsche was an avid reader of past philosophies, starting from the ancient Greeks to more modern
philosophers, like Arthur Schopenhauer.
However, at one point in his life, he denounced the past philosophies or reformulated the
past philosophies into his own philosophy of life.
He believed that finding his own path, his own philosophy, his own style of writing was
crucially important.
Sometimes, in life, we have to make major decisions, like denouncing some old ways of
thinking or working, even at the cost of losing our status in society.
To follow our own path often requires sacrifices, putting us in conflict with the authorities
of present or of the past - the “masters”, but, according to Nietzsche, in order to live
an authentic life, we have to give up the comfort of following the safe path, blindly
- break away from the “Masters”, and work on our own philosophical principles of life
and work.
Of course, we still have to gain knowledge from the old philosophies, appreciate the
wisdom of past philosophers, but, in the end, we have to build our own philosophy for our
own lives, our own wisdom.
We should use the wisdom of the “Masters” only as a source of inspiration for our own
philosophy.
Sometimes, in life, you find yourself at a crossroads and you have to choose between
three paths: The first is a safe path with a guide telling you everything you need to
do.
The second is a dangerous path that you have to walk alone, going from potential failure
to potential failure, and the third is the most effective path, the one where you think
for yourself, analyze what “the masters” or “the experts” are really telling you,
you take into account their credibility and you take from them only what is important
and useful to your life.
Nietzsche urges you to take the last path, because it is the path that will lead to the
greatest rewards in the future.
5) Find your WHY Nietzsche says “He who has a ‘WHY?’
in life can tolerate almost any HOW?”
For Nietzsche, the measure of success and freedom in life is to be able to look in a
mirror and be proud of yourself, not ashamed.
The only authority you should really fear is your own consciousness which screams at
you to be always true to yourself and to always follow your North Star, your “why”.
When you follow your “Why”, the “How” is not that relevant.
No matter the amount of pain which comes with “How”, you will be able to endure it,
because you would be living an authentic life - a life in line with your core values, your
inner self.
Nietzsche demands you to leave conventionality aside, ignore the other people who keep you
down, because there is a path only you can go.
Your life purpose cannot be found unless you find yourself first and, and after you find
the reason to live, you can tolerate any hardship life throws at you.
To find your why, your path, start by looking at yourself in the mirror and see if you are
ashamed or proud of yourself.
Did you betray the one on the other side of that mirror or did you honour it?
Have you always been true to yourself?
Did you really cultivate the talents life gifted you with?
What things must you do in order for you to be proud of yourself and make you feel more
powerful?
What do you have to accomplish, what milestones and what would be the most exciting goal you
can think of for yourself?
This most likely would be your North Star for you to follow.
You might not reach it during your lifetime, but at least you will know at the end of your
life that you did everything in your power to come closer to it and you won’t mind
the hardship you’ve been through.
6) Suffering can make you stronger Nietzsche says “What does not destroy me,
makes me stronger.”
Nietzsche advises us to be like the Phoenix, always ready to rise up from our ashes.
To evolve, we sometimes must destroy ourselves in some way, to rise anew and stronger.
Suffering makes us stronger, it transcends us if we really know what to learn from it.
Life is a journey and each stage is a level we must pass.
In Nietzsche’s view, a real thinker sees life as a knowledge quest, each event being
an opportunity to learn something new.
The outcomes, no matter how painful, are lessons to learn from and the process of learning
is transformative.
Nietzsche believes that we must keep ourselves apart from the outcomes, it is not relevant
if it’s a success or a failure, what really matters is what we learned from it, how we
evolved from it.
The biggest lessons we can get are from our biggest tragedies because they present us
with our biggest vulnerabilities, our biggest fears and our biggest desires.
We have to dive into suffering and let ourselves rise again from the abyss just like the Phoenix.
As an exercise, try to think of the most painful episodes you’ve lived, make a list of them,
think of what vulnerabilities these episodes revealed in you.
Why have you suffered?
What illusions about life or about people have you lost?
Accept the loss, no matter how painful, and try to see the episodes as an observer.
What knowledge about life or about people have you gained?
In case you lost illusions, what knowledge have you gained which can replace these illusions
now?
How can you make this knowledge useful?
How can this knowledge prepare you for similar events?
Those tragic events have not killed you and, as long as you remain alive and capable of
learning, you will grow stronger after each painful episode.
7) Avoid being just “busy” To quote Nietzsche “Men fall into two groups:
slaves and free men.
Whomever doesn’t have 2/3rds of his day for himself, is a slave, whatever he may be:
a statesman, a businessman, an official, or a scholar.”
According to Nietzsche, people are either slaves or free.
The free people or the “Masters” are strong, creative, they can do whatever they want,
at least 2/3rds of their days.
The slaves cannot do whatever they want, they work for others more than 2/3rds of the day,
they follow other people and society’s rules blindly, having little control of their lives.
One should earn his bread and to work 8 hours per day is oftentimes inevitable, but this
should be the limit somebody should accept to work for others.
Anymore than this and you are at the mercy of other people or you are the slave of your
own money, you cease to own your own life.
The anxious feelings people might feel when they think they don’t work enough, or they
don’t push hard enough or work more than 8 hours is more a consequence of the slave
mentality.
You have to make the distinction between working for others and working for yourself and you
shouldn’t work more than 8 hours of the day for others.
If you do, no matter who you are, a president, a businessman, a scholar, an official, you
are still a slave.
Even if you are a businessman and you claim that you work for yourself, you have to ask
yourself: am I working for making more money or am I really working for myself?
If you work for your money, you are still a slave.
If you really work for yourself, this means that the work you do nurtures you, makes you
happy and gives you energy.
Society is designed to make you envious, to make you want more, to consume more and chase
things you don’t really need, to keep you a slave.
Nietzsche advises us to break this chain and learn to live for ourselves for at least 2/3rd
of our days.
8) Live dangerously!
Nietzsche says “The secret of harvesting the greatest fruitfulness and greatest enjoyment
is to LIVE DANGEROUSLY!”.
We should all try to make from each day the best day we can.
Danger is the test bench of ourselves and it makes us feel alive.
We should test our limits in order to overcome ourselves and we should learn to enjoy living
out of our comfort zone.
Nietzsche urges us to stop being prudent and regular in life.
Rather we should be overjoyed heroes, living dangerously, expressing our individuality
freely, masters of our own lives and we should not listen to ordinary people, who are often
feeling threatened by such a life lived dangerously.
There is a huge number of people happy to live in the comfort of their cocoon, not willing
to take any risks in life, avoiding any danger.
They always try to copy others, rather than express themselves as they really are.
Don’t be someone like that, because in this way you would waste your life and you would
miss a great opportunity to enjoy this life to the fullest.
In order to start really living your life, try this test, ask yourself: ‘Would I be
willing to relive this day a million times forever?’
Would I be happy or sad if I lived the same life over and over again?
The answer to this question would help you to assess your current life.
Make the appropriate changes until you will be able to declare that you are willing to
relive every minute of your new joyous and adventurous life.
9) Become a Superhuman Nietzsche says: “Man is a rope stretched
between the animal and the Superhuman--a rope over an abyss.
A dangerous crossing, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous trembling
and halting.
What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal”.
In Nietzsche’s view, the purpose of humanity is to overcome itself, to create a superhuman,
an “Übermensch” in German.
We are a bridge to something greater.
No matter who we are, no matter our social status, our wealth, our physical appearance,
our intelligence, our race, we all contribute to this purpose of human species to overcome
itself and to create something greater.
Our struggles in life, our traumas, our successes, they all are transmitted to our children.
And beyond this, the things we create and invent, the science, the technology, the arts,
they all prepare the arrival of a new species of humans, the superhuman species.
Our real goals in life are not individual goals, but rather they are collective goals,
all pushing humanity forward.
By being a parent, or a teacher, by developing a product through your work, or a scientific
theory, by creating a piece of art, of literature, of philosophy, your contribution to the evolution
of the human species can be extremely significant.
Always see your individual goals as part of the collective, harmonize them and your life
will suddenly have much more meaning.
10) Happiness is the way you approach your goals
Nietzsche invented his own formula for happiness: “My formula for happiness: a Yes, a No,
a straight line, a goal.”
According to Nietzsche, happiness is not something you find at a destination, it is a process
and consists of four steps.
The first step is to say “yes” to experiences and people, to be able to take risks and to
learn from the environment close to you.
Then, at the second step, you examine the value or the usefulness of these experiences
and people, you learn to say “no” to the useless or not valuable ones, you become selective.
The third step is to draw the necessary conclusions and principles for those particular events
or people, to draw a straight line, then, finally, at the fourth step, you will formulate
your goals.
We all think we work to become happy and by happy we usually mean the great satisfaction
we get from a big accomplishment, the great moments with our family and friends, entertainment,
travelling to our favourite locations.
We often trap ourselves in an endless circle of suffering and happiness in the form of
work and rewards.
But the real and long-lasting happiness is not the reward at the end of a process, it
is the process.
You have to see happiness as a way to live your life or approach your goals.
The happy moments are the flowers you pick up along the way on your endless journey to
becoming a Superhuman.
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Thanks so much for watching.