Friedrich Nietzsche, one of the most daring thinkers of all time, was a man born before his time. If there was someone for who his famous quote, “some men are born post humorously,” applied to, then it was Nietzsche himself. Centuries after his death, Nietzsche’s ideas continue to have a profound influence on the fields of philosophy, theology, and psychology.
The impact of Nietzsche’s brilliance is not only felt in the academic sphere but also within the circular world. His ideas on the human condition have helped shape and set in motion modern-day concepts such as the quest for autonomy and personal development, the love of struggle, and the acceptance of individual responsibility. Thus to understand modern life with all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, one must first understand Nietzsche.
In this essay, I will touch on some of Nietzsche’s ideas that have helped me reexamine how I live and act in the world, in the hopes that they will help you do the same. Below are seven essential life lessons I have learned from reading Nietzsche.
Be a harmonious totality.
In his first published work, The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche observes and describes two seemingly divergent outlooks embodied by ancient Greeks. The Apollonian and the Dionysian — so named after two Greek gods, Appollo and Dionysus (Both sons of Zeus). The former being the god of reason and the latter, the god of wine and festivity.
According to Nietzsche, those who view the world through the lens of Apollo see the world as orderly and rational. Conversely, the world, when viewed through the Dionysian lens, presents itself as chaotic, irrational, passionate, and boundless.
These outlooks — which are not unlike the Taoist symbol of Ying and Yang — Nietzsche argued, are not dichotomous (as is commonly believed). Instead, he believed that these outlooks run through every one of us.
We all are a mix of logical thinking Apollo and fun-loving Dionysus. But more often than not, we tend to explore only one side of our personality at the expense of the other. For example: a person who emphasizes reason alone risks becoming too rigid and constrained, thus robbing himself of the exploratory capacity of his Dionysian side (which is necessary for any creative endeavor). Also, a person who only embraces his Dionysian side becomes unhinged and chaotic, lacking any sense of purpose or direction.
To achieve a harmonious totality, which Nietzsche believed should be the goal of every individual, one should learn to embrace and nurture both sides of their personality equally. Don’t fight against your duality. Instead, strive to bring a balance between them and reap the accompanying rewards. Be a harmonious totality.
Be active, not reactive.
Nietzsche, in his writings, divided the human experience into two broad categories — master mentality and slave mentality. Based on these categories, he conceptualized two different modes of being, ways of acting in the world — active and reactive.
Nietzsche observed that the “masters” took command of reality, were more honest with themselves and their ambitions, more reflective of their goals, and were brave enough to reach out and take whatever they wanted.
Whereas the slaves, Nietzsche noticed, were afraid to act in the world, and were instead contented with waiting for life to happen while they distracted themselves with meaningless activities — or acted in consequence to the whims of the masters.
Most of us are reactive, and sadly this is the usual state of things. It is, however, a limiting state of things because it limits our power to act on the world, making us passive observers instead of conscious actors.
Sitting on the sidelines and waiting for life to happen means that we no longer have any influence on what goes on in our lives. We become shells of who we could be, with no discernable goals, aims, or ambition. Instead, Nietzsche challenges us to take control of our lives, to be active, to be masters of our fate. This is the only way to actualize our potential.
Stop being a passive spectator and take control of your life.
Avoid Resentment.
Nietzsche believed that the “will to power” was the ultimate drive of man; he argued that the primary impulse behind everything we do is an attempt to assert ourselves over others (materially, intellectually, or otherwise). But what happens when we fail; or are incapable of projecting the authority of our ego over the ego of others? What happens when we cannot express this power; when we cannot create?
We become resentful. That’s what. We assign blame to someone or something we believe to be the cause of our inability to assert ourselves. This, Nietzsche believed, was a sign of weakness and an accompanying characteristic of the aforementioned slave mentality.
The refusal to adopt responsibility for one’s shortcomings creates a rejecting/justifying value system that attacks the perceived cause of one’s frustration. It also serves as a defense mechanism that prevents the resentful individual from addressing their inadequacies and weaknesses.
Resentment is a poison that can consume us deeply even without our conscious knowledge. It creates an imaginary enemy, a cause that can be blamed for all our failures, thus causing us to cease to act in the world — or worse, to take revenge on said enemy.
If you’re weak, it might be difficult to avoid feeling resentful. The solution, according to Nietzsche, is to adopt a master mentality. A master does not assign blame for his shortcomings or hold on to slights for too long. A master does not complain about life’s limitations — perceived or real. Instead, a master strives to transcend them.
Think like a master and build yourself up so you’d be able to withstand anything life throws at you without harboring any resentment.
Have your philosophy for life.
A couple of weeks ago, I was discussing with a friend of mine, and the topic was centered on one of my favorite authors, Robert Greene. I happened to mention that I strongly disagreed with some of Robert’s ideas, especially a few from his magnum opus, The 48 laws of power. My friend was taken aback, as he couldn’t immediately fathom how I could be at odds with an author I admired and looked up to.
I had to explain to him that you could still subscribe to someone’s ideas and not agree with everything they say. This is an idea Nietzsche continually reiterates. He urges us not to follow the philosophy of others blindly.
Finding your path, your philosophy, your words, your truth, is one of the most important, if not the most important of all life’s tasks, albeit a very difficult one. Finding your path is much harder than threading an oft-traveled path. You will be lonely often and in conflict with pre-existing norms.
But to live an authentic life, we have to sacrifice the comfort of following the safe path blindly and work on creating our path by synthesizing the vast array of knowledge from both ancient and contemporary thinkers, as well as from our fine-tuned observations and lived experiences. This will enable us to build our unique philosophy that is well suited to our individual lives.
Find your why.
“He who has a why can bear almost any how.” This is perhaps one of my favorite quotes from Nietzsche, not only for its simplicity but also for its astuteness in capturing the human condition. Everyone craves clarity, it’s a struggle each one of us goes through. “What do I want to do with my life?” “What will give my life meaning?” “What am I good at?”
Millions of people have no answer to these questions, and according to Nietzsche, this is precisely why many people suffer in life. To answer these questions, you must first step out of your bubble, leave conventionality aside, and ignore the irrelevant aspects of life — including what goes on in the lives of others.
Instead, focus on yourself, on discovering who you are — your strengths and weaknesses, because you cannot find your life’s purpose until you find yourself. And to find yourself, you have to be honest with yourself.
Start by looking into the mirror. Are you proud or ashamed of who you are? If your answer is in line with the later, then ask yourself these follow-up questions, “What things must I do to become someone I can be proud of?” “What things can I accomplish if I really tried; if I stepped out of my comfort zone?”
Don’t expect to find an answer tomorrow or next month or even next year. What matters is taking the first step to self-discovery. Discovering your life’s purpose is a trial-and-error process. You cannot know what you’re good at until you try. And when you finally find your passion. Hold on to it and don’t let go, because as Nietzsche says, if you have something that imbues your life with meaning, you can bear almost anything life throws at you.
Live Dangerously.
What does it mean to live dangerously? Contrary to how it sounds, Nietzsche did not mean that we should go kayaking with sharks or go diving into volcanos. Instead, what he meant was that in order to transcend limitations and get the most out of life, one must venture into the unknown, one must be willing to break away from conventionality and go where no one has gone before.
Nietzsche believed, and so do I, that there is very little difference between living dangerously and living free. Many people are slaves to one particular pattern or way of thinking; they prefer sticking to only familiar territories. This is the ultimate danger. If you’re not willing to take risks, to try anything new, to test the limits of your abilities, then you will have very little chance at growth.
To live freely and deliberately, we must be willing to take a chance, to step into the dark, to ask tough questions, and learn more about ourselves and the world we live in. Danger is the true test bench for our limits. You will never know what you’re capable of if you continue to play it safe.
Nietzsche encourages us to live dangerously and express our individuality freely. This is the only way to become a master of our fate.
Become a Superman.
In 1928, comic-book writer Jerry Siegel asked a question, “What would a man superior to all humans look like?” only he wasn’t the first to conceive of such a question. In 1883, Nietzsche thought along those same lines, but he wasn’t concerned with someone who could run faster than a speeding bullet or leap over buildings with a single bound.
Rather, unlike the DC creators, Nietzsche was interested in a man that was psychologically superior to all other humans. Nietzsche was interested in the ideal human. And he came up with a strategy to figure out what his ideal man would look like.
He studied, from history, individuals who he believed had come close to becoming supermen, then he synthesized the qualities he thought helped shape them into who they were.
In Nietzsche’s view, a superman was one who was willing to risk all for the sake of humanity; one who could affect and influence the lives of others; one who could affect history indefinitely; one who is willing to contemplate truth and beauty.
Nietzsche believed that our life’s purpose should not be limited to achieving our individual goals, but should encompass goals aimed at pushing the rest of humanity forward. And that whatever path we choose to take, it should be one that lets us contribute to the evolution of the human species.
Harmonize your individual goals with that of the collective, and your life will indefinitely continue to inspire others even after you’re long dead and buried.
Final Thoughts.
One of Nietzsche’s ideas I found somewhat terrifying and extremely eye-opening at the same time was his idea of eternal recurrence. Near the end of The Gay Science, Nietzsche asks a devastating question, “What would you do?” he writes, if a demon were to come up to you in your lowest point and say to you — “This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence.”
Would you be scared of this proposition, or would you embrace it? This question, I believe, was one Nietzsche intended as an existential wake-up call. Are you living your life in a way that you wouldn’t mind being asked to relive it, or does contemplating your existence fill you with feelings of anxiety and regret?
If the latter is the case, then this was where Nietzsche would say, learn to live life — a life not restrained by fear or indecision. Ask your crush out. Write that book. Start that business you’ve always wanted to own. Breathe, take a walk, stop and smell the roses. And aspire today, to live a life of no regrets.
