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the video but for now lets get on with how to own yourself from the philosophy of Friedrich
Nietzsche. Friedrich Nietzsche is a German philosopher
who lived in the second half of the 19th century. He is widely famous for his critique on morality
and religion and also for his critique on conventional philosophical ideas. He is considered a precursor of existentialism,
highlighting the importance of freedom and finding meaning in a meaningless world. He wrote several books, including “Thus
Spoke Zarathustra”, “Beyond Good and Evil”, “The Birth of Tragedy”, and “The Twilight
of the Idols”. He has also considered himself as a psychologist,
paving the way to the psychoanalysis of the 20th century. Nietzsche was also famous for his words “God
is dead”. He had continuously attacked Christianity,
his books being more and more incisive as he became more mature. Such militant atheism was not seen with good
eyes in the nineteenth century and, in 1883, he tried and failed to obtain a lecturing
post at the University of Leipzig because of his attitude towards Christianity and the
concept of God. Nietzsche is a great example of a man who
stood by his views, who was not shy to express them in a straightforward manner, no matter
the cost. In other words, he owned himself and, in his
view, no price is too high for the privilege of owning yourself. To help you understand the ways in which you
can better own yourself, here are 5 lessons we can learn from the philosophy of Friedrich
Nietzsche: Dare to stand alone Nietzsche says: “The concept of greatness
entails being noble, wanting to be by oneself, being able to be different, standing alone
and having to live independently.” In his book “Beyond Good and Evil”, Nietzsche
ponders about what greatness means. Greatness means to be a totality by yourself,
being able to live independently, speaking your mind, being true to yourself, having
the guts to be different from the rest. Oftentimes, the ones who achieve great things
in life follow their own way, they are often working by themselves, without expecting any
help from others and they have enough guts to push against the resistance of others,
in other words, they have more “will”. According to Nietzsche, we all have this will,
which he called, the will to power, the will to overcome yourself, to expand your potential. To reach greatness, we should never compare
ourselves to anyone else, we are unique by nature and we should stop believing that our
value is dictated by society. Our value is the value we give to ourselves. When we are children or young adults, we highly
depend on our parents and later in life we depend on the ones who pay us if we are employees
or we depend on our clients if we are entrepreneurs or, in some cases, we depend on our spouses. Because we can hardly be totally independent,
our behaviour and thoughts are shaped by the ones we depend on. In spite of living in a free society, such
a society is built in a way that it makes us all connected, dependent on each other. If we are tied too much to other people, we
might risk losing our individuality, our true authentic self. We should thus avoid codependent relationships
and seek more healthy interdependent relations, the type of relation in which our sense of
self is respected and protected. When you truly own yourself, you are capable
of making decisions on your own, to decide the best action you can take for yourself,
without being influenced by others. You have to have the freedom to decide what
career to follow, whom to marry, how to dress yourself, how to organize your life, and so
on. We might all agree with these teachings, but
in practice it is much harder. However, there is no better time than this,
in our modern ever connected and dependent world, to practice a bit of Nietzschean philosophy
to achieve greatness, to own yourself. In order to do so you need to protect your
sense of who you are inside any relationship, you need to make a habit to spend some time
in solitude, to learn how to make decisions for yourself without letting others take them
instead of you. For example, you should take the liberty to
have at least 1or 2 hours per day for yourself, in which you should engage in a personal hobby,
meditate, go for a long walk, considering your goals or similar. Don’t allow others to tell you what you
have to do, what you should think, and most importantly, who you should be. 2. Follow your wildest dreams
Nietzsche tells us: “I know of no better life purpose than to perish in attempting
the great and the impossible.” Nietzsche’s life was one of extremes. He suffered deeply both physically and mentally,
eventually resulting in him suffering from subcortical dementia. His disease forced him to adopt an ultra-positive
philosophy, one that is pro-living, pro-vitality, pro-strength and not one which denigrates
life. If he were a pessimist, his disease would
have won faster over him. Embracing a positive attitude towards life
gave him more power to fight the disease. He understood that the best way to live your
life is by pushing it to the limits, the way to respect your life is not through doing
your best to preserve it, making it comfortable, but by living it to the fullest, no matter
the dangers. He was against the common idea of “happiness”
or “progress”. In his view, described in “The Twilight
of Idols”, he affirmed that the goal of life is not to seek pleasure. For Nietzsche, it is much better to target
impossible dreams and fail than to target common dreams and succeed. Nietzsche’s life is an example. Although in some way he failed, having left
academia, living poorly until he succumbed to dementia, it was all worth it as he left
behind philosophical books of great value. He followed his goal with courage and no fear. In the same way, following his example, we
should think of our wildest dreams and how we can give our best in pursuing them, no
matter the cost. You might be stuck right now in a career that
you do not like, for example, say you are an accountant but all you wanted in life was
to perform on stage as a comedian. To follow your dream, you should ignore the
cost of having a stable job, you might need to resign from your job or start building
your career as a stand up comedian in your free time. Life is too short to not follow your wildest
dreams and work on something you enjoy. Owning yourself involves owning your time,
doing in life what really has meaning to you, and not giving your time for money, doing
what everybody else does. Even if you do not reach what you really dream
of, at least you will work in the right direction. As the saying goes, “You have to shoot for
the stars in order to reach the moon”. 3. Follow your goals, not a system
In the words of Nietzsche: “Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen. Few in pursuit of the goal.” In many of his books, Nietzsche stressed upon
the importance of expanding your horizons and reaching your highest potential, the highest
ideal being the ideal of becoming an Ubermensch or superhuman. However, he noticed that most people are doing
it wrong - they blindly follow systems instead of following their goals. Systems are the opposite of goals, they are
about creating a repeatable set of actions instead of focusing on a final outcome. Focusing on a goal gives you a better chance
to succeed as it forces you to push more effort. What is important about setting goals is that,
whenever you have a big goal as a target, you gradually become the person worthy of
that target. It transforms you. It is not the end goal that counts, but the
journey, the person you become in that journey. Or, in Nietzsche’s words, what is great
in a man is that he is a bridge towards something greater, and not an end goal. The person you become in that journey is what
matters, not the achievement of the goal. Following a great goal helps us improve ourselves,
to become better people, for which we need to go step by step, overcoming one obstacle
at a time. When you set a goal, you set it based on your
dreams and wishes, but you also set a deadline together with the goal and that puts some
expectations on yourself. On the contrary, when you follow a system,
in your workplace for example, the expectations are not that great, it is just about following
some daily habit, without forcing yourself to push your limits. Thus, systems are for people who avoid this
stress of pursuing a goal and who prefer comfort instead of making their dreams come true. The most important thing is to have personal
goals, meaning they should be your goals, not dictated by anyone else. To achieve these goals, you might need to
have a system as well, but not a system borrowed from somebody else, it should be your system,
designed to help you to reach your personal goal, a system which you should change whenever
necessary. You need clear targets and to develop a set
of steps which can help you to achieve those targets. For example, make a list with all the things
you want to achieve in the next 5 years, another list with things to achieve in the next year,
then the next 3 months, then a month, then this week and then today. Then prioritize, think about what is most
important. Imagine your primary goal is to own your dream
villa with an ocean view. First, decide the exact location and collect
information regarding local property prices. Then, make a plan on how to pay for the villa,
will you buy it cash or through a mortgage? How much money will you need for that and
how much do you need to increase your income to get the villa? What steps do you need to take? Maybe you discover you need to change your
job. You can then plan this month to apply for
other jobs, in the next year to be promoted and so on. Organise your life according to your major
goals, don’t structure your life-plans according to a system of someone else’s design, such
as the company you work for, for example. 4. Embrace your demons
Nietzsche warns us to: “Be careful, lest in casting out your demon you exorcise the
best thing in you.” Nietzsche was ill for a big part of his life;
he suffered from migraines without aura since he was a child. Sometimes, his headaches were insufferable
and he could barely work. In the second half of his life, he suffered
from a psychiatric illness and depression. This psychiatric illness took power over him
when he succumbed to it on the streets of Turin, in Italy, when he ran to a horse who
was beaten by the owner and said “I understand you”. He ended in profound dementia and the last
12 years of his life he spent being almost unconscious. He faced terrible demons all his life. But, spending so much time at the edge of
the abyss looking down at his own demons, he could understand that they were part of
him and the best strategy is not to fight them, but to accept them and to try to manage
them. For Nietzsche, owning his demons meant owning
himself, and this was his main priority. Although he failed in the end, he could succeed
in writing exceptional books, making him famous as he became one of the most important philosophers
in the entire history of humankind. And, who knows, perhaps he owes his success
to the way he managed his demons. Therefore, it is never okay to cast out your
demons, they can be the best things that can happen to you. For Nietzsche, these demons were the Dionysiac
part of ourselves which should be brought to the surface. In Nietzsche’s view, we have two sides:
the dionysiac and apollonian sides. The Dionysiac side is what is hidden, sometimes
even from ourselves, and it is related to the intuitive, subconscious, mystical aspects
of our personality, comprising in general what we repress, what is not generally accepted
by society. Dionysos was the god of wine, of theater,
of physical pleasures, of living life to the fullest, free of inhibitions, while
Apollo was the god of Sun, of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and
diseases. The apollonian side is that side more related
to that aspect of ourselves which we can reveal to others, which is positive, embodying the
best part of ourselves which can be well received by others. If there is no problem in revealing our apollonian
side, things are more difficult regarding the Dionysiac side. We have a lot of work to do to accept our
Dionysiac side, our demons, and learn how to manage them. Casting out our demons means repressing our
emotions and this can lead to a disintegration of the self because if we severely repress
our emotions we not only deny ourselves, but we can severely damage the structure of our
own psychological identity. In some ways, we give more value to the society
around us, than to our own selves. Of course, repressing some of the very negative
emotions helps us adapt to society. For example, when we feel so angry at somebody
that we want to physically hit them, but we immediately repress that instinct because
we know this is not accepted by the moral norms of our society. No matter how hard this would be on you, it
is more morally acceptable if you reply in a calm manner, defend yourself politely or
ignore that person. But there are situations when you should not
repress your emotions because it can lead to severe self-denial. For example, imagine you feel a lot of jealousy
for a friend who is much more successful than you. Despite what many of us were taught growing
up, it is completely fine to feel jealous and you should not cast that emotion out. Embrace it. You can use such jealousy to work more on
yourself, it can make you learn new skills to advance in your career or give you the
impetus you need to start working on your plans towards that dream villa. Therefore, jealousy can be one of the greatest
things which can happen to you. It is just a matter of how you manage it. Instead of using your jealousy as destructive
means, like talking badly about your friends' success in front of others, use your jealousy
to make improvements to yourself. Do not cast out your demons, learn to manage
them, use them in constructive ways. And in doing so, you can have a better ownership
over your destructive instincts and ultimately over yourself. 5. Give style to your character
In our final quote from Nietzsche for this video, he says: “Giving style” to one’s
character - a great and rare art!” Nietzsche was not only a bright philosopher,
but also an artist. He was a pianist, composed beautiful songs
and even used to write poetry. He was an extremely sensitive man, with great
artistic skills. Even his pen writing style was special. The book he wrote which he considered the
most important book he had ever written was “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, although very
controversial, it is a work of philosophical fiction and a work of art. Nietzsche considered it a tragedy, a parody,
a polemic and the culmination of the German language at the same time. He was extremely proud of having written it. Indeed, Nietzsche was a master of the German
language, giving it a special style, making an art out of it. And this kind of excellence in his writing
style he wished to see transposed in people’s characters. That is why he admired great leaders and writers
of the past, who could embody with style great ideals, like Caesar, Napoleon or Goethe. For example, in Goethe, he saw someone who
could be a totality. Even his main work, Faust, reflects the totality
of human experience. Goethe could take the most important elements
of the human experience and create beautiful works of art out of them. This was specifically the goal of Nietzsche
with his book “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, a book “for all and none”. What we can learn from Nietzsche regarding
his views over art, is that art is not only to entertain us, to please our emotions, it
can be something applied to our character too. We can make art out of our character, by playing
with our qualities and defects, like a conductor directs an orchestra. We can make our qualities sing harder and
the defects lower and, even more, if we know exactly when to introduce a defect, to make
it in such a way that it sounds pleasant rather than annoying. To reach such mastery, you need to properly
know your qualities and defects, to know for which you need a higher dose and which you
should keep in shadow and reveal only in certain circumstances. Revealing yourself is an art that you should
perform with great style and there is an art to turn your character flaws into strengths. Every character flaw has a “silver lining”,
which is a sign of hope or a positive aspect in an otherwise negative situation. For example, imagine that people always consider
you to be too pessimistic, you’re always bringing people down. When in a meeting at work, a colleague proposes
an unconventional way to reduce the manufacturing costs of a product by using a new technology. Your first tendency would be to say that the
company does not have experience in using that technology and the timeline of the project
is too tight, so you turn down that colleague immediately. Instead of such a reaction, think of new ways
to bring up your concerns - give style to your character. Say something like “this is a brilliant
idea. How would you propose to proceed? Should we hire new people who have experience
in this technology? Or is there a possibility to delay the project?” Always use affirmative questions to smooth
your pessimistic tendency, but don’t give up the way you think, which is to spot the
possible risks. Owning yourself implies knowing your qualities
and defects, mastering them and thus giving your character great style. As we mentioned at the beginning, this video
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