If one philosopher should be described as being “extraordinary”, then Friedrich Nietzsche would be one of the first names to come to mind. He was a German philosopher, cultural critic, composer, poet, and philologist whose work shook the foundations of human society on many aspects including culture, religion, philosophy, literature, and psychology. He was one of the main precursors of existentialism and his goal was to pave the way for the Ubermensch or “Superhuman”, a superior and absolutely free man.
Not only were his teachings extraordinary, but also his life, which was full of suffering, on an emotional, physical level and even career level. A good part of his life, he lived as a shadow, wandering in the Alpine mountains, where he wrote some of the most magnificent books the world has ever seen. Some notable mentions are: “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, “Beyond Good and Evil” and “Twilight of the Idols”.
Sadly, he didn't get much recognition and wasn't able to sell much of his work. At age 44 he had a mental breakdown while watching a horse beaten by his driver, ran over to the horse, and said "I understand you". He never recovered from the tragedy and his mental breakdown took his life after eleven years.
However, in spite of his tragic life, Nietzsche achieved through his work something extraordinary and the world will forever read the work of a man, who challenged existing paradigms and took human thought to higher summits. Nietzsche, despite being a controversial and often misunderstood philosopher, through his teachings, wanted people to see the great height of their extraordinary potential and to break the chains which kept them prisoners in order to conquer their true freedom and to help us understand those teachings, here are 10 lessons from the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche which can teach you how to be extraordinary. 1.
Be an essentialist Nietzsche says “It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book. ” Nietzsche always captivated his readers with his way of writing. He was genuine, brief, blunt, and he never liked to follow a system.
He considered himself a revolutionary figure, writing for the next generations which, he believed, might understand him better. He never liked to explain himself to the masses. Like a seducer, he was throwing bits of wisdom here and there, throughout his books, inviting his true disciples to follow him in his labyrinth of wisdom.
By concentrating on what is really important, on what is true and essential, not worrying if his books will sell well or not, and not by compromising himself to gain anything, Nietzsche became an extraordinary philosopher. Following his example, we too can learn to be less concerned with the mundane and learn to focus on what is really important in our lives. We too can become essentialists by decluttering our lives in order to make room for what is essential.
For example, we can start by decluttering our house, throwing away what we do not need, everything that we bought only to impress other people, but which does not represent us. In the same way, we can throw away people from our lives, who do not bring value to us, with whom we are just friends for various reasons, sometimes only to gain something in return. We can throw away careers which do not represent us, which do not make us grow in the sense we want to grow professionally.
Instead, we should direct our focus on what is truly essential, like our family, our lifetime dreams and goals, such as winning a musical contest, climbing Mount Everest, going to space, writing a book, being a business owner of a big company, taking a world tour and so on. Do not do things in life to impress people, but rather do things that are essential to you, that represent who you are truly. An essentialist, from the nietzschean point of view, is an individual with high self-esteem, with high goals and priorities.
These are necessary traits to living an original and extraordinary life. 2. Be authentic As Nietzsche said “I looked for great human beings, but all I ever found were the apes of their ideals.
” In his book “Twilight of the Idols”, Nietzsche performs what he calls “the philosophy with hammer”, knocking on the secret doors of human psychology, taking out all the idols and finding what is truly authentic and real. He discovered that most people follow a herd mentality, running away from their true selves. Consequently, very few people are real, authentic and honest with themselves because being authentic takes effort and courage.
Nietzshe’s teachings are all about owning yourself, becoming free and authentic. Finding ourselves is the true purpose of our existence. Self-discovery comes with self-owing.
Owning oneself gives you the confidence to face what people throw your way no matter how hard it gets. In order to build the muscle of authenticity, to have the courage to be yourself, you can start with simple things, with simple “no”s. Start with saying “no” to some of the demands of members of your close circle such as family and friends when they ask you to do something that you do not agree with, that you consider unfair or useless.
Then expand from there for example start to say no to your boss when the tasks you were given exceed your work responsibilities for example. Start to be authentic in all areas of your life. Be honest with yourself, own the person you really are.
By doing this, you will also start new projects in life which can reflect the real you, like starting new hobbies or doing the things you really love, or confronting people you disagree with. Sometimes, being authentic, having the capacity to own yourself, is having the courage to start a fight, to regain your freedom. Being extraordinary starts with being an authentic version of yourself.
3. Look for wisdom, not knowledge To quote Nietzsche “Once and for all, there’s a lot that I don’t want to know. —Wisdom sets limits even to knowledge”.
A philosopher always extrapolates from his observations of other different fields of knowledge, from observing the life of the other people, creating his own concepts of what is truly important and real. Although a scholar at the beginning, an academic with a vast and deep knowledge of Ancient Greece and a renowned professor at Basel, Nietzsche got rid of this shell of himself, learning to focus on only a part of Ancient Greeks wisdom, on that part which interested him and the one he considered valuable. Knowledge is gathered from learning and education, while wisdom is gathered from day-to-day experiences and is a state of being wise.
Nietzsche believed that knowledge instills a slave mentality. Nowadays, with so much knowledge at our disposal, many of us get trapped in a repetitive lifestyle, we stop reflecting on why we do the things we do and we just blindly follow the current trends, without pondering on the implications of our actions. Instead of developing ourselves, becoming wiser, we take in information without really processing it, we become slaves of our environment.
Especially in this era of technology, when we can have any type of information at our fingertips, it is very difficult to be selective. One way to do it is to take your time to understand yourself, to decide on who you are and what you want to do in life, then write a list of what kind of knowledge you need to get or interest you the most, then go from there. You should put limits on anything else, unsubscribe from news feed which are not related to your true interests.
Avoid aspects of social media, reading or watching content that is not relevant to you. Seek only high quality information, related to your goals in life and to who you really are. 4.
Put your will into things Nietzsche teaches us: “Those who don’t know how to put their will into things at least put a meaning into them: that is, they have faith that a will is already in things. Nietzsche strongly attacked everything that meant to give people so-called “peace of mind” - the untrue stories, the promise of fake paradise if people obey certain rituals. One example is religion.
Nietzsche noted that religion often declared People free in order that they be judged for their sins and so believed this kind of freedom to be illusory as it has to do more with responsibility and less to do with a real willpower to accomplish things. Nietzsche distanced himself from such worldviews like religion which in his mind uses faith in order to keep people in check, and thus controlling them. He tried to find a new type of freedom, which is a freedom from any repressive system such as political or religious systems.
Nietzsche learnt to put his will into things, he created his own values, after a “total reconsideration of all values”, thus achieving an extraordinary level of mastery in philosophy. Following his example, we can also learn to detach ourselves from what keeps us captive or what makes us act from a belief in untrue stories. This doesn’t necessarily mean religion, there can be a variety of secondary beliefs.
It can mean beliefs like: “good always trumps evil”, “there is a reason for everything”, “humans have a soul who will survive the death of the body”, or that “everyone has a soulmate”. For example, if you believe that “good always trumps evil” and you are in a situation in which something terrible has been done to you, such as your diamonds being stolen, you might choose to forget about it, trusting that there is an invisible God who is watching over you and who will deliver justice in the end, punishing the criminal. But, if you don’t let this belief blind you, then you would immediately report the theft to the police, using any legal means to make justice for yourself.
These kinds of beliefs may provide peace of mind to some, but this doesn’t necessarily make them true. We can choose to believe in them, but we should not act based on them. First, we need to learn to put our will into things, to face the reality in front of us as it is, the good and the bad.
Our actions and thoughts must be based on reality if we want to create an extraordinary life for ourselves. 5. Love your destiny In the words of Nietzsche: “My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity.
Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it… but love it. ” Amor Fati translated as "Love for one’s fate" revolves around accepting your own destiny with open arms. Nietzsche didn’t believe in the concept of free will, but he believed in a will of reaffirming life as it is.
Loving your destiny doesn’t mean to live a passive life, accepting anything done to you. It means to look at your existence with a deep understanding and a deep acceptance. It means the will to relive your life, the same life, over and over again.
It means to allow yourself to manifest in life your true free being, it means to follow your passions and live a life in accordance with your personality. We are not free to choose which country we were born into, into which family, or what colour of skin we have, or how intelligent we are, but we are free to feel good in our skin, to accept reality as it is and to make the best of everything life gives us. The more we love who we are and our destiny, with the good and bad, the more aware of life we become, the more fully we experience it.
Many of us spend most of our time worrying about our future or lamenting over our past, over all the things we did wrong that could have been corrected. Lamenting over our inadequacies and shortcomings can send us into stress and depression. You need to accept that things are not always rosy, to accept death and sorrow as a part of life, to accept that you are not always a winner, that the purpose of your life is not your happiness, but it is a constant process of self-discovery.
Only through this acceptance, will your mind will be able to find solutions to deal with the problems in your life. In order to be able to have this calm state of mind , you can practice some exercises like meditations, learn to become aware of your body, of your emotions, of your life as it is. Scientific studies proved that by practicing meditation, you can release stress, improve concentration, lower blood pressure, reduce anxiety and depression and extraordinary things will happen to you when you act from a place of calm.
6. Never fear failure Nietzsche asks us: "You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame; How could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes? " Nietzsche’s teachings can be adopted in order to encourage the millions of people out there who fear to try and pursue their interests because of a perceived failure.
Nietzsche’s personal battle with disease, which left him almost blind and destitute, did not limit his quest for knowledge. The scholar cut himself off from the outside world. Living in the Swiss Alps, he continued his philosophical journey writing books that are still relevant to date.
The dynamite philosopher provides hope to the hopeless, to keep marching while dressed in resilience. The most significant progress made in any field has been the realm of those who stood high on the verge of failing, yet never yielded. For example, Apple's story is an extraordinary one.
From the garage of college dropouts, Apple is now a global success story that can be adopted by all. Entrepreneurs or anybody who wants to achieve something extraordinary in life should not be debilitated by fear, rather fear should be a stimulus for success and self-development. If you have been recently fired for example, try to use your frustration, anger or sadness to motivate you, to make you learn new skills, to become better than anyone around you, work on your self-confidence and apply aggressively to other jobs, do not let the fear of a new possible failure stand in your way.
If you have been recently heart broken, take the necessary time to grieve, but keep going, find meaning in your suffering and learn from the experience. Do not shy away from suffering and failure, but rather learn from any possible experience and rise anew just as a Phoenix from the ashes. 7.
Always speak your truth Nietzsche tells us “Silence is worse; all truths that are kept silent become poisonous. ” Across the globe, people hide truths in great secrecy, perhaps to not upset their immediate environment. But a fact should not be obfuscated, rather it should be spoken as it is.
Nietzsche's life is a testament that the world cherishes those who tell the truth and speak their minds. As one of the most conflicted philosophers, Nietzsche’s testament that God does not exist sparked a revolt. Nietzsche never shied away from speaking his truth, no matter how shocking this truth was.
To be extraordinary is to have the courage to express your most extraordinary truths. For Nietzsche, truth is not a collective concept, it is more related to your individual perspective. Therefore, truth comes from your authenticity, your interpretation of the world is the most solid truth you have.
If you don’t speak your truth, it means you sabotage yourself, you denigrate your unique perspective on life. Also, speaking the truth is healthy for any relationship. If you keep secrets from someone close to you, these secrets will become poisonous and might even destroy that relationship.
But the biggest danger lies in the relationship with yourself. For example, if you are untrue to yourself, you may well convince yourself that you're religious when in actual fact you might be an atheist. If you declare your religion just to avoid upsetting your family and not because it is your true belief, then you are poisoning yourself and you might never have meaningful relationships with your family because you do not act from your true inner core.
No matter how different your perspective is on reality, you need to develop the courage to speak your truth and live a life in accordance with this truth. 8. Stay connected to nature Nietzsche reminds us "all truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.
" Nietzsche loved taking long walks in the Swiss mountains. These walks were for him a source of inspiration especially when his vision was deteriorating. His most important books were actually the fruits of those long walks in the Alps and he is not the only one in history inspired by such walks in nature.
Sir Isaac Newton went for a walk in his garden and observed an apple fall from the tree. From that walk, Newton understood the force of gravity. In addition to living sedentary lives, we have forgotten to learn from our environment.
Society has moved towards the adoption of expertise more than understanding, has moved towards an industrial education that does not assist in growing knowledge, but rather developing human resources to run the corporate world order. We should engage in physical activities such as walking which allows our brains to think in a natural way, allowing for mental growth. In this way, who knows, some extraordinary ideas for a new business might pop up in our minds, transforming our lives completely.
For example, if you ever feel stuck in your work or you are confronted with a relationship crisis, get outside, take a walk to the nearest park, refresh your mind, ponder over your possibilities, consider every side, think about your priorities and dreams in life and then come home having a fresh perspective from where you can make much better decisions. You can never know how much you can learn from a peaceful tree, moving its leaves in the wind, standing tall and grounded or from seeing how small your problems are compared to the spectacle of nature. If you are an intellectual with high mental activity as Nietzsche, you might need to walk a few miles, to let your thoughts run wildly, to catch them in their run in order to reach new extraordinary insights.
9. Be pragmatic Nietzsche says: “Ultimately no one can hear in things - books included - more than he already knows. If you have no access to something from experience, you will have no ear for it.
” Nietzsche emphasizes learning from experience, he says experience is the best teacher. If you are a rigid person, immersed in theoretical learning, you will never really develop on a personal level. Nietzsche suggests you should live your life in such a way that you test each idea on the experiential level.
Also, it is not enough to identify the problems, you have to find solutions for these problems as well. And solutions cannot be found without testing them in the real world. Finding solutions for human problems should be the fundamental responsibility of any branch of knowledge.
In philosophy, Nietzsche uncovers a lot of shocking truths, which he reached by inspecting reality in depth, immersing himself in human psychology and bringing his precious findings to the surface. Being pragmatic means to reach solutions to your problems through testing, through first hand experience. This teaching can be applied by anyone, no matter how theoretical the activity is.
Even if you are a mathematician. For example, if you encounter a very difficult mathematical problem and classical methods do not work on it, you may try to test different strategies, to approach the problem from different angles and see which one gives the right result. To have extraordinary achievements in your life, you need to be pragmatic, test different strategies, evaluate them, see which one is more efficient or which one leads you to new discoveries.
10. Be a dynamite In our final quote from Nietzsche he simply says: “I am not a man, I am dynamite. ” Nietzsche’s philosophy focuses heavily on the idea of the Ubermensch or “superhuman”, a hypothetical extraordinary human being, with psychologically superior qualities.
Nietzsche was without doubt a dynamite, claiming a total reconsideration of all values, paving the way for a future Superhuman. In his view, we humans are bridges to these extraordinary qualities of human beings and by being a dynamite, Nietzsche was a great enhancer of human cultural evolution towards such a Superhuman being. Although few of us can become such intellectual dynamites as Nietzsche was, we can still try to model his example in our lives.
For example, at the workplace, we can analyze the rules by which our organization and team is measured and suggest completely new ones, which can make the work much more efficient. We can also be a dynamite through solitary work, building a business in our garage from scratch. No matter how small the scale on which we operate, we can revolutionize old ways of thinking and working, or put into question the customs and traditions by which human relationships function.
Of course, being unconventional, revolutionary or extraordinary comes with a price. However, it is still worth it if the community in which we live will benefit from it or even the world at large, or even the world at large. So, if you enjoyed this video, please do make sure to check out the full Philosophies for Life channel and for more vid.
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