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  • to find your inner genius from the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.

  • Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher who was definitely a genius.

  • He started to learn Greek alphabet and to play piano when he was only 3 years old, he

  • was one of the brightest students and at age of 23, he was the youngest Professor of Greek

  • Linguistics.

  • He was a very close friend of the famous composer Richard Wagner and with other famous personalities

  • and he later became one of the greatest philosophers of all time.

  • He wrote several books, includingThus Spoke Zarathustra”, “Beyond Good and Evil”,

  • The Birth of Tragedy”, “The Twilight of the Idolsand his teachings continue

  • to shock the world, even today.

  • For Nietzsche, history itself is a process of creating geniuses; each genius is somebody

  • who creates the mental world in which his successors will live.

  • In other words, the history of the world follows the work of the geniuses.

  • Although Nietzsche's life took a tragic turn, he created a new mental world to inspire

  • generations.

  • His teachings inspire everyone who dreams of becoming a genius, helping them to find

  • that inner voice to guide them throughout their life.

  • According to Nietzsche, if you don't cultivate your inner genius, if you don't own yourself,

  • you have lived a life oflaziness.”

  • Certain steps in life can only be walked by you and only by discovering that inner genius

  • can you walk that path, so to help you uncover your own path, in this video we bring you

  • 7 ways in which you can find your inner genius, from the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.

  • 1.

  • Be yourself Nietzsche saysBe yourself!

  • All that you are now doing, thinking, desiring, all that is not you”.

  • According to Nietzsche, life is hopeless and meaningless without a true liberation from

  • the chains of opinion and fear.

  • If we remain captive in those chains, we would be dreary, wandering aimlessly in life.

  • As Nietzsche said, nobody can build the bridge on which we must cross the river of life,

  • but ourselves.

  • Discovering more about ourselves helps us in better understanding our strengths, our

  • hidden talents, our inner genius, and the source of our creativity.

  • The best way to know all of these is to ask yourself: “What have you truly loved thus

  • far?

  • What has ever uplifted your soul, what has dominated and delighted it at the same time?”

  • Analyse all of these and you will unveil the direction you need to take to unleash the

  • power of your inner genius.

  • No matter who you are, what your profession is, on which place on Earth you are, you should

  • be able to know what you really love doing in life, what makes you really happy.

  • For example, you may find out that what you truly loved was when you volunteered for a

  • humanitarian cause, what uplifted your soul was the happy ending from your favourite movie,

  • what has dominated and delighted your soul at the same time was when you were at work

  • in a leading position, maximizing the resources of your team.

  • Based on these findings, that person would be happiest if they take a direction in which

  • they can be a leader of a community, a position from which they can make a positive impact,

  • helping the people in that community.

  • Here would lie their genius.

  • In the same way, any of us can answer the questions regarding what we really love, what

  • uplifts our soul, and use that to find our own direction and unleash our inner genius.

  • 2.

  • Be a genius of the heart Nietzsche saysGenius of the heart whose

  • voice can climb into the underworld of any psyche, upon whose touch everyone departs

  • richer, richer in himself, cracked wide open, more delicate, fragile, and broken, but full

  • of hopes”.

  • Nietzsche considered himself the last disciple of Dionysus, the God of Wine, fertility and

  • madness in Greek mythology.

  • He saw Dionysus as a gateway to the depths of human psychology, a way to understand the

  • essence of human desires and emotions.

  • In psychoanalysis, a Dionysian experience can be considered as a way to release subconscious

  • desires and bring them to the surface.

  • For example, a subconscious desire can be the desire to be romantically involved with

  • someone you are not supposed to, like someone who is already married.

  • The more we become aware of what is inside our subconscious, the more we can control

  • it.

  • The more we can control it, the more likely we are to make good decisions, and therefore

  • the more psychologically healthy we become.

  • Being like the God Dionysus as Nietzsche described him, is not for everybody: It is for those

  • who dare to descend into the abyss of the human psyche like Nietzsche claimed he did.

  • But, a more superficial self-analysis can still be useful for the majority of us.

  • According to neuro-psychoanalysis, free association might be a great tool through which we can

  • perform self-analysis on our own psyche.

  • By free association, we can dissect our most intimate thoughts and feelings, we can go

  • deep inside ourselves, and, by bringing subconscious desires to the surface, we can release our

  • Dionysian nature and becomegeniuses of the heart.”

  • One method through which we can perform free association is journaling.

  • If we write in our journal every day, without censoring ourselves, we can come to a deeper

  • understanding of what bothers us every day and we can even find solutions to our most

  • personal problems.

  • For example, if you are stuck and unable to make a major life decision, say marrying your

  • partner, choosing a better career or moving to another place, it can help to write the

  • reasons you would or would not take each path.

  • Evaluating their pros and cons, as well as your emotions towards them can help you make

  • a more informed decision that's best for you in the long run.

  • The more you know about your subconscious self, the more you know what makes you happy,

  • what activities make you more creative.

  • Our inner genius has everything to do with our creativity, as in our creativity lies

  • our potential for growth and for leaving our legacy on the world.

  • 3.

  • Protect your genius from the herd Nietzsche saysWhat we've called universal

  • values, what we've called truth, has always only ever been the personal expressions of

  • those who promoted them”.

  • Because we live in a society, we are blinded by certain standards and rules, we obey certain

  • moral codes which control our behaviour.

  • Although these invisible rules give us security, they also limit our individuality and creativity.

  • As Nietzsche argues, we are controlled by a herd morality, which was created by the

  • ruling class in order to control the poor.

  • These societal values, what is good and what is bad are not given by a supernatural being

  • like God, but rather, they are concepts invented by the ruling classes.

  • Although many of these values have a positive influence over society overall, it is important

  • to be more aware of them and investigate the way in which they control us, in order to

  • educate ourselves, to become who we truly are and to find our inner genius; the source

  • of our individuality and creativity.

  • Millions of us are trapped in traditional religions and prejudices and, in our attempt

  • to free ourselves, we can encounter tough opposition from people who kill their own

  • creativity and dreams in order to conform to society and who feel insecure seeing other

  • people pursuing their creative dreams.

  • For example, if you are a young woman living in a country which encourages women to be

  • only housewives, then you would likely face a lot of backlash and opposition when pursuing

  • a career in science.

  • According to Nietzschean philosophy, you should protect your inner individuality as a scientist

  • and your creative spirit as a whole by continuing to practice science in spite of the opposition.

  • Although you may never get the recognition and respect you deserve, your inner creativity,

  • your genius, is the most important life force you have to fulfil you in the long run.

  • Even if you are not allowed to go to school, you can borrow science books, keep up to date

  • with developments in the news, and of course follow some of the many amazing science communicators

  • right here on YouTube.

  • To protect your inner genius, you must stop blindly following society's rules as they

  • are not based on universal truths or values, they are all relative.

  • 4.

  • Genius is no accident Nietzsche saysDo not talk about giftedness,

  • inborn talents!

  • One can assume great men of all kinds who were very little gifted..”.

  • We live in a society which considers a genius as being a rare phenomenon, which takes luck

  • like being born in a special culture or in a special family, with a certain status, or

  • being born 'gifted' at, say, music, art, maths, and so on.

  • We often feel that they achieved the status of genius by accident, a miracle, or luck.

  • We never look at what it is behind their success.

  • This mentality of seeing a genius might prevent us from actually becoming one.

  • There is a huge difference between what society considers being a genius and what being a

  • genius really is.

  • Following society's way of looking at geniuses as rare phenomena, as accidents which happen

  • only in certain professions or circumstances might compromise your endeavour to develop

  • your own inner genius.

  • Therefore, it is important to disregard what is popular and focus on what ignites your

  • own flame.

  • If the thing that really excites you is making anime art using ancient printing techniques

  • or dumpster diving for old technology to restore or upcycle, then great!

  • Get out there and do it and ignore the haters telling you to stop because it's not 'normal'.

  • Not to mention ignoring your inner voice telling you to feel embarrassed or shameful because

  • your interests don't conform to current trends.

  • Conforming almost never matters, and ultimately is less likely to lead to your personal happiness

  • than pursuing the things you know bring you joy.

  • 5.

  • Don't resent geniuses if you want to become one

  • Nietzsche saysOur vanity, our self-love, promotes the cult of the genius: for only

  • if we think of him as being very remote from us, as a miraculum, does he not aggrieve us...”.

  • We use the wordsgifted”, “genius”, “one of a kindbecause we want to protect

  • ourselves - we do it to shield our own egos.

  • We might consider it too hard to be like them, that it seems too much like hard work, so

  • we say it's impossible.

  • Often, when we decide someone is a genius, we automatically put a barrier on our own

  • future endeavors.

  • We think we might never get there, that we are incapable of doing that, so we called

  • themgeniuses.”

  • We think those people had an unfair start, that they were born with that particular talent,

  • they were born in that certain country, in that certain family and so on.

  • We wish we were more like them or at least wish we had those same advantages at the start.

  • In this way, we do not take responsibility for our life and instead blame external factors

  • for our failures.

  • Instead of seeing genius as an out of reach target, we need to start evaluating their

  • journey to see how they achieved the status of genius, to count the number of hours of

  • work they put in, to evaluate the decisions they made in life and so on.

  • Take Nietzsche, for example; You can call him a genius, but if he hadn't studied so

  • much Greek linguistics and Greek philosophy, he wouldn't have been appointed to Basel

  • university, he wouldn't have become part of Richard Wagner's inner-circle of famous

  • artists and writers.

  • All his great achievements were accomplished not because of some innate natural ability,

  • but through effort and determination in spite of his fragile physical structure and his

  • psychological vulnerabilities.

  • Therefore, if you feel a particular intense interest towards a field, you need to put

  • in all the effort you can to pursue that career.

  • For example, imagine you work in a company and you have always envied a colleague who

  • is an admired manager in your branch.

  • You find yourself despising him and assuming his success is pure luck because of his innate

  • talent to talk to people - a talent you believe you don't share.

  • So don't try and play that game - Instead of fixating on how they are 'better' than

  • you, you should focus on what you do better than them; Invest more time and energy into

  • your work itself, into time management and self-discipline and you could become successful

  • in your own individual way.

  • Everyone's genius is unique so trying to measure your genius with another is an unfulfilling

  • waste of time.

  • 6.

  • Learn to be diligent Nietzsche saysAll had that diligent seriousness

  • of a craftsman, learning first to form the parts perfectly before daring to make a great

  • whole.

  • They took time for it, because they got more pleasure from making something little or less

  • important, than from the effect of the dazzling whole”.

  • There are definitely people who appear naturally gifted and are better at a given activity

  • than most other people.

  • For example, even as a child Nietzsche showed a great talent for music and demonstrated

  • great intellectual capabilities.

  • However, these raw 'talents' were not enough in isolation: Talent is just the gateway

  • to success, it is not success in and all itself.

  • Nietzsche took the necessary steps to perfect them, until he became an excellent musician

  • and composer, and a great scholar at the University of Basel.

  • It is easy to say he was a genius, but if he hadn't perfected his talents, hadn't

  • focused his energies on music, literature and philosophy, we would have never heard

  • about him.

  • This kind of person appears to us as a genius because we never saw them grow up or what

  • they have been exposed to.

  • When we use the word 'genius' or 'gifted' to describe an extraordinarily talented individual,

  • there is an underlying implication that devalues any of the deliberate practice and effort

  • that went into crafting the skill that the individual is now an expert in.

  • We do not take into account that a 'gifted' musician spent most of their life playing,

  • listening to, and composing music, we just call them a genius in order to avoid daring

  • to do the hard work they've already done.

  • Those people are not superhuman; all that separates them from us is their diligence

  • to achieve greatness.

  • Mastery can take many years to achieve, but 'genius' can be obtained by many of us.

  • We all have different passions, what we usually call a hobby, but we rarely cultivate it to

  • the fullest due to our low level of self-confidence.

  • We all have the qualities necessary to become a genius, but not all of us have the right

  • attitude.

  • Before you declare for example that you are a terrible writer, you should practice writing

  • a lot; Short stories, novels, articles, screenplays, Harry Potter fanfictionanything your heart

  • desires, all the while perfecting your style, comparing it with experts in your field and

  • learning from the critique you receive.

  • There is no shortcut, greatness requires your time and energy.

  • 7.

  • Be grateful andcleanIn our final quote from Nietzsche for this

  • video, he says: “A man who possesses genius is insufferable unless he also possesses at

  • least two other things: gratitude and cleanliness”.

  • In spite of his daring and sometimes acerbic philosophy, Nietzsche was a gentle and sophisticated

  • human being.

  • Moreover, he was a very talented poet, piano player and composer, possessing great artistic

  • skill.

  • Nietzsche valued his friendships to extremes and he never compromised himself for money.

  • He can be considered a good example of a grateful person because of his track record of being

  • a great friend, and a clean person because of his pride to never compromise himself for

  • money.

  • Gratitude and cleanliness can act as major boosters for your success in life.

  • The more grateful and clean you are, the more people will gather around you and will be

  • transformed by your mastery, and therefore the bigger impact you can have in the world.

  • For example, imagine you are a skilful programmer, one of the best in your field.

  • Instead of becoming arrogant due to your success, Nietzsche advises you to maintain a sense

  • of gratitude, to continue giving your best in your work and being gentle with your co-workers

  • and collaborators.

  • Also, keep yourself clean and do not try to force your way towards further wealth or recognition

  • if it compromises your integrity or is against your better judgement.

  • It may not feel good in the short term, like a wilfully missed opportunity, but by doing

  • so, in time you will be proven right, attracting more admiration from the people around you

  • which will automatically propel you towards more success.

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