We see the world as we are

Personal Growth Newsletter (Weekend briefing)

Reality is an interpretation. “There are no facts, only interpretations,” wrote philosopher Nietzsche. We don’t see the world as it is. We see it as we are. The truth is not that simple. It’s subject to interpretation. It changes with perspective. That’s why I question everything.

Nietzsche didn’t trust absolute answers. “Whichever interpretation prevails is a function of power, not truth,” he said.

Essayist Anaïs Nin also noted, “You don’t see things as they are, you see them as you are.” Reality’s a crowd of stories fighting for attention. The loudest wins. Question everything. Because certainty is for people who’ve stopped thinking. And you? You’re smarter than that. Choose better interpretations.

Your reality depends on it.

Weekend reads

• All the best-selling self-help books, boiled down to 20 simple rules.
• 15 mind-bending Nietzsche philosophies that are all one sentence long.
• 15 short stoic rules I try to live by in difficult times.

A concept worth understanding

Learned helplessness: When you stop fighting back

If you’ve ever felt like no matter what you do, nothing changes, you’ve experienced learned helplessness.

How it applies in real life:

• A kid keeps failing math. Eventually, he stops trying.
• A woman stays in a bad relationship because she believes she has no way out.
• You try to start a business, but nothing works. So you quit forever.

Failure isn’t the problem. Believing failure is permanent is. When you think, “What’s the point? Nothing I do works,” that’s not reality talking. That’s mental conditioning. You always have options. Always.

If you believe you can’t change something, test it. Do the tiniest thing differently. Don’t say “I always fail.” Try “I haven’t figured it out yet.” One word makes a difference. If you can’t believe in yourself, find someone who does. A mentor, a friend, a book.

Learned helplessness is a trick your brain plays on you. But you’re not trapped. The door is open. You just have to walk through it.

Keep trying.

Quotes

• “If there were a little more silence, if we all kept quiet…maybe we could understand something.”― Federico Fellini
• “The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is. Self-knowledge has no end.” — Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.” — Henry Miller

My new free books (or donate what you want)

1. The little book on how to live in an age of collapse — Get your sanity back.
2. The Little book of Carl Jung Wisdom — Practical life advice from an iconic psychiatrist.

Until Tuesday,

Be Well.

— Thomas Oppong