Health Homework (24.1) Actively pursue your highest hopes

The opposite of nihilism is active pursuit of your highest hope and “perfect world”

How can I/you envision a life that will address and combine personal-social-global goals into a unified whole so that the goals become interconnected and thus synergistic and thus more likely to materialize and maintain?

I have discussed and diagrammed nihilism in previous posts (HealthHomework 6.1 Recognizing Nihilism and HealthHomework 6.2 Overcoming Nihilism) and have defined it as the combination of despair (“lack of meaning”) and disorientation (“lack of direction”). As such, nihilism looks and feels like chronic depression, fatigue, apathy while it also sets the stage for addiction (eg, drugs, alcohol), escapism (eg, videos, gaming), risk-taking behaviors (eg, speeding, gambling, sexing), and political extremism, since we can all access victimization, anger and self-righteousness if we can’t do anything else. In the video (HealthHomework 6.2), I also mention how distraction can also replicate/recapitulate nihilism via disorientation and subversion of meaningful engagement.

Our society sets us up for nihilism by presenting us from childhood with a buffet of falsities, fairy-tales, misdirections; these “work” for a while but eventually collapse as we mature enough to see through the facade of fantasy, fallacy, and nonthinking ease.

As such, just as our society promotes obesity (obesogenic sociostructure) via lack of mass transit, over-reliance on private cars, lack of public exercise facilities, food deserts, and constant medical misinformation to keep people sick and dependent on drugs, so likewise does our society promote nihilism (nihilogenic sociostructure) by constant distraction, disorientation, and devaluation—always pushing us away from the thoughts, insights, and goals that truly have importance.

As such, in order to maintain constant and conscious connection with an existence that feels and functions as if it has meaning, value, and direction, we have to 1) remain focused, 2) engage consistently, and 3) avoid distractions and energy-drainers regardless of their temptations, justifications, and attractiveness.

The opposite of nihilism is active pursuit of your highest hopes and “perfect world”

Denis Waitley said, “You’ve got to have a dream if you’re going to make your dream come true.”

If you can’t name your goals, then you either don’t have them or have forgotten what they are — in either case whether lost or nonexistent, those goals are unlikely to ever become reality.

Make a list of your goals, then turn those goals into a cohesive narrative for your present and future

To cover the major topics, I will simplify Maslow’s hierarchy of needs¹ into physical, social, and transcendent/metapersonal.

Physical goals, personal preferences: These impact your daily life

• Safety—physical, emotional, financial

• Self-esteem as perceived by oneself

• Food—quality, taste, variety

• Housing, comfort, stability

• Preference of climate/geography/mobility

• Activity, Relaxation

• Health, disease treatment and prevention

• Education, achievement, personal growth

• How can I/you envision a life that will address and combine the above areas into a unified whole so that the goals become interconnected and thus synergistic and thus more likely to materialize and maintain?

• What would your daily and weekly routine look like in order to help you achieve those goals?

Social goals: These impact your social environment and interactions

• Self-esteem as perceived by oneself by relative comparison with others

• Social connections

• Goals for my friends and family

• Goals for my local community

• How can I/you envision a life that will address and combine the above areas into a unified whole so that the goals become interconnected and thus synergistic and thus more likely to materialize and maintain?

• What would your weekly and monthly routine look like in order to help you achieve those goals?

Metapersonal goals: These have little or nothing to do with you personally; these are gifts and blessings that you give to the world

• Goals for nation, world

• Kindness to distant relatives, strangers, people in other countries

• Gifts for future generation

• How can I/you envision a life that will address and combine the above areas into a unified whole so that the goals become interconnected and thus synergistic and thus more likely to materialize and maintain?

Make a list of your goals, then turn those goals into a cohesive narrative for your present and future.

Your plan and narrative have to also include the action steps for making those goals become reality.

“In order to pursue and realize my goals and dreams for myself, my community and for the world and future generations, I will DO the following:

1. _______________________________

2. _______________________________

3. _______________________________

4. _______________________________

5. _______________________________

“In order to pursue and realize my goals and dreams for myself, my community and for the world and future generations, I will AVOID the following:

1. I will avoid numbing out: _______________________________

2. I will avoid distractions: _______________________________

3. I will avoid watching meaningless videos, engaging in nonproductive social media: _______________________________

4. I will avoid dramatic/nonproductive conversations and relationships: _______________________________

5. AVOIDING MAYBE: I will protect my mind and time by being clear with myself and I will be clear with other people by saying “yes” or “no” and will try to keep myself out of the zone of “maybe” and indecision*: _______________________________

*I’m pretty sure that’s the one I was waiting for

“By my love and hope do I implore you: cast not away the hero in your soul!

Maintain holy your highest hope!”

Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Health Homework (6.2, VIDEO) Overcoming Nihilism in 2 Easy Sunday-strolling Steps

1. https://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/LearnersFirst/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.htm