What are your top three favorite things to do?

Mine are:

1. Thinking
2. Building
3. Playing Chess

Transcendence is filled with mystery but the answers you need are right in front of you

Being able to simplify and get to those answers require a massive amount of dedication though

That's the great paradox of self-improvement

There is also a self-improvement trap to avoid, but I can cover that in a future newsletter

We get so caught up in life, bills, relationships, etc.

Then tack on social media, societal expectations, and other "obligations" and you have a recipe for disillusionment

• When was the last time you challenged the values you adopted as your own?
• When was the last time you asked yourself what you really want out of life?
• When was the last time you defined for yourself what family and friends mean?

What about happiness or success?

The answers you get in return aren't clear at first and aren't pretty

If anything, they disturb you

That's what Nietzsche describes as "The Hour of The Great Contempt" and his sole purpose of contending future Nihilism

What is the greatest experience you can have? It is the hour of the great contempt. The hour in which your happiness, too, arouses your disgust, and even your reason and your virtue — Nietzsche

We "grow up" when we finally tell our parents, "No"

We shed society's values when we say, "I don't want to party every weekend"

We create our own moralities when we choose to believe in religion or not

What Existentialism stands for is taking a ruthless, objective look at our lives and confronting the questions nobody else wants to answer

This Hour of The Great Contempt is also known as an existential crisis

Whether we participate in a stint of dopamine detox and delete our social media apps or decided to take cold showers in the morning to remind us to do the "hard stuff first," our choices are intentional

I believe these hours of contempt never end and are necessary to improve and accomplish anything we deem pursuit-worthy

The biggest shock you'll ever receive is when you realize your life is in your hands

Existentialism is just one of many ways to help navigate it

So, why'd I bring up what your top three things were?

If you can't identify your three things, can you confidently say you're living the life you want?

Alternatively, if you can easily identify them, you can design a life that surrounds all three.

• One keeps you paid
• One keeps you healthy
• One keeps you creative

Think about yours