Goal
Today, I want to remind you of how much the world needs you to be your best self.
Do You Believe You Are Needed?
You are unique. The world needs you at your best.
“The world needs more heroes.”
The world needs heroes. Who are heroes? Virtuous individuals who are willing to take responsibility for their lives. Anyone can be a hero. They are not restricted by time, intelligence, location, or other arbitrary factors. However, only hard-working and virtuous individuals can become heroes.
Why does the world need heroes? Because heroes have the strength and potential to make the world a better place. A scared, neurotic man can only be a parasite or villain. He cannot build a community, improve his life, or help virtuous individuals.
Do you believe you could be a hero? No matter what stories you have been told or have told yourself, the world needs you. Furthermore, it needs you at your best. Remember, being a hero is not about “self-sacrificing” – it is about self-improvement. When you focus on strengthening your body, improving your emotional control, and taking responsibility for your life, you will gain the power you need. This power allows you to be heroic in a world mired in identity politics, collectivism, and greed.
Why Do We Feel Depressed, Lost, and Hopeless?
You feel depressed because life is a constant challenge, and you have no real means of dealing with this reality.
However, you probably don’t feel heroic or understand how you are needed. Why is that? You have to deal with internal doubts and external attacks. Understanding both components can help you grasp why you don’t believe in yourself.
Your Internal Doubts, Fears, and Shame
You will always feel shame for pursuing comfort over greatness.
“The true hero is one who conquers his own anger and hatred.” – Dalai Lama XIV
Internally, you are besieged by doubts, fears, and shame. These feelings are natural. For example, when you change your environment or seek self-improvement, your mind will create a reasonable amount of worry. Why? Every change brings consequences, and you need to know if these are good or bad. Doubt helps you think critically about these changes so that you will make the right decision.
Furthermore, you’re meant to pursue comfort and ease. The pursuit of pleasure leads to things such as modern medicine and cars. Thus, physical satisfaction is not evil. However, a lack of challenge which arises from an addiction to comfort is the problem. If you live a comfortable life, you will always be afraid and wonder if you are wasting away.
Lastly, your mind will always attack you if you are not pursuing your ideal self. Therefore, feelings of shame will come from being too lazy. You know, deep down, the world needs heroes. When you wallow in comfort instead of helping others and becoming your best self, you will experience shame.
The Relentless External Attacks
The mob is always on the attack. Who are they attacking? You and your ability to live life on your terms.
Externally, you live in anti-individualistic cultures. Your country, religious institutions, workplace, family, and businesses are against you growing a backbone. They need you praying, consuming, whining, and begging instead of becoming a hero and pushing back against their lies.
Furthermore, every institution is against your growth and development because the stronger you are as an individual, the less power they have over you. This hostility is why you’re attacked on all sides.
For example, governments will declare you too stupid to run your life, and corporations will claim you too pathetic until you buy their products. When you hear these narratives, you will feel pitiful, not heroic.
Lastly, collectivists love attacking people based on immutable realities. For example, if you are male, you will be blamed for gender-related issues regardless of your personal behavior. Why are people attacked for immutable attributes? The removal of choice makes you easier to control and manipulate.
With voices like these, is there any wonder you may despise the world or see yourself as lower than what you are? Is it any wonder you don’t want to improve yourself or believe the world needs you at your best?
How You Do You Remind Yourself You Are Needed?
You are the hero the world needs.
“Find out what your hero or heroine wants, and when he or she wakes up in the morning, just follow him or her all day.” – Ray Bradbury
However, the world needs heroes, and you need to be your best self. Why? Socially, the world could use better people. Virtuous people improve their society and ensure there is less suffering. Individually, if you are your best, then you are living fully. Even if you focus only on yourself, you are still reducing pain, creating value, and improving your wellbeing. Collectivists can never claim this.
So, how do you regain or earn your self-worth?
- Ignore negative voices – Some people are invested in crippling your mind. Ignore them.
- Reduce your consumption – The less you consume, the more time you have for work and self-improvement.
- Focus on the day – Who do you want to be by the end of the day?
- Reflect on the ideal – Who do you want to be by the end of your life?
- Keep track of your thoughts – Never let a thought cross your mind without examination. The more you know about yourself, the better you can respond to your needs.
- Be a rebel – The more you push against the noise and madness of the present culture, the stronger you will become.
1. Ignore negative voices
Turn off your phone, go outside, read a book. Most views today are designed to belittle what little hope you have.
Most voices in society are designed to knock you down. Therefore, if these voices are not trying to elevate you to be as virtuous as you can, then let them go. For example, you can safely ignore voices that critique your immutable qualities. If someone criticizes you for being white, female, gay, or whatever, then ignore them. They are collectivists looking to undermine you.
However, I want to highlight there are some “negative” voices you should listen to. For example, if you’re learning to code and someone points out flaws in your work, then you need to listen. Toughen your skin and accept these words of wisdom. This person is trying to help you become stronger.
Anyone criticizing you based on objective, moral principles can help you become better. Anyone criticizing you on subjective, immutable factors is trying to undermine you.
Remember, heroes come from anywhere and can be anybody. Don’t let negative voices distract you from this reality.
2. Reduce your consumption
The less you consume, the more you will have.
Consuming fewer media will help you focus on what you have instead of pawing after what you don’t. Furthermore, the less you consume, the easier you can live. How? Less consumption means you don’t have to work as hard. For example, if you don’t buy a bunch of crap, you don’t have to make as much money. Or, you can save more money in the bank instead of watching it go towards pointless toys and gadgets.
Additionally, the less you consume, the less likely you are to come across the voices meant to belittle who you are. Personally, I have cut my consumption of media by 90%. The result? I come across less collectivist views of race hustlers, government stooges, and corporate greed. Now I’m less stressed, and I waste little emotional energy on trite, anti-individualistic voices.
Lastly, if you need to, consume the cheesy stuff. Hope is in short supply in a collectivist’s world. If you can find even the smallest light at the end of the tunnel, then embrace it. Hold onto virtue and remind yourself to pursue what is ideal. Your goal is to see greatness reflected in the world, and art can provide that reflection.
3. Focus on the day
Remember, “who will I be by the end of the day?”
“You didn’t get the quest you wanted, you got the one you could do.” – Lev Grossman
Many people believe they are not needed because they think too widely. You have to narrow your focus and reflect on what you can change right now. Why? Because you can directly change the present and steer who you are today towards who the world needs you to be.
Here are some questions to consider:
- What habit, if you changed it, would save you time and money?
- Who could you help right now and lessen suffering in the world?
- What is one thing I can accomplish by the end of the day to make my tomorrow easier?
The more you think about your day-to-day, the more you can see how the little things you do are essential — made someone laugh? That’s valuable. Helped a customer find the items they wanted? That’s valuable. Started reading the book you’ve always promised yourself you’d read? That’s valuable.
Therefore, remember, “who do I want to be at the end of the day?” Your life is built piece by piece, and the more value you find in the small pieces, the more you will realize how important your life is.
4. Reflect on the ideal
What does the best version of you look like?
“The purpose of life is finding the largest burden that you can bear and bearing it.” – Jordan Peterson
During quiet moments, sit and meditate on who you want to be. Why? Because understanding where you want to go can help you determine what you should change today.
Therefore, ask yourself: where are you on your death bed? What have you accomplished? You can change the future and decide, right here, to be more than what you are. The world needs you to be your best. You need you to be your best.
Lastly, don’t allow the FOMO and consumerist culture to distract you from where you could be if you focused. For example, your ideal shouldn’t be tied to buying a product. You won’t reach the ideal with an over-expensive computer or a new set of clothes. Therefore, realize nice clothes and fancy trips are rewards during your pursuit of what’s best.
The more you can keep your ideal in mind, the better you can perform and reach the heights the world needs you to achieve.
5. Keep track of your thoughts
Always keep track of your thoughts. Always engage with whatever you are thinking.
We all have dark moments. In those moments, we can convince ourselves we are not needed, or the world would be better off without us. Despite how painful it may seem, you should keep track of your darker thoughts. Why? Because you cannot entirely remove them. Therefore, you need to engage with any dark feelings you may have and seek to understand the source.
For example, if you start feeling worthless, you should ask questions.
- What was I doing before I felt this way?
- What is this feeling trying to accomplish?
- How long will it take before I feel better?
- Is there anything I can do differently? And so on.
For example, I would feel scared and self-pity when I played video games. I defined the trigger (playing games), then I drilled down what these feelings were trying to tell me. Eventually, I realized my mind was telling me to spend my “free time” working on my projects instead of distracting myself. My mind’s message came in the form of negative thoughts. However, once I shifted my behavior, the feelings stopped.
Sometimes, you will have dark moments without any apparent cause. Your best course of action is to find a productive, low maintenance task such as cleaning your house or reading a book. You will survive these moments. Relax, let your mind wander, and question your thoughts as they come.
6. Be A Rebel
We are drowning in a culture of collectivism, nihilism, and relativism. Therefore, you must rebel, hero.
You live in a collectivist society designed to sap you of all individual merit, creativity, and achievement. Our culture values immutable attributes over virtue and character. Furthermore, you will always be judged by what you are, never who you chose to be or who you are becoming.
In such a world, you can choose to give up. However, what good would quitting do? If you give up on becoming an individual, the world loses one more source of light.
Therefore, be a rebel. Individualists are unique in our time and throughout history. The idea we should focus on individuals as a means of improving ourselves and society is a radical mindset. This mindset reduces the common pitfalls we see most of society embracing.
When you become your best self, you will reduce suffering and help others. Such actions will prove to you how needed you are in the world. However, you can only become your best self by being a rebel against the collectivists. Their narratives paint you as low, unworthy, and pathetic. Prove them wrong and overcome your despair.
The World Needs More Heroes
You are needed.
“I just want one person I can rescue and I want one person who needs me. Who can’t live without me. I want to be a hero, but not just one time.” – Chuck Palahniuk
We are trapped in a culture of collectivism. The world needs people who are willing to take responsibility for themselves and stand against the tide of nihilism and uselessness our culture is producing. Furthermore, many people are suffering under the boot of preventable problems such as starvation or homelessness. Unfortunately, our government will do nothing but waste our money and our future. And the collectivists will do nothing but scream “socialism” until we are eating dogs and sending people to work camps.
Therefore, the world requires you to be your best self. The easiest way to despair is to convince yourself that the world does not need you. If you could become a smarter, more generous, and confident individual, do you honestly believe you couldn’t improve the world?
The world needs more decent, free-thinking human beings. It needs you.
Be a rebel. Be an outlier. Become an individual.
Actionables
- What do you do when you feel low? Do you indulge? Lash out? The next time you feel low, try doing push-ups, walking, or other minor exercises.
- Who makes you feel low and worthless? Why do you spend time around them? Can you reduce or eliminate your time around disparaging voices?
- What’s one thing you could improve right now? Is it your body or your skillset? What do you think would happen if you could improve this element of your life?
- What scares you about self-improvement? Do you fear a loss of comfort? Do you fear the increased burden of your growing potential?
Please remember that it’s important to do the actionables. You’re not on this earth to simply read but to do. To become an individual, you must act more than you consume.
*Image credit to Unsplash.
