3 Powerful Ways to Make your Life Exciting through Philosophy...Even if You Think There Couldn’t Possibly be Anything Exciting about Your Life
Do you ever feel like life is just…"meh”? Do you sometimes feel like you’re sleepwalking through life? Like an unimportant cog in some corporate machine? Do you find yourself worrying that nothing matters?
If so, I hear you, friend. Contemporary life can feel like an existential nightmare. A nightmare in which you maybe work too hard at a job that pays too little.
So when the world oppresses you in this deep existential way this, how can we respond? By resenting it? By wittily complaining about it? Do we lean into the void and admit it as an unavoidable truth?
No. We respond with philosophy.
We respond in a way that shows ourselves and the world that not only is this existential void not unavoidable, but in fact, we always have the power to escape it. Simply by changing the way we think.
It all starts with a change in perspective. A change in mindset. A change that catapults the way to massive change in actions and feelings.
We begin by deciding to adopt a philosophical mindset that will empower us to benefit from anything that life throws us. With the right perspective, even the seemingly dullest experiences can become meaningful and exciting. Waiting in line at the DMV or in some other soul-sucking place can be an opportunity for you to take a deep breath (or 500 depending on how long the line is). An opportunity to take a step back and appreciate what is great about our lives.
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1. Adopt A Philosophical Mindset Toward All of Life
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So how can philosophy make life exciting? How can something so seemingly abstract, so removed from everyday life help us? The answer is that philosophy, at its best, gets us to radically improve the quality of our mindsets, of our thinking, which if done right, radically improves the quality of our actions, our emotions, our lives.
You may find yourself falling into a pattern of thinking that is all too tempting. You may think that your life would be exciting if only you had a certain toy or if you could travel without any worries, or if you could just get away from all the issues and problems of your life, you could finally focus on what really makes life exciting. As true as this may seem, the fact is that no thing and nothing, by itself, could make your life exciting. There are plenty of rich people who have more than one home, more than one which is stocked with all the toys money can buy and who still fail to find meaning in life or to get excited about any of it.
The fact is, excitement in life comes not from what the world gives you. It comes from the way you engage with the world. It all begins with what you pay attention to. If you want life to be more exciting, you need to engage with your world in a new way, a way that focuses on what is novel, on what is good and beautiful. You need to live in a way that finds the opportunities for amazement and excitement that are waiting to be found all over the world.
So decide to change your perspective. Right now. Real decision leads to action, so act now. Begin by writing these two things out:
Oppressive Unreflective Mindset:
Life is generally boring and hard.
Exciting things are expensive rare, fleeting,
Most of Life is Dull and Routine
Reframing Philosophical Mindset:
Life is generally exciting and challenging.
Opportunities for excitement are everywhere and cost nothing.
Most of life is Exciting and Full of Novelty
Go ahead, write them down now. Do it with intention. Really embody the information in the way you write it. Now do away with the first mindset physically. Put an X through it. A “Ghostbuster circle.” Scratch it out so that you can’t see most words. I don’t care what you do, so long as you do something that works for you. There is no substitute for trying different things out and seeing what works for you. Whatever makes you feel like you’re truly doing away with this way of thinking is best.
Now decide to adopt the second, philosophical mindset physically. Highlight it. Circle it. Underline it seven times. Do all of the above. Again, what’s important is that you find what works for you. What you want is to really feel that you’re committing yourself to this new way of thinking. Find what works for you, and get busy. Doing more of it. Commit to embodying this transformation in mindset. Carry it in your journal or planner, put it on your nightstand, make a copy for every room in your home. What’s important is that your actions embody this mindset.
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This general philosophical mindset will serve as the foundation for your new life full of excitement. This mindset is the seed of an exciting new life. And like any seed, if it is to flourish it must be watered and nourished. We nourish it by actually applying this mindset to shape our thinking and thereby shape our living. Here are some concrete ways to do so.
2. Compile and Keep a List of the Everyday Wonders that Nature and Civilization Have Given Us
It is all too easy to forget just how amazing the world has really become. Humans have gained mastery over basically all of the elements. It is commonplace for humans to light up the night so as not to fear it. To cool the desert air as not to sweat. To warm our homes in the deepest winter. All this, often with the simple push of a button. The world has become amazing. And in many ways, it is only becoming more amazing. Even the spaces we inhabit every day are the product of generations of human effort and ingenuity applied to enormous natural richness.
So. Write down and begin keeping a list of appreciative observations of the wonders of the world. For example:
Stoves are indoor fires that can be turned on and off at will.
Showers are indoor waterfalls with temperature control.
Fans are spirals that harness the wind to cool our surroundings.
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Smartphones are little blocks of metal that use electricity to send signals to space and back and connect people in real-time on the other side of the world.
We should appreciate not just the wonders wrought by civilization but also those inherent in nature and which actually make human ingenuity and effort possible.
Scientists have gained and continue to gain a deep appreciation of just how special the conditions of the universe have to be for beings like us, parts of the world that can know themselves and other parts, to arise. It is not only extremely rare for a planet to orbit a star in a way that allows it to have liquid water (and so for life as we know it to arise). It is even rarer for life then to evolve in those conditions. Rarer still for life to survive cosmic and geological events. Unimaginably rare then for intelligent life to evolve and survive enough to build globalized civilizations the kind you and I enjoy.
Take a moment now. And every day. To appreciate what a wonderful and advantageous world we live in. It is a world in which we don’t have to worry about having enough to breathe. It is a world where it is pretty easy to find food and water. It is a world where we can hydrate and nourish ourselves and so stay alive with all sorts of delicious things. A world where the sky is beautiful every day A world filled a variety of colors, sounds, smells, and textures. A world full of all kinds of different creatures and wonders.
We could live in a shitty, barren planet. A world where we need to worry about how much air each consumes. A world where making even a single blade of grass grow is an enormous challenge. We could live in a world where even nourishing ourselves is unpleasant. But we don't.
We live in a wonderful world indeed. So appreciate it. Every day. And when you're feeling "meh" or uninspired, look back to this list of wonders and remember the many things that make this life exciting and worth living.
3. Realize that Every Day, Every Moment, is an Unrepeatable Miracle
In order for each of us to be conscious of our surroundings or to have a thought, so much needs to have happened in the world, but also so much needs to be happening in our bodies and minds. Our brains need to coordinate all kinds of different, lights, sounds, smells, feels and order this information in a way that allows us to see ourselves in a world that we can navigate. None of this is a given. All of it is an achievement. An achievement that is built on generations of human effort and survival made possible by natural richness. So. Appreciate every conscious moment you get as the engineering marvel that it really is.
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The idea that every moment is a miracle is an idea that many people throughout history have expressed.
English journalist and author Storm Jameson, for example, eloquently wrote, “The only way to live is to accept each minute as an unrepeatable miracle, which is exactly what it is: a miracle and unrepeatable.”
Along a similar vein, Albert Einstein wrote, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
You may even have heard and read this truth many times before and rolled your eyes a bit Lamenting that this is just another banal platitude. Something shallow. Cookie-cutter advice that you have heard before and will hear again.
HOWEVER, it is important to realize that contemporary scientific understanding of the mind allows us to give an even more acute meaning to this timeless truth by articulating just how much needs to be happening for us to experience a moment.
Furthermore, as David Foster Wallace rightly noted, “the fact is that, in the day-to-day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have life-or-death importance.”
I’m certain that you’ve heard this message before. I'm certain you’ll hear it again. But what is not certain is whether you will actually let this message sink in. Deep. In a way that actually shapes your life. Whether it becomes a message that is etched into your soul and that you take with you wherever you go.
Wouldn’t it be exciting if this were the day where this message sinks in this way? It’s all up to you whether that day is today. Whether that day is tomorrow. Or whether that day comes at all. So why not let it be this day? Decide to make it so.
I promise you that it will be worth it. Like few things in this life are. Because if you make it sink in, then you will live with the deepest gratitude in your heart, gratitude at the privilege that it is to be alive, to breathe, to think, to enjoy, love and grow.
Start Making Your Life More Exciting Today
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Conclusion
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How exciting your life is doesn't depend on the things you have in your life. It depends on the perspective that you have on the things in your life.
By using philosophy to shape our mindsets and to shape what we focus on in our daily lives then we can learn to draw out all the meaning and find all the opportunities for excitement that are lying in wait for us to discover in this amazing and wonderful world.
Here I share some of the most powerful ways to make your life exciting through philosophy.
The key to living a life full of excitement is to cultivate the perspective to find life exciting every day. Philosophy is a powerful tool for cultivating this perspective.
To help you cultivate a perspective that will make even the most ordinary days exciting, I have put together a Bonus List of Ten Everyday Wonders of this World to help you cultivate an appreciation of how amazingly awesome the world around us and life is. To get it just click and subscribe.
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Making life exciting is only one way in which cultivating philosophical mindsets can get more meaning, joy, and success out of life. But you can cultivate other philosophical mindsets to get much, much more out of life. So when you get this List of Every Wonders, you will also get a list of
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Core Philosophical Mindsets that will Liberate and Empower you to live at a New Level of Joy, Meaning, and Success when you adopt them.
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And because I am genuinely invested in your using Philosophy to Build the Life of your Dreams, I will also be including:
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Inner Game Techniques to Keep Those Philosophical Mindsets Alive in daily consciousness and stop life's hypnotic rhythm from sucking you back into complacency.
SUBSCRIBE BELOW to Download the Philosophical Guide to Making Life Exciting and enrich your life with the wonders of the world in no time.
Now go forth. Use this information. Take action. Shape your life for the better. It is those who act on information who change their lives for the better, not those who merely gather it.
I won’t promise you that it’ll be easy. But I will promise you that it'll be worth it. Put more into your life. Get more out of your life.
Don’t let the philosophy remain empty words. Make it live and breathe through your actions.