What Good is Philosophy if You Don’t Have Your Shit Together?
A Cautionary Tale of My Biggest Mistake in Life
In my first year of university, I fell into the self-help trap.
Self-help is a category of ‘non-fiction’ which ranges from dispassionate lists of corporate successes in Silicon Valley to borderline pentecostal proclamations of assured financial prosperity.
Deeply impressed by these books, I figured early on that if I’d only learn how — I’d be able to make it. And if my Think and Grow Rich audiobook was to be believed — I was going to make it big.
As time went on, and it became evident that I was only prepared to do the “think” part to grow my riches, prosperity never came. But before I could count my losses and move on, I’d developed a rather unsavory obsession with self-help mental masturbation — the kind where you read constantly, and apply nothing.
After exhausting the self-help section, I graduated to the deeper questions of Philosophy — a topic which had always interested me. And while the content in the Philosophical texts were far more profound and worthwhile, my ability to apply what I was learning still hadn’t developed.
Fast forward a few years and I’d become a pseudo-armchair-philosopher who thought he had all the answers — while my life demonstrated that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.
While others had gone out and actually taken action, I’d stayed in the comfort of my own home and taken up self-delusion as a favourite pastime.
Each new book gave me the sensation of progress — and each time I experienced that feeling, I was taking one step further away from reality.
It turns out, it isn’t self help or philosophy which allows you to build a life you love. It’s simply taking action. Building habits. Challenging yourself. Trying things.
Without action, all the books in the world will only make you feel resentful and perplexed that you have all this sophisticated head knowledge and somehow haven’t managed to achieve a thing.
What’s the point in philosophy if you don’t have your shit together?
Don’t put the cart before the horse.
Don’t waste years of your life allowing Tony Robbins or Rhonda Byrne to whisper sweet nothings into your ear.
Just go out and do something.
