Here we are then: New Year’s Eve 2018. No doubt many of you out there are considering your personal development commitments for 2019. Here in the town where I live, I just know there will be many, many bleary-eyed joggers pounding the streets tomorrow morning - and no bad thing. Some people I know decry the whole New Year’s Resolutions thing. ‘Why do you have to wait until New Year to make a change?’ It’s a fair point. You don’t. But there’s something about midwinter that is

‘It is altogether impossible to live at all without forgetting’. On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life In a previous post, we looked at the human animal’s exceptional capacity for remembering and noted the fact that this is very much a mixed blessing. Remembering too much can keep us trapped in the past, re-living painful experiences that we have yet to come to terms with and move on from – in Nietzsche’s terms: experiences that we have yet to forget. Nietzsche us

The proclamation of the death of god and a celebration of the birth of baby Jesus might seem somewhat at odds. So it may be surprising to discover that Friedrich Nietzsche was a fan of the festive season. Sure, he famously declared that god was dead, but Christmas retained an allure for him that persisted throughout his life. Like most of us, as a child he was especially caught up in its excitement. At age 13 he asks himself in his diary why he loves Christmas even more than

It is early on Sunday morning. I am drinking strong coffee before driving over the the climbing gym so I can get an hour’s bouldering in. Bouldering is such tough exercise that it can almost wipe me out for the rest of the day, but I have established a morning routine on Saturdays and Sundays and I don’t want to break it now that it's in place. Plus, early in the mornings there is no one around so you get the place to yourself, which is a real luxury if you're a relative amat

Dear Übermenschen, you can now post your comments on every blog post at nietzscheselfhelp.com. We've taken out the Facebook plugin and provided a more versatile, generic comments plugin instead. Use it to let me and other visitors know your thoughts on the posts; your own reflections and observations; your progress with your own Nietzschean personal development and also any questions you might have. Additionally, I'd love to hear about your ideas for further posts. Are you ge