The Ultimate Power
There exists a latent power in all of us that yearns to take complete expression. A form of power that has remained the centrepiece of folklore, ancient mythology, and religious representation.
We see glints of this power when marvelling at the craftsmanship of the likes of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa or Michelangelo’s sculpture of David;
We see it when a star player completely takes over a match as if their bodies had been possessed by the tens of thousands of hours of intense practice;
We feel it in our very core when listening to a powerful symphony as if the strings attached to our hearts are being pulled in by the perfect harmony.
In these “glimpses of miracle”, it can be difficult to put into words the source of such profound feelings, we just know in that isolated moment of reality,
we have just witnessed greatness.
Why else do we collectively stand to our feet to cheer and applaud with jubilation from the stands, why else do we pay millions of dollars to fill up a sports stadium, and why else are certain pieces of artistry considered priceless?
It seems no matter what form this power expresses itself, in certain fields of discipline, time in history, or separation in culture, there exists a height of human potential that continues to captivate and resonate with our core nature.
This enigmatic ability to seize reality, command it by will, and even display it back to the world in a form uniquely peculiar to the creators’ nature
— is the ultimate power for which I speak.
A sense of deep clarity on reality, a bird’s of a bird’s eye view.
We often attribute these powers to “genius genetics”, being born with more opportunity, or just sheer dumb luck.
Our human nature to pass off such feats of greatness, to absolve ourselves of responsibility, and thus relinquish the necessary suffering that comes with it, is a tremendous oversight of the latent potential we each possess.
I believe this oversight is a primary culprit to the spiritual pandemic of existential dread that has become increasingly prevalent in today’s world.
The simple truth is, you have experienced this power before. Think back to a time of desperate need, an unexpected deadline, a time of crisis, or a prolonged period of intense focus on a single project or problem.
It is these moments that demand from us, works of miracles. As if external circumstance pulls us out of our usual internal dream-like state of passivity and calls upon a need that stretches us beyond known limitations.
- That interview you have been so fixated on,
- The final exam that takes up all mental cognition,
- Or the business proposal you’ve been preparing for months,
Has suddenly become the centre of your universe. It is in these states of intense awareness, that sparks of creativity, innovation, and ingenuity seemingly appear out of nowhere as soon as we loosen our grip.
It is as if the gods themselves hear your cry and deliver your revelation in time of need.
Imagine now, that this seesawing of intensity and relaxation, this flexion and loosening, this ebb and flow — centred around a singular meaningful task, be extrapolated and abstracted to its highest degree.
In other words, a way of life.
Such individuals who have remained faithful to their cause have cracked the code toward the path of enlightenment.
From the outside, it would appear an unhealthy obsession (and rightly so), but to them, true masters of the world, it would be their life’s calling.
So now, this begs the question:
How have so few people in history managed to tap into this power as a way of life?
How can the perspective of the “10,000-hour rule to mastery” be so heavily divided between purpose vs procrastination?
Perhaps the answer we are looking for can be derived from the many teachings, lessons, and philosophies of some of the deepest thinkers of human history.
The Universal Force of Nature
If you accept the premise of the existence of a height of intelligence attainable to man, you by definition accept the notion of a “seed” from which such a state can be born.
You cannot have an end without its beginnings.
Consider a fully grown tree.
One with its roots touching the very core of the Earth and the top of its branches reaching beyond the heavens.
Such a tree, expressed completely in all its beauty, did not require instruction on how to take its shape, just as a cow need not require a handbook on how to produce milk.
That is to say, with every expression in life, comes a seed that contains the entirety of its existence from start to finish – a blueprint if you will,
a complete autobiography with every word, sentence, paragraph, & chapter of its life story pre-written before its physical manifestation.
Every leaf, every twig, every branch, completely unique to the billions of other trees in existence – a true one-of-a-kind in all of time before its birth, and after its death.
This independence of instruction, this intuitive force, is the universal force of nature that impels the living to a complete expression of its authentic origins, a “Will of Nature” as you may.
Like the magnetic force that shifts the needle of a compass, so too do we possess an inner force that seeks to lead and guide us to our true “north”.
Such that a seed possesses its entire blueprint from start to finish, so too do we possess our “potential” embedded within the DNA that makes you, you.
An encryption waiting to be decoded in the form of our life’s purpose.
“The Will to…”
One of the central concepts of nineteenth-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was the notion of the “Will to Power”, an innate driving force underlying human action, desires, and motivations to assert their power and influence.
Power, described by Nietzsche, is not defined by brutal authority, compulsion, or corruption, as commonly associated in modern terms – but one of self-overcoming, self-expression, and the realization of one’s true potential.
Twentieth-century Austrian psychiatrist, founder of logotherapy and holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl, pioneered the notion of the “Will to Meaning”, a personal driving force to discover purpose in one’s life through meaning. He posits that meaning is subjective and deeply unique to each individual.
These descriptions are not limited to the West but also exist in the East.
Such as the fundamental concept of Chinese Taoism in the “Tao” or “the Way”, representing the underlying principle, force, or essence that governs the universe;
or the Japanese concept of “Ikigai” the drive or will to pursue purpose through the harmony of one’s uniqueness and the interconnectedness of the whole.
I am well aware that these concepts have a bit more depth than what a single sentence can portray (you could fill up an entire library and not even scratch the surface), but at the highest abstraction – An argument can be built around the observed commonalities:
- That an underlying force of nature or “will” governs the expression of manifestation to original properties
- That the experience is profoundly unique to the individual which cultivates a sense of meaning or “deep truth”
- And that the themes of suffering, encountering resistance, or overcoming a need is a crucial point in its expression.
So what the hell does this all mean?
One of my favourite quotes from Socrates is his famous:
“The unexamined life is not worth living”
I have made my own follow-up to his quote that goes:
“A life worth living is a life worth pursuing”.
If one is caught in the endless cycle of purposeless procrastination and as a result, despair, one’s highest priority is to search for something worth pursuing, something that justifies the suffering that is life itself.
I believe the pursuit of power to be the answer.
The ultimate expression of your authenticity, and the subsequent awakening of a power that will forever be the centrepiece of every story mankind can conjure.
One does not need to wonder in the desert in search of the meaning of life, as the very seed from which they were born contains the meaning to life itself.
Thank you for reading.
— Mat
P.S. This article is an introduction to an eBook that I am currently putting together. More importantly, it is a topic that I am passionate about which is why you may have noticed I have missed a few deadlines (oops!).
This is because I have been hard at work with the overall philosophy, purpose, and impact that I want to make with my writing, personal brand, and one-person business (whatever you want to call it) and it has taken a few long appointments with my whiteboard to flesh out the chaos that is my mind.
Alas, I thank you for being patient and I am very excited to continue this journey with you all. Again, thank you for reading.
