A New Year, a New World of Thoughts
A new year is at the doorstep, unfolding like a blank page. New Year’s Eve – bleak, cold, and noisy as it may be – invites us to turn inward and reflect upon the past year.
Recognizing Truth
Buried in the depths of our consciousness, we find more than just fleeting illusions. Quite the contrary: Those who engage sufficiently may discover a deeper, profound truth. It is the only truth we truly know. It is deeply personal. It is the foundation of life. It is the ego in the third person.
In those moments, freedom presents itself in all its brilliance. The ego appears as an active creator rather than a passive observer. For those who believe they recognize an objective reality in the external world are mistaken.1 The only world we can recognize as true is the one that presents itself in our thoughts.
The world is my representation [idea].
— Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation
The Malleability of Truth
A logical consequence of this is that the world – even across the timeline – is not immutable. It is malleable: a single thought has the potential to turn it upside down. It may also be elastic: it has a natural tendency to return to its original state. Yet it is precisely this realization that opens up the possibility for us to actively shape our reality.
We all tend to lock ourselves into our own world of thoughts. Since it is the only manifestation of our own truth, it can be so deceptive that breaking free seems almost impossible.2 Those who believe they are incapable of something restrict themselves through this very conviction. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy of the simplest kind. But those who are convinced of their path will not be held back by any inhibiting self-doubt.
He, who toys with life, never gets it right; He, who does not command himself, always remains a servant.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Tame Xenia
The Boundaries of Truth
But those who learn to shape their own thoughts also risk not getting closer to truth, but drifting even further away from it – slipping into a fantasy world far removed from reality, from which it is just as difficult to break free.
In such cases, a grave mistake was made: losing sight of the meaning of life.3 Getting lost in your own world of thoughts will inevitably lead you down some bad paths. So what is the meaning of life? Each person must answer this question for themselves. From that answer, one can derive a thought model that will undoubtedly fulfill that meaning.
[…] every reality, i.e., every fulfilled present moment, consists of two halves: the subject and the object, though bound in as necessary and close a union as oxygen and hydrogen in water. With the objective half wholly the same, yet the subjective half different, the present reality is entirely different – just as would be the case in reverse.
— Arthur Schopenhauer, Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life
Conclusion
We conclude that our personal perception of this world is the only individual truth of which we can be certain. Let us shape it so that it accompanies us on the right path. Let us be careful not to lose touch with reality. This is the only road that leads to success.
While the turn of the year may be an arbitrary date – after all, some cultures celebrate New Year’s months later – it nevertheless serves as a great symbolic night for reflection and for looking to the future. Let us seize this date as an opportunity to guide our thoughts to courageously venture onto new paths as the upcoming year unfolds.
Even from stones placed in one’s path, one can build something beautiful.
Whether or not an objective reality exists (which would be modeled imprecisely in our thinking) is of no relevance here. Even in case an objective reality does exist, we can neither perceive it with our senses nor process it with our mental faculties. ↩︎
Moving from the abstract back to reality, I recommend reading more about cognitive biases, which influence our everyday actions and being dramatically. This knowledge helps in understanding both our own and other people’s systems of thought, but explaining that further would exceed the scope of this article. ↩︎
I deliberately refrain from talking about specific goals, referring to meaning or a path instead. After all, one does not travel to arrive, but to enjoy the journey. This is not to say that goalsetting is pointless – but if all you want in life is to achieve goals, you will never be content, as the first action after completing a goal is to start chasing another. ↩︎