Pursuit of the Impossible, Self-Actualization, & Success
Wednesday Wisdoms for May 28, 2025
Mind Candy is a newsletter on practical philosophy and human flourishment—aka how to live “the good life.” Each month we tackle a new theme.
This month we’re exploring the theme of Potential.
Welcome to Wednesday Wisdom, our 3x3 Newsletter where I distill worldly advice for better living with 3 quotes, 3 observations, and 3 questions.
Pursuit of the Impossible
🤨 Quote
“I know of no better life purpose than to perish in attempting the great and impossible. The fact that something seems impossible shouldn't be a reason to not pursue it, that's exactly what makes it worth pursuing.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Source: Untimely Meditations
Observation 🧐
The limitations we set for ourselves is what separates success from failure.
Each of us tells stories of what we think is possible. These stories then become the fencing for the reality we experience. In other words, the thoughts we make create the reality we live.
Nietzsche’s own advice was to dive fully into our pursuits. To lean into courage rather than build reason for why things could not be done.
“Where would the courage and greatness be if success was certain and there was no risk?” he writes in Untimely Meditations. “The only true failure is shrinking away from life's challenges.”
Lean into the challenge and let that expose the potential you possess.
🤔 Question
Looking back on life, one more often regrets the things they didn’t do than the things they did. What is holding you back?
Self-Actualization
🤨 Quote
“What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization.”
Abraham Maslow
Source: Motivation and Personality
Observation 🧐
Our potential can be thought of as an arrow with us being the archer, and the bullseye of a target being our self-actualization.
When we push ourselves, when we try and fulfill our potential—what we’re here for—we come closer to hitting the target. The attempt to maximize our potential is what leads us to eventually hitting it, and then doing it over and over again.
But too many of us fall short of hitting the target. We give up, we make excuses, we don’t push ourselves far enough to truly actualize our potential.
“The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short,” Maslow wrote.
We spend our lives brushing up against our potential but only a select few are willing ti lean fully in to achieve it.
Maslow believed that we hold the ability of realizing our potential. He put this at the top of his hierarchy of needs because it ultimately is what leads us to happiness.
When we can explore our potential and learn to realize it, really using it to our advantage, we not only gain better control of our own personal world, we feel fulfilled in the process.
We, in other words, gain satisfaction for our existence.
🤔 Question
What work are you doing today to actualize your potential?
Beneath the paywall this week we explore the wisdom of Adam Grant. Click below to support and get access.