Epictetus once wrote, “Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.”

That all sounds reasonable, we might say — but how do I determine my own philosophy? How can I identify the values I truly uphold? How can I be certain that my desires are genuinely mine, and not merely influenced by others' expectations?

In essence: how do I 'find' or 'discover' my true self and my values?

Friedrich Nietzsche offers a sage answer to these questions in his Untimely Meditations (1873-1876)...

“This is the most effective way,” Nietzsche writes: “to let the youthful soul look back on life with the question, ‘What have you up to now truly loved, what has drawn your soul upward, mastered it and blessed it too?’ Set up these things that you have honored before yourself, and, maybe, they will show you, in their being and their order, a law that is the fundamental law of your own self. Compare these objects,” Nietzsche advises, “consider how one completes and broadens and transcends and explains another, how they form a ladder on which you have all the time been climbing to yourself: for your true being lies not deeply hidden within you, but an infinite height above you, or at least above that which you commonly take to be yourself.”

Nietzsche emphasizes that there is no inherent 'essence' concealed within us; instead, our 'true being' exists above us, beyond our current state. Consequently, we do not merely 'discover' ourselves; we actively create ourselves, constantly evolving.

One perspective to consider is to regard your life as a work of art. You start as a canvas tinted by the cultural conventions you receive. Your task is to transform this canvas into something exquisite, potentially surpassing the cultural palette you know.

Each brushstroke plays a role in the final artwork; every decision you make influences your identity.

Nietzsche asks, what have you “up to now truly loved, what has drawn your soul upward, mastered it and blessed it too?”

Focus on these — and shape yourself around them: use what you’re passionate about as a ladder to climb up to the best version of yourself.

As platitudinous as it may sound, there is no one else capable of being you. You thus owe it to yourself, Nietzsche thinks, to become the best, fullest, most empowered version of yourself that you possibly can. After all, he writes:

“At the bottom, every human being knows well enough that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity ever be put together a second time.”

What do you make of Nietzsche’s advice?

Do you agree that your best self is ‘infinitely above’ rather than ‘hidden within’ you?