Did you embrace the nihilistic views due to some sort of unrest in your life? Did they help you get through a period of time that was difficult? Perhaps your nihilistic views have lost their purpose and no longer serve you?

If you really wanted to learn the material in school, why didn’t you make more of an effort to do so? Is it because you didn’t want to learn it as much as you thought you did, or was it some other barrier you encountered that prevented you from doing so? It’s easy to look at it all as a failure, but I’m betting you learned or will learn from the experience overall, if you look for the lessons.

It’s hard to process and figure out why we do certain things in life that don’t really benefit us, but one thing we can do as logical beings is change our habits and ‘outthink’ our tendencies.

There are likely ‘gateway’ habits that lead to other bad habits that help waste time or get you nowhere. When you realize you have triggered a habit, try to figure out a better action that you can consistently do in place of the bad habit’s action to change your fate. If you can shift just a few of these key habits that lead to other negative habits, you can change a lot in a short amount of time, at least enough to feel like you’re making a difference in your life. Simple things like turning off notifications on your phone, not checking email 24/7, and doing something out of your comfort zone can make an immediate impact.

I feel like I’ve wasted a ton of time in my own life, but I no longer destroy myself for doing so. I have learned that the past does not define who I can be today, embracing the present moment is important, and that small positive changes over time can add up.

I don’t write on the forums too much, so please forgive me if I’ve assumed too much and overstepped. Your post resonated with me!

Dear Michael:

Nihilism, meaning … nothing matters, life is meaningless, in my understanding, simplified.

In your post, you expressed that it does matter to you that you “didn’t learn anything”, that you “had to cheat”, that you “don’t really talk to anyone”, that you “don’t know how to have fun”, that you “don’t experience too many emotions”, that you do “stupid stuff on the computer for hours and hours”, and that you “had dreams and none of them have been turned into reality.”

It matters to you that you “pretty much wasted 2 years of (your) life” and this is why you started this thread, with this title.

I think that the basis to your nothing-matters is your belief that “nothing is for sure”-

There is a whole lot that is for sure. Yes, there are lots of opinions but there are also lots of facts: gravity, death, the drive to survive,  a child’s motivation to please a parent, these are only four of the many facts, the many sure things in life.

As animals we share their drive to survive. In certain distressing times, the nothing-matters state of mind helps survive those times. Long term, for us humans, it doesn’t work because of our ability to think elaborately. With all that thinking ability we must have a meaning, so to… find a home for all that thinking, to house it.

That meaning doesn’t have to be one passion to carry a person through a lifetime, and it doesn’t need one that would satisfy a social convention, such as becoming rich-and-famous. It needs to be a meaning that will occupy you, to house all that thinking that you do.

My advice, therefore: find your meaning. If you would like, explore it some, right here.

anita

Nihilism – nothing has intrinsic meaning or value… including this thing we call nihilism.

If you find yourself on path of nihilism, open the door and walk thorough, don’t fight it. On the other side of the door is Absurdism. Life in all its complex simplicities is absurd especially when we try to measure it (control it). Awakening to the absurd one might laugh or cry or both… and when the laughing and crying subsides, smile. The greatest absurdity is our measuring and labeling. The greatest absurdity is us. When we awaken to absurdity that is I we can choose to be happy.

Say Yes to life as it is and choose to be happy. Free. Happiness no longer linked to this or that desire, this or that understanding of meaning or purpose.  Just happy because you can.