“…not increase of consciousness is the goal, but enhancement of power.”  
Nietzsche, The Will to Power. In the quest to live a good life, each of us, consciously or implicitly, chooses an ultimate value around which to orient our life. For many this value is wealth, for others it may be status, social-acceptance, happiness, pleasure, love, knowledge, or comfort. In this video, drawing from the insights of the 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, we are going to argue that if we want to maximize our health and fulfillment, the value we should esteem the highest is power. 
“What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself in man. What is bad? All that proceeds from weakness…Not contentment, but more power.” 
Nietzsche, The Will to Power. Many people associate the concept of power with the ability to control others and to put them in

the service of their needs and desires. But this 
is not the type of power Nietzsche had in mind as   for him the desire to control others is often 
the manifestation of an underlying weakness,   or inferiority complex. Or as he writes: 
“…the will of the weak to represent some form   of superiority, their instinct for devious 
paths to tyranny over the healthy – where   can this not be discovered, this 
will to power of the weakest!” 
  Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality.
Instead of power as the Machiavellian control   of others, the type of power Nietzsche thought we 
should pursue is a power we embody, and express,   within ourselves. A power, in other words, that 
is equivalent to what Nietzsche called “growth   and expansion” (Nietzsche, The Gay Science), or to 
what the contemporary philosopher John Richardson   called “the enhancement of a capacity or an 
activity already given.” (Nietzsche’s Values).

As a few examples, an athlete who becomes 
stronger is increasing his power, as is the writer who improves her writing, the orator 
who sharpens his public speaking abilities, or the teacher who enhances her capacity to 
educate. And in the book Nietzsche’s Values, John Richardson elaborates on what for Nietzsche 
is the highest and purest form of power:  
“Power is ‘more life,’ not by its mere 
continuation, nor by its multiplication, but by life’s being raised to a higher 
level of capacity and control;… Power is transition to a higher level… a 
‘self-overcoming’… the point to my life is my growth or strengthening and [this] lies not merely 
in expanding but in ascending, which involves overcoming previous states of myself.” 
John Richardson, Nietzsche’s Values
Embedded in Nietzsche’s writings is a guide for 
how to attain this power, and the first step is to

formulate a goal that fulfills 4 conditions. 
Firstly, the goal must be meaningful and challenging. Secondly, it must promote our health 
and well-being, or the well-being of others. Thirdly, it must be conducive to the 
attainment of personal excellence; and finally, it must be self-chosen, 
or in other words, an expression of our individuality and authentic aspirations. Or 
as Nietzsche wrote in an unpublished note: 
“For what purpose humanity is there should 
not even concern us: why you are here, that you should ask yourself: and if you have 
no ready answer, then set for yourself goals, high and noble goals.”
Nietzsche, Unpublished Note
Once we have a goal that meets these 
4 criteria, the next step in attaining power is to dedicate consistent time each day 
to its accomplishment. As we do, we will meet with obstacles and resistances. Self-doubt, 
fear, anxiety, and laziness will plague us.

A lack of time or resources, the doubts and criticisms of others, or problems with our health or relationships will impede our progress. In the context of pursuing power, the obstacles and resistances that stand between us and our goal present an opportunity. For when we confront a resistance, if we then stretch the limits of our mind and body in the quest to overcome it, we increase our power. Resistances are valuable for the seeker of power in the same way a skilled opponent, or enemy, is valuable for the ambitious warrior. For just as a warrior grows more skilled when he faces a worthy opponent, so too resistances function as catalysts that propel us to enhance our capacities and overcome our weaknesses. Or as Nietzsche puts it: “The will to power can only express itself against resistances; it seeks what resists it…all expansion, incorporation, growth, is striving against something that resists…[a strong nature]

needs resistance; hence it seeks resistance.” 
Nietzsche, The Will to Power.
If we engage in what Nietzsche called 
“the game of resistance and victory”, which consists of a “hindrance that is overcome 
and immediately followed by another hindrance, that is again overcome”, we will increase our 
power and eventually attain the goal we have given ourselves. And then, the final step in 
Nietzsche’s guide to power is to put the goal, and whatever it is we have become, 
created, or achieved, behind us, and set our sights on the next, greater, goal. 
“Whatever I create and however much I love it, soon I must oppose it and my 
love; thus my will wills it.”
Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
Or as the philosopher Bernard Reginster explains in more detail:  
“He who wills power must not, strictly speaking,

destroy what he has created, or hate what he 
loved. Rather, he must “overcome” what he loved   or created. His will to power soon induces 
him to find any given creative achievement,   any attained object of a determinate desire, 
no longer satisfying, no longer enough.   The agent in pursuit of power does not seek 
achievements, so to speak, but achieving… What he   needs are fresh, new, perhaps greater challenges. 
And this explains why the pursuit of power assumes   the form of growth, or self-overcoming.” 
Bernard Reginster, The Affirmation of Life.
In the Will to Power, Nietzsche explains that 
the pursuit of power is “without final goal,   unless the joy of circle is itself a goal.” Here 
the circle represents the cycle of choosing a   goal, confronting and overcoming resistances, 
increasing our power, attaining the goal,   and then putting our creations and achievements 
behind us, and starting the cycle anew.

In structuring our life around the pursuit of power, there is no point in time, excluding death, at which we stop partaking in this cycle – this circle of power. Hence, such a life is without a final goal, unless, as Nietzsche explained, we consider the goal to be the joy, or the great happiness, that is a spontaneous byproduct of repeatedly increasing our power. “What is happiness? The feeling that power increases – that a resistance is overcome.” Nietzsche, The Antichrist “…joy is only a symptom of the feeling of attained power…one does not strive for joy…joy accompanies.” Nietzsche, The Will to Power Nietzsche’s ethics of power has profound implications for the worldview of modern man. For it offers a solution to the perennial problem of suffering. The problem of suffering is that we need a justification or meaning to our

suffering, otherwise, we become prone to nihilism, 
world-weariness, and a festering hatred of life. Nietzsche frames this problem 
in the following passage: 
  “Man, the bravest of animals, and the one most 
accustomed to suffering, does not repudiate suffering as such; he desires it, he even seeks 
it out, provided he is shown a meaning for it, a purpose of suffering. The meaninglessness 
of suffering, not suffering itself, was the curse that lay over mankind so far.” Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality
  Many religious, philosophical, and political 
systems throughout history have attempted to solve the problem of suffering by positing 
that this reality in which we suffer is but a transition to another, better, reality, a “true 
world”, in which suffering is kept to a minimum, or absent completely. Examples of true 
worlds include religious heavens, or social

or political utopias that are said to exist on 
the historical horizon. Such worldviews attempt   to give suffering a meaning by promoting the idea 
that so long as we endure our present suffering,   at some point in the future, we will find 
redemption in a reality devoid of it.   
  But the fatal flaw of these so-called 
solutions is that they devalue this   earthly reality and the present moment, in 
favor of another reality or future moment,   the existence of which we must take on faith. 
  “The concept ‘beyond’, ‘true world’ 
invented in order to devalue the only   world there is—in order to retain no goal, no 
reason, no task for our earthly reality!” 
  Nietzsche, Ecce Homo
In contrast, Nietzsche’s ethics of power   offers a down-to-earth solution to the problem of 
suffering. For if we take power to be the highest   human value – the value that above all promotes 
individual flourishing – then we must also value

the resistances that grant us the opportunity 
to increase our power. Suffering is defined by resistance; it is a feeling of pain or distress 
as a result of being hindered in some manner. Therefore, if we value power, we must also value 
suffering as it is an essential ingredient of power. Or as Nietzsche explains: 
“…human beings do not seek pleasure and avoid displeasure. What human 
beings want…is an increase of power; driven by that will they seek resistance, they 
need something that opposes it – displeasure, as an obstacle to their will to power, is therefore 
a normal fact; human beings do not avoid it, they are rather in continual need of it.”
Nietzsche, The Will to Power
Nietzsche’s worldview does not require any leap 
of faith, nor does it encourage us to place our hopes for salvation in something outside of 
us – be it a god, science, a politician, or a

political or religious ideology. It is a worldview 
which offers a convincing and sober solution to the problem of suffering, and it promotes a 
life of meaningful and productive action, thus functioning as an antidote to the passivity that 
has infected the zeitgeist of modern civilization. If, therefore, we choose to partake in the 
circle of power, or what amounts to the cycle of continual self-overcoming, we will facilitate 
the actualization of our potential and cultivate the “great happiness” and “great health” that 
is the prerogative of the seeker of power.  
“Pleasure appears where there is 
the feeling of power. Happiness in the triumphant consciousness 
of power and victory.”
Nietzsche, The Will to Power
Or as he wrote in Thus Spoke Zarathustra: 
“And life itself confided the secret 
to me: behold, it said, I am that which

must always overcome itself.”
Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Why You Should Seek Power, Not Happiness - Nietzsche's Guide to Greatness

Become a Supporting Member and access all our membership videos - academyofideas.com/members/


Why You Should Seek Power, Not Happiness - Nietzsche's Guide to Greatness

Why You Should Seek Power, Not Happiness - Nietzsche's Guide to Greatness

Scripts