Like most things, it’s a double-edged sword, a tool.

A hammer can be used to build a house, or commit homicide.

Mindset is much more powerful.

Mindset created the hammer, defined civilization, built worlds, explores space, has transformed health and longevity; motivates me to share my thoughts with you today.

Every unspeakable atrocity that man has perpetuated upon man was also the product of mindset. Millions killed, priceless repositories of knowledge burned, cultures wiped out.

It behooves you to think—long and hard and frequently—about your own mindset. It is the lens through which you view the world, the manner in which you interact with that world, the meaning you assign to yourself.

Mindset, in short, defines who you are.

The Freedom to Choose Your Mindset

But here’s what Steve Martin called “…the most amazing thing of all…”

You get to choose your mindset.

I’m an existentialist. I have chosen to wrestle with the “big” questions that attend the human condition: Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where do we go after we leave here?” and so forth.

The longer I live, the more experience and knowledge and (hopefully, on my best days) wisdom I accumulate, the better the fit between my existentialist observations and what I see in my life situations, and the lives of my family, friends, clients, audience.

Have I created a self-perpetuating echo chamber, where each thought reinforces the next related thought? Maybe.

But the thousands of times I have thought critically about what really is, the many times I have steel-manned other ways of viewing the world in my doctoral studies, my independent reading, and several decades of assessing goodness of fit for these ideas, the more I reach what most would consider to be existentialist positions.

One such proposition—that to me, presents as fact—is that there is no pre-determined meaning assigned to life.

Does this lead, inexorably, to nihilism?

Nah. There’s that double-edged sword again, and a prima-facie demonstration of the power of mindset. It’s a simple equation, really:

The lack of some divinely-granted life meaning, plus the gift of human consciousness, equals your unalienable right to do exactly whatever the hell you want.

You choose the meaning for your life, your purpose.

But purpose—about which I have extensively written elsewhere—is a rare jewel, best carefully considered and wisely utilized.

The first stop on the road to your new-found existential freedom?

Determine your mindset.

The Responsibility to Choose Your Mindset

In your quest for eudaimonic happiness—long-lasting, sustainable life satisfaction and wellbeing—the first responsibility is to yourself.

It is a question worth your consideration: you can do whatever you damn-well please, true enough, but what decisions—what mindset—will give you the best shot at living a good life?

Consider the extremes: Can you decide to be a thief, a murderer, a purveyor of misery and enslavement? Many do.

But those choices—that mindset—carry a high probability of imprisonment, premature death, mental and physical injury. Is that really the lot you want to cast for yourself?

Are you capable of choosing the other extreme, a life of careful choices, attention to health and relationships, service to others because it fits your chosen purpose and enhances your mental health? Of course.

Should we choose to avoid malfeasance because someone else defined the parameters of our actions?

Better, I think, to choose our actions based on a mindset that aims to avoid misery, sickness, incarceration.

Not because we were told to, but because our first responsibility is to ourselves.

And yes, I am aware that some people find themselves in unfortunate situations not of their own doing; accidents of genetics, birth, culture and situation.

The underlying principle holds: you are free to choose the best path of which you can conceive that leads you to a better place. Your responsibility to yourself dictates that you should.

Realistic Nuances

For most of us, the reality is somewhere in the fat part of the bell curve between these two outliers.

Remember the power of mindset when you decide how to intentionally view and interact with the world. The questions around human existence have very few definite answers, so look as far into the future as you can.

Some intelligent, experienced individuals choose an extreme mindset of strict physicalism, a reductionist view that basically says, “If I can’t measure it, it’s not real.” There is no place for free will, because all of our actions are biologically predetermined.

In this mindset, life-meaning is an undefined concept, epistemological division-by-zero: We have no say in why we are here and it doesn’t matter. There is no God or gods, only the accidental blob of ourselves as a consequence of “deep time.”

Where does this choice lead, in the long run?

We could choose to believe that we are inconsequential accidents navigating a predetermined maze, with no choice as to whether to turn right or left. Biological robots with very primitive programming; simply running our basic (as opposed to BASIC) routine until our death.

This mindset can lead to unadorned nihilism, and thereby end up at Albert Camus’ ultimate question, taken literally (which, by the way, is not how Camus intended it): “Why don’t we just kill ourselves and get it over with?”

(He actually, in The Myth of Sisyphus, wrote “…there is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.” But that is a different discussion.)

Why would anyone choose this bleak way to conduct a life?

Fear.

For some, the fear of ambiguity is stronger than the hope of a better life. It is a conceit to think that we know enough about, well, anything, to draw absolute conclusions.

It is cowardice to simply leave everything to biological predetermination, the uncontrollable firing of neurons.

In this way of thinking, we have no responsibility because we are automatons; don’t have to fear the consequences of our actions because we are devoid of choice.

Is there a way to definitively prove this way is the right way? Nope.

Now consider the long-term consequences of the choice to live “as-if” (in an Adlerian sense) there is meaning, free will, choice.

Imagination becomes reasonable. Responsibility ablates victimhood, and dictates care in the actions that comprise our lives.

This choice brings great reward and great risk.

We are rewarded with the sense that we matter, that our service to others matters, that we may leave behind something that will inform others’ choices—born of some degree of free will—that will make their lives better.

Joy and satisfaction ensue, imagination and play are less than trivial and there just might be myriad reasons to be a good person, after all.

But this path requires courage not asked of the nihilist. What if we are responsible for our own choices? What if we choose incorrectly? With free will comes the danger that—exactly because we can’t know it all—we blow it.

Then what? Will we have the physical, moral, ethical, mental strength to start over?

Is there a way to definitively prove this choice is correct? Also nope.

Who Are You?

Victimhood, an inevitable consequence of a lack of the ability to make a choice, absolves us of any responsibility in the course of our lives. It’s much more simple to to say “The devil made me do it,” even when the devil is your accidental appearance in the universe as a result of chemical interactions over time.

But where’s the fun in that?

A mindset of any degree of free will necessitates personal responsibility. You make the decision, you take the action, you suffer—or enjoy—the consequences.

Not for the timid, the faint of heart.

Most of our real, day-to-day lives weave constantly through the nuances of these options, these decisions. It is rare to encounter a person of absolute dedication to either mindset, in the extreme.

Do we make choices? Yes. Is everything within our control, our ability to choose? No. Are we responsible for our actions, temporally, at least? Unquestionably.

But who do you want to be?

The punchline, the conclusion of this thought experiment—this way of life—is always the same, in my existentially-responsible mind:

In a world where there is no meaning, choose the highest good of which you can imagine.

And be ready to repeatedly fail, but have a good time enroute.

Read my recent interview with Dr. Mehmet Yildiz here.

My novel, The Calling is available now in print and as an eBook.


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To learn more about how to use these concepts or to inquire about working with me, visit the Jeff W Welsh website, subscribe to my Substack or Medium accounts or the Hardcore Happiness blog page, and follow my Instagram account for regular insights.

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- JWW