9. Nietzsche's Will to Power unpacked

“What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power itself. What is happiness? The feeling that power increases—that resistance is overcome.”

Nietzsche’s Will to Power is perhaps his most compelling yet widely misunderstood idea. It’s not simply about dominating others; rather, it’s about our fundamental craving for overcoming challenges and experiencing growth. Power is complicated—we’re both drawn to it and suspicious of it. It excites and unsettles us, often at the same time.

Most online interpretations oversimplify will to power, portraying it only through extremes: ruthless conquerors, greedy capitalists, villains driven by domination. But these are mere fragments of the story. Nietzsche saw will to power not just as a psychological drive but as a foundational principle of life itself, underlying everything from human ambition to the evolutionary drive for survival. Understanding will to power, therefore, isn’t just philosophical curiosity—it’s a crucial step toward taking control of our own lives.

In today’s episode, we’ll start the great unraveling of this profound idea. We’ll take apart its psychological dynamics, unveil its subtle yet irrepressible influence on our goals and motivations, and reveal why our endless pursuit of success often feels like a Sisyphus pushing an ever-growing boulder up and ever steepening hill. 

Ready for the climb? Then put your shoulder to the boulder!

Music: Featherweight Kid by Crippling Alcoholism

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Music credit - story section: Very popular eastern woodwind instrument called Kaval played by great Serbian musician - Boris Todorovic (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=589884654).

Transcript

‘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. What is happiness? – The feeling that power increases – that a resistance is overcome.’ (A 2)

Will to power (WTP) might be the most well known of Nietzsche ideas, it’s also one of the most intriguing, and one of the most controversial. Regardless of this, I think it is very poorly understood. For those unfamiliar with it, WTP is Nietzsche’s idea that humans don’t simply seek contentment, comfort, or self-preservation; we seek challenge, struggle, growth, mastery—even dominance. 

Power is a concept with which we have an ambiguous and uncomfortable relationship. As I mentioned in episode 3, power is a morally-loaded concept in our culture; we associate it with compulsion, domination, oppression, and exploitation. For Nietzsche these overwhelmingly pejorative associations are a result of what he called our pervasive “slave psychology”. I’ll explain slave psychology in another show, but in brief, we strongly relate to and empathise with positions of powerlessness, and so we associate power with the other guy, someone of whom we are suspicious, intimated by, and ultimately afraid of.

In truth, we all need power and we continually express power and we cannot do otherwise. WTP is not just about brute dominance, though that’s one manifestation, nor is it, in fact, a simple psychological drive. In Nietzsche view it’s a constitutive principle of life itself—everything, from the most basic organisms, to the highest cultural achievements, to the laws of physics, is an expression of the will to power.

Online you can find dozens of articles and YouTube videos purporting to explain WTP, but most of the ones I’ve seen, outside of academia, are very superficial. They talk about will to power as if its just a fact of life; people crave power; people want to rule; people want to dominate others—they concentrate on the stuff that most worries us; those archetypes of Conan the barbarian, or insane megalomanic bond villains, or perhaps Gordan Gecko, from the movie Wall Street, champion of social Darwinism, unabashed greed and rapacious capitalism.

What is it that Ghengus Khan his supposed to have said: “The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy, to drive him before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears, and to gather to your bosom his wives and daughters.”

Yes, this is part of WTP—its most extreme cases—but its not the whole story. Will to power encompasses much, much more.

But what is most unsatisfying about these accounts is that these articles and youtube videos don't explain wtp in any depth. It's just presented as a given—at least if you give credence to Nietzsche’s doctrine that is. They don't really explain it, how did it came about, how it works, how it manifests itself in everyday life. And they don’t talk about what can be done with this knowledge of wtp. If humans necessarily express wtp, so what? What are we supposed to do with that knowledge?What’s the practical significance of this theory of human psychology?

These are the questions that we start to wrestle with in today’s show and the next shows. Will to power is big, and don’t be deceived, will to power is deep. Ready take a rollercoaster ride into these depths? Let’s do it!

Two kingdoms stood peacefully beside each other on opposite sides of a great river. Their kings, great friends, exchanged gifts annually as signs of respect. At first, the gifts were simple—silks, jewels, fine horses.

Over the years, the exchanges became more lavish. Gifts became grander, each king striving to surpass the other in the display of his generosity. Vast herds of livestock, chests of gold, entire fleets of ships crossed the water.

The kingdoms grew gradually poorer as they emptied their coffers to fund these exchanges. People laboured harder, lived with less, worked night and day to support their regent’s spectacular magnanimity. Still, the exchanges continued, each more stupendous than the last.

Finally, on a moonless night, one king sent his army covertly across the river to wage a war of annihilation on his arrogant and condescending neighbour. To their surprise, they met the second king’s army coming in the other direction.

In 1999, the remains of the handsome and dashing adventurer, explorer, and mountaineer George Mallory were discovered on the high slopes of Mount Everest at an altitude of 8,155 meters. At that time, it had been 75 years since he and his climbing partner, Andrew Irvine, went missing on the mountain. Due to the year-round sub-zero temperatures, his body was astonishingly well-preserved—his skin bleached as white as alabaster.

When Mallory set out to climb Everest in June 1924, he carried a photograph of his wife, intending to leave it at the summit. However, when his body was discovered, just 700 meters below the summit, no photograph was found. This has fuelled speculation that Mallory and Irvine may have reached the top but, having fallen behind schedule, were descending in darkness when tragedy befell them. 

Following Mallory and Irvine’s disappearance, it would be another 29 years before Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made the first confirmed ascent of Everest in 1953. To this day, Mallory’s body remains where it was found on the treacherous escarpments of the highest mountain in the world. Its location in the notorious "Death Zone," with its freezing temperatures, high winds, and perilously low oxygen levels, makes any recovery of the body impractical. 

In the early 1920s a reporter had asked George Mallory why he wanted to climb Mount Everest. His reply has since become legendary: "Because it's there."

Alright, before we dive into will to power, let’s do a quick recap of what we covered last time. 

We looked at the problem of desire through an evolutionary lens. We found that our constant craving for more—more resources, more success, more recognition—is what kept our ancestors alive. In the race for life, the ambitious, restless strivers won out over the more contented individuals, and their genes are the ones we inherited. That means dissatisfaction isn’t a flaw; it’s an inherited predisposition, and it’s the evolved engine of progress.

We talked about what really drives us? It’s not just getting specific things or achieving specific goals—it’s the feeling of overcoming resistance to get them. The bigger the challenge, the greater the thrill. I dubbed this cyclical dynamic the wanting-becoming-getting meta-drive, which is quite a mouthful admittedly. This is not the drive to obtain this or that specific thing, but the drive to obtain whatever you want, whatever that is, just for the thrill of obtaining itself. That’s why billionaires still chase wealth, why champions keep training after they’ve won, it’s why we set new goals the moment we hit the last one.

Nietzsche word for this relentless wanting-becoming-getting drive is the Will to Power. It’s not just about survival—it’s about the joy of winning, achieving, prevailing, growing, expanding our sphere of control, shaping the world in our image and according to our own needs and preferences.

We talked about why we’re never satisfied—and why that’s no accident. Schopenhauer and the Buddha saw this cycle of desire and suffering and said, ‘To be alive is bad and the only way out is to stop wanting anything at all.’ Nietzsche believed there was something sick about this viewpoint. For a living organism to be born into the world, to be a product of that world, and for it to say ‘no’ to that very world, is for it to say, ‘meh… existence is not good enough for me, existence is wrong, it would be better had I never been born’. For this organism to reject its own inescapable nature, to want to scurry back into non-existence—well, that for Nietzsche was perverse, nihilism of the most profound kind in fact, and a clear sign that something had gone very wrong. He writes in TI2.2. “Judgments of value, concerning life, for it or against it, can, in the end, never be true: they have value only as symptoms, they are worthy of consideration only as symptoms”. 

When he says our judgments are symptoms, he means that our judgements of the world say more about us than they do about the world. I recall a quote from Aleister Crowley here: “the world is a mirror in which he who sees much, is muck”. Nietzsche would agree. Also, didn’t the buddha say “with our thoughts we create the world”? How is that reconciled with his judgement that “all life is suffering”? I don’t know enough about Buddhism to say. If you do, get in touch maybe.

Someone who feels gratitude for life and for the world is, in a sense, healthier and fitter that someone who thinks it a curse and an abomination. The former deserves life, and the latter deserves that which they crave—annihilation. When I say ‘deserves’ this is not to speak morally, but in terms of evolution by natural selection. Over the long term, the fit will tend to flourish and propagate themselves, the degenerate will tend to perish, that’s just a logical necessity, and ever was it thus. 

This is not to say, of course, that we should be pollyannas, pretending the world is all balloons and lollipops. It’s frequently a tough place of struggle and strife, pain and horror, no doubt. But Nietzsche asks what if one could wholeheartedly affirm that struggle, that strife, and even that horror and pain? When we instead reject the world, and the cycle of desire that being alive necessarily entails, as if we’ve been born into some kind of hell, we don’t just reject the world; we reject ourselves. Indeed, we reject the essential character of all life and all existence, which is, you guessed it, will to power.

Remember Nietzsche words from Zarathustra: ‘remain faithful to the earth’

Which brings me to today’s topic. What is wtp?

We’ve been talking here about wtp in human psychology, but really this is just one aspect of it. The precise nature of Nietzsche’s concept continues to be a matter of debate among scholars but, generally, its character and scope is interpreted in three ways:

Firstly, as something psychological, which is as we’ve been examining it—in this interpretation will to power concerns the behaviour of humans, including human societies, and possibly other complex living organisms that exhibit sophisticated patterns of behaviour. 

Secondly, as something organic—in this interpretation will to power is expressed in all living things, whether animals, plants, fungi, or micro-organisms, inasmuch as they appear to strive and compete to survive, grow, and reproduce in the world. This interpretation of will to power bears a passing resemblance to the old evolutionary notion of ‘survival of the fittest’.

We’ve touched on this interpretation too, at least in humans, by exploring the development of wtp as an inevitable consequence of evolution by natural selection. There’s more to say.

Thirdly, as something metaphysical—in this broadest interpretation, will to power is the all-pervading, all-encompassing principle undergirding existence itself, including both the organic and inorganic realms. This interpretation asserts that everything is will to power, whether it be solar flares, thunderstorms, or a rock rolling down a hill. 

Nietzsche stated this idea most explicitly when he wrote: “would you have a name for my world? A solution of all your riddles? Do ye also want a light, ye most concealed, strongest and most undaunted men of the blackest midnight?—This world is the Will to Power—and nothing else! And even ye yourselves are this will to power—and nothing besides!”

That’s in the collection of unpublished notes, collected in WP section 1067.

This is the most controversial interpretation, even in the academic literature, and it is actively rejected by many commentators, who think Nietzsche got a little overexcited with his wtp hypothesis. 

I think they are quite wrong in this, wtp can explain just about everything in my view. But we will not go so far today, confining ourselves to the case of human psychology for the time being. 

I have been explicating this psychological interpretation as it manifests itself in the wanting→getting drive. I also claimed that the imperative of survival-for-reproduction of genes is the fundamental imperative of all life, with wanting→getting (or what we will now be recognising as psychological will to power) being a propensity that evolved to serve it—just as every other characteristic of all living species serves it. 

But, notice something: doesn’t this make psychological will to power a secondary dynamic, dependent on the survival-for-reproduction imperative, existing only because it evolved to serve that imperative? But Nietzsche argues that will to power is an explanatory principle—something foundational and fundamental. How can it be fundamental, if it evolved to serve survival for reproduction? Let’s park this question for the time being.

I have argued that psychological wtp is the desire for overcoming resistance and there is a broad consensus in the academic literature to support this. This psychological dynamic generally contributes strongly to the imperative for life, promoting the survival for reproduction of one’s genes. But, because psychological wtp is a drive that has evolved only to pursue its own satisfaction, it often seems to have broken its bounds, sometimes even working in ways that seem contrary to survival-for-reproduction. 

Remember, like all instinctive drives, wtp in itself is blind, non-purposive, not teleological, it has no goals beyond expressing itself. In its psychological manifestation, it evolved because it contributed to survival-for-reproduction, but it does not aim at that as some kind of goal. 

An analogy would be something like the introduction of European rabbits in Australia in the 1800s, primarily for sport hunting and food. The unexpected consequences of this were that the rabbits rapidly multiplied, severely damaging native vegetation, causing erosion, habitat destruction, and ecological collapse. 

The point here is that the intended function of the introduction programme and the actual effects are quite separate things. The people who introduced the rabbits had a goal, but for the rabbits themselves their only goal, if you can call it that, was to do what rabbits do. In the same way, psychological wtp evolved because it usually serves survival for reproduction, but it does not aim at it. WTP just does what wtp does, seeking ever more satisfaction in chasing and obtaining power, over and over.

As Nietzsche wrote in BGE 13, responding to what he saw as the Dawrwinist’s position: “Physiologists should think again before postulating the drive to self-preservation as the cardinal drive in an organic being. A living thing desires above all to vent its strength – life as such is will to power – : self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent consequences of it.”

Feeling the unconscious impetus of our wtp, it is us humans who, after the fact, consciously furnish goals for ourselves to serve the impulse. 

So, what I mean is, you have a blind, inalienable drive to overcome, that’s wtp as your instinct, so you then consciously and purposively take up, say, tennis, in order to give vent that unconscious impulse. The wtp drive is blind, but your conscious mind, which does the bidding of your instincts, is not. It exercises foresight, it is profoundly purposive, it is teleological to a fault, really it only works if it can conceive of goals. And so, in response to the insistent, unconscious wtp drive, your conscious mind comes up with some concrete goals to express that inherent motivation. You might recognise this process as that distinctly human foible: rationalisation. 

Rationalisation is that psychological mechanism in which people unconsciously create plausible-sounding explanations or justifications for behaviours, decisions, or feelings that actually arise from unconscious, irrational, emotional, or instinctive motives.

So we take up tennis, or bridge, or macrame, in order to have conceivable goals, but, because no success can ever be truly and finally definitive and all fulfilment from achieving a goal tends to fade—so-called hedonic adaption—you must soon find other goals. This is confusing for us. Why does the thing you wanted so much, winning the local tennis league, seem to depreciate in value once you have it? The answer is that the goal was never really the thing that was driving you—it was a conscious proxy for an unconscious impulse. The irresistible expression of the WTP dynamic was the true motivation, and this impulse pursues relentless overcoming, the unending transformation of wanting into getting. So a success, as welcome as that is, cannot be enough—at least not for long.

What happens here is you confuse the proxy, winning the local tennis league, with the real underlying motivation, the expression of the wtp drive. 

So, now I guess it looks like you will have to try out for the regional tennis league. And so it goes.

Because of this disconnect, the wtp can manifest itself in struggles to overcome that seem to be contrary to life’s end of survival for reproduction. Consider dangerous adventure sports for example. They might satisfy the wtp drive but may actually reduce your chances of survival-for-reproduction. This bring us back to that famous mountaineer Kelly spoke of at the start of the show, George Mallory.

When, in the early 1920s, George Mallory was asked why he wanted to climb Everest, he was being asked to provide a rationale for an impulse that was not, at its core, even remotely explicable in rational terms. That is why his reply is so absurd and yet so utterly relatable. “Because it’s there.” He may as well have said “Because I want to.” 

Why did he want to climb Everest?—Just because. The explanation for this most impractical and irrational of becauses lies in the wtp drive. Mallory hungered for the unimaginable exhilaration that would be the victor’s prize at the end of this monumental exercise in overcoming resistance.

Wtp explains the appeal of dangerous and impractical activities like mountain climbing. It may be true that there are real-world benefits to success in such endeavours—fame, high social status, a sponsorship deal from an outdoor equipment company perhaps—but these may be considered subsidiary to the pure exhilaration of pushing oneself beyond the limits of what one believes one is capable of. 

George Mallory could have stayed home with his beautiful wife and his three children—at some level he must have wanted that—but the greater desire involved overcoming the appeal of this comfortable genteel, upper-class existence and risking it all for the chance of extraordinary glory: to be the first to summit the highest mountain in the world.

People possess the wtp drive in varying degrees (or would it be truer to say, are possessed by it to varying degrees). We all want, but some want much, much more than others. Personally, we might crave only the modest triumph of victory in a quiet game of chess, or the validation of a “well done” from our boss at work. Whatever the case, there is another feature of the Hedonic Adaption discussed above that has significant implications for us and the happiness we seek. 

We’ve noted that the pleasure of success in getting what we want fades over time, but to make matters more testing, our pleasure in getting what we want tends to be subject to diminishing returns too! Like a drug addict, we find we need bigger and bigger doses of the drug, success, to enjoy the same intensity of pleasure. This often leads us to take on ever more challenging goals.

Consider Mallory once more. Let me read out a list of the notable peaks he summited in the years leading up to his Everest expedition:

1904, Mont Vélan, Switzerland (3,727 metres)

1904, Grand Combin, Switzerland (4,314 metres)

1904, Dent Blanche, Switzerland (4,357 metres)

1911, Mont Blanc, Switzerland-France (4,808 metres)

After a long hiatus caused by the First World War, in which Mallory served as a British Officer, Mallory resumed mountaineering attempting ascents of Everest from 1921:

1921 British Reconnaissance Expedition around Everest, reached the North Col (7,020 metres)

1922 British Mount Everest Expedition on Everest reaching the North Ridge (8,170 metres) 

1924 British Mount Everest Expedition: Mallory's final ascent. 

Now let me read out the altitudes of the peaks he summited in the same chronological order.

And he was last seen by a team mate at approximately 8,570 metres, less than 300 metres from the summit.

See the way the altitudes unfailingly ascend with each expedition. We catch a glimpse of Mallory’s burgeoning ambition in the heights of the peaks he scaled, one after another, each higher than the last. What could serve as a better illustration of the tendency of wtp to be compelled to seek ever greater gratifications.

It is a demand of life that the future should exceed the past; that our lives are getting better and better; that our achievements should accumulate and grow—that is, if our lives are to be as fulfilled as possible. Nobody wants to be less happy in the future than they are in the present or were in the past. As we proved in our early shows, to want less happiness is to want what you don’t want and cannot want. 

The irrepressible nature of wtp does not mean, of course, that everyone is driven to climb mountains. Many expect much less from life, if only because less is all they can reasonably expect from it. Many privilege comfort and safety too much to risk life and limb in the way Mallory did. Indeed, some attempt to evade all struggle and live a life comfort and safety and the most basic pleasures. Like the world-deniers, Nietzsche spies signs of illhealth here too. He called such a type, the last man, and we’ll discuss Nietzsche last man and the decadence he embodies in a future episode. 

The last man aside, for many, a more simple life with fewer needs and, what seem to us to be relatively modest goals can be a great achievement too—something worth striving for. The fact is that Nietzsche’s higher man or women determines their own way of life, on their own terms, regardless of anyone else’s judgements or ideas about what success in life should look like. As Nietzsche writes:

“I have found strength where one does not look for it: in simple, mild, and pleasant people, without the least desire to rule—and, conversely, the desire to rule has often appeared to me a sign of inward weakness: they fear their own slave soul and shroud it in a royal cloak (in the end, they still become the slaves of their followers, their fame, etc.) The powerful natures dominate, it is a necessity, they need not lift one finger. Even if, during their lifetime, they bury themselves in a garden house!” Nachlass, Fall 1880 6 [206]

One can become a kind of slave to one’s own wtp. Just because the higher man or woman can have it all, it doesn’t mean they will choose to. And there’s a critical difference here between choosing not to act, and not being able to act. Remember, the greatest power that one can possess is power over oneself. It is not just mountains of rock that can be climbed, but mountains of the mind too. In particular, the artist is a type that Nietzsche sees as a ripe candidate for becoming a higher individual. 

Speaking of art and artists, let’s turn to this week’s music choice. Nietzsche is the philosopher of music, of dancing, of art, of the aesthetic, of feeling, and so I recommend a track every week that reflects the moods and emotions of this Becoming Übermensch project—at least as I see them.  

So I invite you to have your own feeling experience, framed within the project we are exploring, while listening to Featherweight kid by Crippling Alcoholism. This is a dark track from a dark album—somehow moving and horrific at the same time. It captures something about the irrepressible human spirit and, at the same time, its potential for degradation too. Be warned, this is not music for the prim, but then this is not really a podcast for the prim.

Links in the show’s description. 

Do share your thoughts on how this track made you feel—I’d be really interested in hearing about your impressions. 

We’re running out of time today and there is so much more to explore. So let’s crystallise the dynamic of psychological wtp so we can get a handle on it and consider how we might best deal with its demands, and utilise it productively to improve our lives.

You want things, you have goals which you value for their practical benefits, but you also want things and have goals just because you crave the pleasure of getting and achieving. This is the psychological trait of will to power. But will to power doesn’t have any goals apart from its own satisfaction, which is the feeling of increased power from getting what has been pursued. Wtp craves the activity of pursuing and achieving goals itself, what the goal is not especially important to wtp. 

There are three important conditions however. Firstly, the harder the goal is to achieve, the greater the resistance that will be encountered in trying to achieve it, the greater the pleasure that can be experienced in success. This is that economic principle of value being proportional to scarcity. The rarer is the more valued. Let’s call this, the resistance-reward principle.

Secondly, the feelings of fulfilment we feel in achieving any goal are likely to be temporary as the wtp drive continues to make its demands. Consequently, following success, at some point, the warm glow of triumph cools, and a new goal must be identified which can be sought after. This is our principle of hedonic adaption.

Thirdly, the pleasure derived from success is subject to diminishing returns, weakening with each subsequent achievement unless the challenge or resistance grows proportionately greater. Like an addict developing tolerance, we find ourselves requiring ever-larger doses of success to experience the same intensity of pleasure. Consequently, we’re driven to pursue increasingly ambitious and demanding goals. We could call this principle, hedonic escalation.

Last week, we compared our unending pursuit of happiness to the predicament of Sisyphus. The guy from greek myth forced to push a huge boulder up a steep hill only to see it roll back to the bottom again every time. Well, it seems are situation is worse. To achieve a state of perfect fulfilment, not only do we have to start rolling the boulder afresh each time, but it needs to be a bigger boulder each time, and a steeper hill every time. 

But no. The worst part of Sisyphus’ punishment is that the boulder rolling is meaningless. The pursuit of our own goals usually isn’t and shouldn’t be. Indeed, humans often don’t resent a struggle as long as it is for something meaningful, something worthwhile. As Nietzsche writes in TI 1.12: “If you have your ‘why?’ in life, you can get along with almost any ‘how?’”

Still, it’s useful to understand how this dynamic works. We are subject to the demands of wtp, mediated by resistance-reward, hedonic adaption, and hedonic escalation. This is knowledge that we can potentially leveraged, to help us understand out own needs and the motivations of others. 

Consider our tennis player who wins the local league. Feels good for a while, but the pleasure fades as a result of hedonic adaption. Then in order to satisfy their insatiable wtp drive, our player may feel compelled to compete at a regional level where there will be more intense competition and the potential for greater pleasure in triumph—the resistance-reward principle. Experiencing success once more, the same dynamic may make itself felt. So they then set their sights on the nationals, then the internationals, perhaps in the most exceptional of cases taking gold at the olympics. A clear trajectory if hedonic escalation. But what then? Well, that’s when our world champion starts coaching other wannabes to achieve success. Yes, wtp often involves the pleasure in nurturing and supporting others, in bestowing on them. 

As Nietzsche writes in Daybreak, 356: of power he says, “The most common modes of expression are: to bestow, to mock, to destroy – all three out of a common basic drive.” And in BGE 260, “the feeling of plenitude, of power which seeks to overflow, the happiness of high tension, the consciousness of a wealth which would like to give away and bestow…” Here then we see for Nietzsche that even in beneficence, wtp can often be discerned. And it’s true, doesn’t giving usually make you feel proud, capable, magnanimous—these are feelings of power, by any reasonable standard.

Perhaps you disagree. I guess the question is, what is power? We will be confronting that crucial question, but we are almost out of time for today. 

So let me recommend for you an exercise for the next week. But here’s an important reminder…

Importantly: as with any and all experiments or exercises I share with you, it’s crucial that you take full responsibility for your choices and your experiences. I don’t recommend them to you because I don’t know you, so if you decide to try these things, that is a decision you must take full responsibility for.  If you can’t take full responsibility for yourself then I strongly recommend you don’t try them. If you can’t take full responsibility for yourself, then you may not really be ready for Nietzsche’s teachings.

Exercise: “Choose Your Resistance”

Step 1: Identify One Meaningful Resistance

Pick one concrete thing you’ve been avoiding—something small but personally challenging. It could be:

• Having a difficult conversation you’ve been postponing.

• Starting a daily habit like exercise or meditation.

• Taking on a minor challenge at work or home (e.g., speaking up in a meeting, fixing something broken, or tackling an unpleasant chore you’ve been avoiding).

Step 2: Consciously Embrace It

Deliberately face this resistance within the next 7 days. As you engage:

•  Pay close attention to how you feel at the exact moment you choose to confront rather than avoid the challenge.

• Notice how your emotional state changes as you begin to overcome this resistance or, alternatively, as you fail to overcome the resistance.

Step 3: Reflect Briefly

Immediately afterwards, answer these quick questions mentally or on paper:

• How did it feel to overcome or not overcome that resistance?

• What effect did it have on your sense of self immediately afterwards?

• Did you feel an urge to take on another challenge afterwards, was there an increase or decrease in confidence?

Watch out for rationalisations. So excuses like I didn’t overcome the resistance, but it was because of a, b, and c which were out of my control. You are not going to share this stuff so be scrupulously honest with yourself. Try to be descriptive, not interpretive. Avoiding moralising or making judgements of yourself. Your descriptions should not include the words ‘ought’ or ‘should’.

Through this exercise you can start to develop a conscious awareness and relationship with your own wtp drive. Understanding it, can enable you to have a healthier and more fulfilling relationship with it. 

Interestingly, what is it in you that seeks to understand and get a handle on your wtp drive? Well, it’s your wtp drive. Nietzschean thought is full of such paradoxes, because, seen closely, human life is.

To conclude, Nietzsche’s Will to Power (WTP) goes far beyond simple desire for dominance; it is a fundamental psychological drive expressing itself through the continuous pursuit and overcoming of resistance. Humans set goals consciously, but beneath these rational aims is the unconscious craving to feel power by achieving and overcoming challenges. The more difficult a goal—the greater the resistance encountered—the more intense the pleasure of success. Yet satisfaction is fleeting, compelling us to continually seek new goals. Furthermore, each success provides diminishing returns, driving us to pursue increasingly ambitious challenges, ratcheting-up the level of challenge each time, echoing the myth of Sisyphus but with an ever-larger boulder and steeper hill each time.

WTP, though it evolved to promote survival, doesn’t always serve this end—it simply seeks its own expression, often manifesting in seemingly irrational pursuits, exemplified by George Mallory’s perilous quest to climb Everest “because it’s there.” Understanding WTP means recognising this unconscious motivation behind our ambitions and struggles. By doing so, we gain insights into our desires, enabling us to choose meaningful resistances consciously, leveraging WTP constructively. Nietzsche invites us not merely to endure struggle but to embrace it willingly, living with intensity through the continual meaningful overcoming of resistances.

Next week we will be offering an alternative hierarchy of needs to the one proposed by Abraham Maslow; a more fundamental hierarchy of needs based on wtp. And we’ll explore wtp in its more organic manifestations, and examine its significance for us in living our most fulfilled lives. All this on the way to that most profound and comprehensive of interpretations of the wtp: Nietzsche’s purported solution of all our riddles? The world as the Will to Power—and nothing else! And you too: just will to power—and nothing besides!

Don’t for get to show the podcast some love by liking, following, subscribing, commenting, reviewing and all that good stuff. It makes a difference, believe me. If you value it, support it, in whatever we you can. 

So, that said, join me next time for episode 10, Nietzsche’s new hierarchy of needs. 

Until then, live dangerously.