Life, love, & work: Timeless advice from Rainer Maria Rilke

If you’ve got any kind of creative impulse, you’ll get something out of Letters to a Young Poet. It’s a collection of 10 inspiring letters sent from Rainer Maria Rilke, one of the German language’s greatest writers, to a student trying to find his way in the world.

Franz Xaver Kappus was a 19-year-old cadet officer surprised to learn that a celebrated poet once attended the same military academy as him. Wondering what career path he should pursue, Kappus wrote to Rilke with a burning question: “Do I have potential?”

Rilke respectfully declined to review his poems and told him to stop looking outward. Whether publishers think your work is good or not is irrelevant, says Rilke. Nobody else can tell you if you’re on the right path. Instead, you must look within.

“Confess to yourself in the deepest hour of the night whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. Dig deep into your heart, where the answer spreads its roots in your being, and ask yourself solemnly, ‘Must I write?’” – Rilke

This quote from the first letter has become so influential that Lady Gaga has it tattooed on her left bicep (in German). Rilke’s point is that you must find motivation much more powerful than external validation. “Good” art is only what you feel compelled to create.

In another letter, Rilke urged Kappus to be patient and embrace uncertainty. Instead of searching for answers, try to love the questions. You need to live with them, experience them, says Rilke, until maybe one day you’ll have found an answer without even noticing.

Kappus continued to seek advice from Rilke about his love life and career prospects. Rilke simply suggested leveraging that angst by pouring it into his poetry and writing more. It’s only in aloneness that you can be truly honest with yourself.

Solitude is not only helpful, but necessary. You need the same self-contained feeling you had as a child, Rilke writes, back when you were immersed in your own little world while grown-ups busied themselves around you. That level of detachment should be cherished.

Doubt is an opportunity to explore. Rilke assures Kappus that while it’s normal to question yourself, it should not be debilitating. You must interrogate your doubts and demand proof. Train yourself to do this consistently and your doubts will become a valuable asset.

In the end, Kappus didn’t choose one career over another. He served 15 years in the military while also being an editor, author, and screenwriter. Kappus published Rilke’s letters in 1929, three years after his death from leukemia. The two never met, but the advice endures.