It doesn't feel like a blank check. You still gotta get up and go to work every day to pay the bills and then do whatever chores you can muster up the will and time to take care of.

I was thinking about meaning. My understanding is that nihilism is more about a lack of higher purpose, opposed to a lack of action.

I agree that work and chores are tough if you don't have a reason to be doing them. Similarly, will and motivation also require a goal, so that would be a challenge without one.

> Why doesn't it mean that someone has a blank check to impose their own subjective meaning on life?

I never understood Existentialism as a serious proposal.