My favorite sage, Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), Jewish-Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, is the celebrated author of the all-time bestseller, “Man’s Search For Meaning” (which I first read back in my erstwhile seminary days) based on his experience in various Nazi concentration camps.
In his incarceration during Hitler’s hegemonic rule, Frankl conceived of a way of overcoming and transcending the unimaginable horrors of their confinement, helping his fellow prisoners survive, by suggesting positive meanings and reasons for their suffering.
Culled from hackspirit.com, purportedly a relationship information website, Denisa Cerna provides the following “Seven Lessons From Viktor Frankl That Will Help Anyone Feeling Lost In Life”:
1. You are always free to choose your own way
Frankl said: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
You might get stuck in the worst situations known to man, but you can always remain free. Because your mind belongs to you. Your thoughts are yours only, and the attitude you choose determines the outcome of your material circumstances to a large degree.
Rising above suffering, choosing to turn a tragedy into a triumph – that’s what Frankl calls finding your meaning in life.
2. Success is a by-product, not a goal
“Don’t aim at success,” Frankl says. “The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensure, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.”
He goes on to add: “I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run – in the long-run, I say – success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it.
If you do what you love as often as you can, you have a purpose. You have something to wake up to.
3. Responsibility is at the core of meaning
“A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the ‘why’ for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any ‘how’.”
In other words, stop riding shotgun. Take the driver’s seat. Meaning is born from an active approach to life, from the decision to take charge and accountability, from the choice to dedicate yourself to someone or something.
4. Don’ measure your value by your usefulness
You’re not less valuable just because you’re feeling lost. Your worth isn’t measured by your productivity, achievements, or contributions to society. You’re valuable just as you are. You’re valuable because you exist.
Frankl wisely exhorts: “Today’s society is characterized by achievement orientation, and consequently it adores people who are successful and happy and, in particular, it adores the young. It virtually ignores the value of all those who are otherwise, and in so doing blurs the decisive difference between being valuable in the sense of dignity and being valuable in the sense of usefulness.”
5. You have your own unique journey in life
In life, you’re going down a path that belongs solely to you. No one else can replace you – you’re simply too unique.
As Frankl puts it: “Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. Therein he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus, everyone’s task is unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.”
Don’ measure yourself by the successes or failures of others. If you’re lost, it’s because you’re meant to feel this way at this point in time.
6. Life is ridiculous, so laugh all you can
Remember how Frankl talks about rising above one’s suffering and choosing one’s own attitude? Humor is an excellent way to do just that.
He says: It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds.”
7. Love is the highest form of meaning
Frankl profoundly said: “The truth is that love is the ultimate and highest goal to which man can aspire. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved.”
Think back to a moment when something bad happened to you. Where did you seek support? What did you think of? Chances are, your loved ones were on your mind. You missed your parents, worried about your partner, or immediately called your best friend.
The meaning of life is found in the connection we form with other human beings. Love gives us something to live for, something that provides hope and comfort even in the most insufferable of conditions.
Hurray and kudos, Mr. Frankl! Your lessons are meant for eternity.
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