Finding Meaning is an Emergency
More Thoughts on Purpose (11)
HI FRIENDS
I keep finding myself in conversations about this book: “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl. When I listened to it a few months ago, after finding it for free on Audible, it had a huge impact on me.
Frankl was a Jewish psychotherapist, a contemporary of Freud and Jung, who experienced the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp and lived to tell the tale.
In contrast to the other psychotherapists, Frankl believed that our primary drive as human beings is not to fulfill pleasures and needs, or to reconcile conflicting desires but to find meaning in our existence. Even if it’s just a reason to suffer.
Frankl’s experience put this theory to the ultimate test and proved it to the fullest extent.
He goes further, saying that it is dangerous to assume that what we need for mental well-being is equilibrium. What we need is actually not a tension-less state, but the striving and struggling for a meaningful goal that is freely chosen by ourselves.
This rings true, doesn’t it?
For me, Frankl’s discoveries hit at the heart of why this work that we are doing to find our vocation, and to help others find theirs, is so vital. Not just important, but necessary.
It provides clear confirmation that this stuff we’re talking about is not some luxury pursuit for the privileged, detached from everyday life. Or just some intellectual game we can choose to play, which leads to nothing. It’s as real as it gets. It’s about connecting or reconnecting to our very reason for living and finding a renewed vitality for life, which for some is a matter of emergency.
So let’s keep going.
Godspeed,
T Mo.
NEWS & LINKS
Taika Waititi talking about his unusual journey into Film-making.
I love the fun and humour he uses to tell his story, even though he’s had his struggles too.
Mel Robins’ thoughts on purpose
I don’t agree with everything that Mel says here, but I particularly like her description of being stuck. “Being stuck is a signal that you’ve stopped growing.” Thanks to Chris for the link here! 👍