Victor What Am I Made of That Can Endure All This

In 1945, within months of his liberation from a concentration army camp in Nazi Germany, Viktor Frankl sat down to write a book. He was forty years old. Before the war he worked as a successful psychologist in Vienna. He wrote the manuscript in 9 successive days. Although the book tells the story of the unfathomable horrors and suffering he endured as a prisoner at Auschwitz, Dachau and other camps, the primary purpose of the text is to explore the source of his will to survive. The book, titled Human being's Search for Meaning, went on to sell over 10 million copies in 24 languages.

Some see life as a never-ending quest for pleasure. Others believe life is about the accumulation of power and money. Frankl sees life as primarily a quest for significant.

As humans we often look to the margins, those extreme situations that examination the fiber of human character. Viktor Frankl survived at the ultimate margin. He concludes that the ultimate test for all of united states is to observe meaning in our lives. And it is within the power of everyone to find meaning, regardless of your health, wealth or circumstances – no matter how miserable or dire.

ane. Nosotros e'er retain the ability to choose our mental attitude.

Frankl was a keen observer of human behavior and thought. One of Frankl's near profound observations was this:

"We who lived in concentration camps can retrieve the men who walked through the huts, comforting others, giving away their final piece of staff of life. They may accept been few in number just they offering sufficient proof that everything can exist taken from a homo but i thing: the last of the human freedoms – to cull one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

Frankl and his young man prisoners had everything stripped from them. Their families, friends, jobs, health, possessions, fifty-fifty their names and the pilus on their bodies; merely in that location was one thing that remained truly their own. Information technology is what Stoic philosophers refer to equally our inner discourse or guiding principle. Namely, we get to choose how to react to whatever given thought, emotion or fix of circumstances.

"Even though conditions such every bit lack of slumber, insufficient food and various mental stresses may suggest that the inmates were leap to react in certain means, in the last analysis, information technology becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the event of an inner-decision and not the result of camp influences alone. Fundamentally and then, any man can, under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him – mentally and spiritually."

No matter what life experiences we confront, we always take the inner-freedom to decide our attitude, and to remain true to our grapheme and duty.

2. There will be Suffering – It's how nosotros React to Suffering that Counts

Frankl claims that one finds meaning in life through iii ways. Through work, peculiarly when that work is both creative in nature and aligned with a purpose greater than ourselves. Through honey, which oft manifests itself in the service of others. And through suffering, which is fundamental to the human being experience. It is this third category that was put to the ultimate test through Frankl'southward experience in the concentration camp:

"If at that place is a significant in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. Suffering is an eradicable part of life, even equally fate and death. Without suffering and decease, homo life cannot be complete."

The exam then for all of united states of america is how nosotros respond to the suffering in our lives.

"The way in which a homo accepts his fate and all the suffering information technology entails, the manner in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity – even nether the almost difficult circumstances – to add a deeper meaning to his life."

3. The Ability of Purpose

Frankl observed that those prisoners who survived, who establish a way to endure, ever had a greater purpose that carried them onward through difficult conditions. For some it was a child who was sheltered abroad in some distant country and who was waiting for them upon liberation. For others it was a spouse or family member. For others it was an unfinished task or creative piece of work that required their unique contribution.

Frankl and his friends were constantly on watch for fellow prisoners who lost their purpose for life:

"The prisoner who had lost faith in the hereafter – his hereafter – was doomed. With his loss of conventionalities in the future he likewise lost his spiritual concord; he let himself decline and become subject field to mental and physical disuse."

While working in a military camp hospital, Frankl noticed the death rate spiked the calendar week betwixt Christmas and New Year's in 1944. He attributed the dramatic increase to the number of prisoners who were naively belongings out hope for liberation earlier Christmas. As the terminate of the year drew closer and it became clear that their situation was unchanged, they lost courage and promise. This in turn impacted their power of resistance and their ability to survive.

Frankl refers several times to the words of Nietzsche: "He who has a why to live for can bear well-nigh any how."

4. The True Test of Our Character is Revealed in How we Act

Frankl comes to the conclusion that in that location is no general answer to the meaning of life. Each person must answer the question for themselves. We find our ain unique meaning based on our circumstances, our relationships and our experiences. Life is essentially testing us, and the respond is revealed in how we respond.

"Nosotros needed to stop asking nigh the meaning of life and instead remember of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, only in right action and right conduct. Life ultimately ways taking the responsibility to discover the correct answers to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which information technology constantly sets for each private."

Therefore, the significant of life is not found on some mountaintop, rather it is revealed daily and hourly, in our choice to take the right action and to perform our duties and responsibilities.

5. Man Kindness tin be Found in the Most Surprising Places

One would presume that the camp guards and army camp commander were, every bit a whole, terrible people. Nevertheless, Frankl occasionally experienced startling moments of human kindness from guards. Frankl recalls a fourth dimension when a guard, at keen run a risk to himself, secretly gave him a slice of bread. "It was far more than the small piece of bread which moved me to tears at the fourth dimension. It was the homo "something" that this man gave to me – the word and wait which accompanied the gift." At the same time, the senior prison warden, who was a prisoner himself, beat other prisoners at the slightest opportunity.

"The mere knowledge that a man was either a army camp guard or a prisoner tells us almost nothing. Homo kindness can be found in all groups, even those which equally a whole information technology would be like shooting fish in a barrel to condemn."

Frankl claims there are actually merely two types of people; decent human beings and indecent man beings. Both can exist found everywhere. They penetrate every group and every society.

"Life in a concentration campsite tore open the man soul and exposed its depths. Is information technology surprising that in those depths nosotros again establish human qualities which in their very nature were a mixture of proficient and evil?"

Frankl's Man'southward Search for Significant is a profoundly moving and ultimately inspiring book. Finding and cultivating meaning in our daily lives is critical if we want to achieve what Socrates calls "a life well-lived." Frankl's insights teach u.s. that, not just is in that location value in our search for significant, but information technology is the duty of each and every one of the states to discover that meaning for ourselves and pursue it.

About the Writer

Sean P. Murray is an writer, speaker and consultant in the areas of leadership development and talent management. Acquire more than at RealTime Performance.

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