The Man’s Search For Meaning

Man's Search For Meaning: The classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust

Imagine you are a prisoner in a concentration camp…

You only get 1 meal a day & that too is a watery soup + 1 slice of bread.

They force you to work on construction sites all day as a slave.

Your body becomes very weak & tired…

You see people around you getting sick, fainting & even dying.

The place you live smells like a human waste all the time…

Your chances of surviving this are almost 0.

Your only way out of this misery is death.

That was the life of Viktor Frankl for 3 long years…

Victor was a well-off psychologist before he ended up in the concentration camp.

The Nazis captured him at the camp because he was a jew.

It was during his captive in the camp, he realized something that liberated him.

It was man’s last freedom.

All have this inside us – and nobody can take it this way.

Once you realize this then even your biggest worries, problems & trauma will start to melt like ice on a hot pan…

What exactly is man’s last freedom?

It is this: Every time there is a stimulus from the external environment –

you have the power to choose your response.

All you need to do is to be aware of it.

An external stimulus can be stubbing your toe.

It can be a negative comment on your social media.

It can even be starvation & slavery like it was for Victor Frankl.

You can get sad, pissed, or angry thinking this is the natural response to the situation.

Or – you can be aware of your power to choose the response and respond in a way that would serve you the best.

Stubbed your toe? Put on an ice pack and carry on with your work once the pain subsides.

A negative comment on social media? Ignore and carry on with your life.

Once you become aware of this power you are not controlled by external stimuli anymore.

You become unstoppable.

In a nutshell here is the summary: Between stimulus and response lies a space. In that space lie our freedom and power to choose a response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness.

If this mental model helped Victor survive the concentration camp & create an entire industry called “Logotherapy” –

then it can help you achieve anything you need.

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