MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING

Let us first ask ourselves what should be understood by “a tragic optimism”.  In brief it means that one is, and remains optimistic in spite of the ‘tragic triad’.  A triad, consists of those aspects of human existence which maybe circumscribed by (1) pain (2) guilt and (3) death.

It has been a couple of months since I wrote my last blog for this website, but I found it fitting I should kick 2020 off with a blog which talks about the first book I read this year – Man’s Search For Meaning by Dr. Viktore Frankl.

The opening paragraph is an exert from the book, which is known as one of the outstanding classics to emerge from the Hollocaust.  

The book is a gripping account of one mans struggle for survival in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps.  

Dr Frankl is an author and a psychiatrist, and sometimes asks his patients who suffer from multitude of torments great and small, “ why do you not commit suicide?” From their answers he can often find the guidelines for his psychotherapy:

in one life there is love for one’s children to tie to, in another life a talent to be used; in a third perhaps only lingering memories worth preserving.  To weave these slender threads of broken life into a firm pattern of meaning and responsibility, is the object and challenge of logotherapy, which is Dr Frankl’s own version of modern existential analysis.  

In the concentration camps every circumstance conspires to make the prisoner lose his hold. All of the familiar goals in life are snatched away.  What alone remains is “the last of human freedom” – the ability to “choose one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances”

A really good friend of mine by the name of Jack Kavanagh recommended this book to me last year.  Jack is someone I had the pleasure of sitting down with over the summer for a few hours where we talked about all things life has to throw at us as individuals and how best to respond.  Just as you are reading this, I strongly recommend you look Jack up.  He is one of the strongest people I have met who is overcoming huge challenges everyday, yet when you hear him speak or watch his posting on social media, you cannot come away from it but feel inspired, empowered and grateful.  Go check him out, you will be all the better for it.

Back to Dr Frankl – what he was really saying in this book, which was a fantastic read is that when him and the others where in the concentration camps, being tortured, starved and overworked everyday, all he had in his locker to deal with this, was his attitude to his current environment ,and whether he was going to give up on life and just die, or decide through his approach, mindset and attitude to everyday, keep going.  All in the hope, that one day he would break free and go onto realise his own potential in life.  I won’t ruin the book for you, but suffice to say, he got out of the camps alive and went on to write numerous books that have sold millions of copies and changed so many lives in the process.

I wrote my first book “Attitude is Everything” and released it in 2013.  The message I was trying to convey in that book was that no matter what circumstance you find yourself in life, it really is going to depend on your attitude and approach to whatever position you find yourself in, which will determine if you make progress in life.  For me and at that time I was living for a few years with Multiple Sclerosis and my mental health along with my physical health was very poor.  It took me a few years to come to terms with it, but what I noticed around 2010, it was only when I changed my attitude to my illness, and my approach to my circumstances, did things start to improve for me.  It’s an incredibly powerful feeling.

I think many people would agree that living In this modern world can be very difficult at times.  Certainly, as one gets older, more and more challenges will come to your door. Illnesses will strike maybe yourself and loved ones and death is always close to home for us all. Financial challenges and breakdown of families and relationships are a common occurrence and when it gets so bad for some, they simply cannot go on.  

The one thing that this book doesn’t go into is how one can go about improving your attitude and approach to life and this is something I wanted to cover in this blog.  It is all very well encouraging someone to change their attitude and approach to life, but if you don’t know how to, which many don’t, then how can you make this happen?

 Over the years many people have confided in me the challenges they are facing in life.  I think it’s a combination of my professional job which I do every day meeting so many people, and then my own life experiences, which leads me to these positions where people approach me for help and guidance.  What I say to every single person I meet who approaches me in this vein is the following;

 “No matter how bad things are today or how dark the road appears, always keep your mind open to the possibility that things can improve.  If you do this, there is always hope.”

I found it fascinating that those colleagues of Dr Frankl in the camp who basically gave up and decided they wanted to die, did so after a very short period of time.  They consciously and sub consciously decided that was it for them in the camp, and that they couldn’t go on any longer. What happened then in the camp was that all of those people who found themselves in this mindset, did pass away.  They had given up.  

HOPE is something all of us need all of the time, and one of the great things about life today is that THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE. 

One of the things that has changed my life over the years was starting to read books.  I never read a book in my life until the age of 28, when I was very ill. From that time I have read hundreds of books, which has made a huge impact on me.  

What I have been able to take from this and other action points I implemented into my strategy for living was that there is always hope in life and things can get better no matter how desperate they appear to be. 

I encourage people to decide what it is you want out of life, devise a plan followed by massive action.  I encourage people to make changes in their life and if you keep doing this over time, sit back and watch your life change and the magic happen. 

The environment each of us keep is central to us living a happy healthy life and for each of us to go on and reach our potential.  When I talk about your environment, I am talking about what you are eating, drinking, how you are moving, and thinking and interacting with people.  The scientist’s tell us that up to 80% of all diseases comes from the environment each of us keep.  Change your environment, change your life.

 So to wrap up, and I hope this one wasn’t too heavy for you, I encourage all of you to work on your attitude to each and everyday.  This is something I too struggle with, but with daily exercise and plant based diet and huge desire to get my health back, it helps me from a mindset point of view.  Why don’t you give it a go?

If there is anything I can help you with, please reach out and if you think this article would interest some of your friends and colleagues, please feel free to share.

Have a great 2020