Finding Meaning in Life

 Highlights from Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl

Raj Sisodia recommended Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl at a talk that he gave. The way Raj spoke of the impact it made on his life, I decided right then and there that I was going to read it. This book is a deep thinker. It took me over a year to get through it although its less than 200 pages.  I will never forget the lessons held within it. It is the most impactful book I've ever read. 

Frankl was a neurologist and therapist who had lived in Nazi camps for nearly 3 years. In a majority of the book, he details his experiences in the internment camps. He paints a detailed picture of what it felt like to be separated from his family, lose his freedom and prized possessions, witness heartbreaking cruelty, and to lose hope for the future. He explored how different people reacted to being tortured and losing everything. It was eye opening and caused me to be grateful for my daily experience.  

Frankl highlighted a close correlation between a man's level of hope and the level of immunity of his body.  Prisoners who lost hope quickly declined with significant mental and physical decay.  

Even in these extremely negative conditions, Frankl found purpose in his life. He was able to help others find their purpose too. He would help the prisoner find a future goal that was personally meaningful for them. Once they had hope, it would fundamentally change their attitude toward life.  Frankl shared the ultimate meaning of life is to identify a goal that’s meaningful for yourself in your life at a given moment.  It is in the striving for that freely chosen task that one finds great purpose and motivation.

After being liberated by American soldiers, Frankl taught others how he was able to heal.  He shared that people are primarily driven by striving to find meaning in their life.  When people find this sense of meaning, it enables them to overcome painful experiences.  

In his later years, Frankl went on to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy, became a professor at Harvard, and developed logotherapy. Logotherapy is a highly regarded form of existential analysis which expands on finding meaning.  It indicates one should not ask what the meaning of their life is but determine that answer for themselves. What a person needs is not a tensionless state, but rather the striving for a worthwhile goal.  The call of personally motivating potential reorients a person toward the meaning in their life.