I was reminded of the life of Viktor Frankl a few days ago.
Viktor Frankl was a psychologist who was amidst writing a book on his findings when the Nazis came to town. Foreseeing the capture, his wife sewed his writings on to his clothes hoping to save years of his work.
As soon as he was captured however, all his clothes were burnt down. What followed was years of torture at various concentration camps along with the loss of every person in his family in the process. The details are harrowing.
Yet, Frankl kept his spirit, survived the experience and went on to write his seminal work ‘Man’s search for meaning.’
I found myself thinking about my life for a few moments..
While his experiences were probably as severe as they can possibly ever get, every one of us have had our share of ups and downs. We face challenges every single day. They never stop. The more we choose to do, the more we choose to take on, the more challenges we face. There’s no running away from that.
Along the way, we taste bad luck, stumble, fall and then move on. That’s part of life. There’s many things in life that we do not have control of. That’s also part of life. In fact, over time, we realize we’re not in control of most things. It’s a chaotic journey. And we’re all working hard to play our part in the act.
What we do have complete control over is the meaning we attach to it. It doesn’t matter if it’s just an additional project, if it’s just a note to say thank you, if it’s just a small task at work or if it’s just a catch up with a friend, we can make it meaningful. We can make it count.
We can choose to quit talking about the weather and talk about things that matter to us. We can choose cut the crap and talk about what matters. We can choose to switch off the television set and actually get out and do something with our lives. We can choose to make every minute in our day count. We can choose to be interested, engaged and passionate. We can choose to be present. We can choose to be the best we can be. Just for a day for starters..
Maybe we’ll do it for a whole day tomorrow. And maybe we’ll like it and do it again day after. But careful now, as Seth Godin would say, it may become a habit.
And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.’ | Steve Jobs
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Background Track: Sort Of (Instrumental) by Ingrid Michaelson :-)
A Learning a Day 