What Life Expects From Us


If you have not read Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, feel free to stop here and do so.

While we are certainly going through challenging times, the details of life in Nazi concentration camps (he spent time in four, including Auschwitz) provide real perspective. But the book offers more than simply perspective. Frankl was also a brilliant neurologist and psychiatrist. His daily life became a study of man at his worst, but also at his best. It was a classroom of evil & despair with every student asking, “why”?

Most of us have had some kind of existential crisis at some point in our lives. We have asked the litany of questions… Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of life? Or maybe it was faith found, faith questioned, faith lost, faith found again. Maybe you were convinced that you had to go “find yourself”. Whatever the case, we all want our limited time on Earth to matter. And we assume the answer is “out there” somewhere. The burden of man is that, while we have primitive aspects to our brains, we are also blessed with consciousness and reason and a need to understand. (And, no, we will not delve deeper into “consciousness” here).   

And what did Frankl learn?

“What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life… Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.”

Point being, life is laying out that question for you and you answer that question in how you respond, every day. That meaning is up to you. And the answer is almost always… you. The biggest obstacle in your life? Yes, it’s you. Who owns pursuit of those hopes & dreams? Who owns your decision-making and relationships and attitude? But I have faced such challenges… Right, and we welcome you to the club. Do some suffer more than others? Absolutely. Though, that is not new. If you are a Christian, might you think this is in conflict? Free will & reason, my friend… again, it’s on you.

Why is this important? Because, at some point, we must stop looking “out there” for everything from existential answers to people to blame. We must recognize that the one thing we fully control in our lives is how we respond to the circumstances that make it up. And in that, you give meaning to life. It is in how you face those challenges, in every goal pursued, every act of kindness, and every life touched. It is in trying, failing, and trying again. It is recognizing that you do not know it all and finding the humility to seek help so that you can keep progressing. It is in recognizing that you are not small and insignificant, but rather enrich the lives of those around you.

Stop asking the question. And start answering it…  

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