The One Book That Can Change How You See Life

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Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’

That one quote from Viktor E. Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning completely changed the way I view my sufferings in life. You see, I found this book randomly by scouring the internet as one does in this day and age. I saw a random influencer talking about one of the most influential books he ever read, and he recommended this book.

Without any second thought, I immediately put it in my beloved e-commerce basket and checked it out. Blame it on consumerism, but I did not regret paying every single penny for this one.

Viktor Frankl Institute of America

Who is Viktor Frankl

Viktor E. Frankl is a Jewish neurologist, psychologist, and philosopher from Austria. During the year 1942, antisemitism was on the rise. He had the option to go to America at that time but he refused to go. Instead he stayed in Austria with his parents and found himself standing in front of the concentration camp and being separated from his wife. All prisoners’ personal items were taken away, heads shaved, everything about their personal life was taken away. They face brutality each day, with very minimal amounts of rest and food. There, Viktor E. Frankl theorized that those who had lost their meaning in life will likely die sooner than those who know their life’s meaning. There, logotherapy and the book that has sold over 10 million copies are born.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way

During these times, it is very easy to feel envious. We are told by society that success means at 25 years old we must earn six figures, be able to afford expensive cars or own an apartment in a metropolitan city. That narrative may be true to someone’s storyline. But for most of us, we are still struggling to even find a good paying job, and a stable career that will support us. Thus, for many of us — in a world that has become more and more materialistic, find our lives to be meaningless. Or even, to feel quite nihilistic with our surroundings.

However, according to Frankl having a nihilistic view of life (the belief that life is without inherent meaning or value) is a dangerous belief in modern society. He observed that having an “existential vacuum” or the feeling of a lack of purpose is a major source of psychological distress. He witnessed it firsthand when his fellow prisoners started to find their lives in concentration camps as meaningless, the sooner they started to deteriorate their own lives and die quicker.

The Will to Meaning

Amongst the torture that Frankl faced everyday, he found that there are three ways in which one could find meaning in their lives: through work, love, and suffering. Through work, Frankl often imagined himself publishing a book about Logotherapy and being able to contribute his work in the psychological field — despite having his nearly done manuscript taken away at Auschwitz.

Through love, he often imagined himself talking to his wife. He had no idea where she was, or when she would see her again but the thought of being reunited with her was constantly on his mind. He later found out that she died in Auschwitz. Even so, Frankl is still preserved through the sufferings of the consecration camp. His thought process to always seek meaning beyond the sufferings helped him to continue to live for three years during the holocaust.

So live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!

There are times in my life where I felt lonely in my life’s journey. Seeing my friends being able to travel the world, or watching strangers on the internet making their dreams come true with a career that they love. Whilst I don’t even know what I should do in my life as a 20 year-old. There’s a certain pressure for young adults nowadays to have everything figured out and have it all together the moment you step into your college years. While many of us don’t even know the meaning of our own lives. We are lost amongst the many pathways that we have to choose.

Reading Man’s Search For Meaning gave me a new perspective on the uncertainty of life. Especially on the importance of finding one’s life meaning. It doesn’t have to be in grand gestures, but in small acts such as conversing with the people you love, spending hours flicking through the pages of your favorite book, and many more. And might as well learn that the search for meaning in our lives should be our fulltime job.