EP- 87 – வாழ்வின் அர்த்தம் புரிந்துவிடு…Man’s Search For Meaning - Zero to Hero in 100 days

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We are in Episode 87.

I was going through mid-life crisis about 10 years back. I was feeling frustrated, depressed and full of anger. I was at my bottom most part of my life. During that time, I landed on this book
Today’s topic is Viktor E. Frankl’s – Man’s Search For Meaning. It is one of top 10 influential book. Over 12 million copies are sold.

About the book:-
Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl's memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Based on his own experience and the stories of his patients, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. At the heart of his theory, known as Logotherapy, is a conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure but the pursuit of what we find meaningful. Book continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.

About the Author
Viktor Frankl was a Viennese psychiatrist and neurologist who developed the theory of logotherapy. Logotherapy is a type of existential analysis. He studied medicine, focusing on the subjects of suicide and depression. Although he was influenced by Alfred Adler and Sigmund Freud, his work in the field of psychiatry was very different from theirs. He has won many illustrious awards in his time.

Lessons from the video:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYBg9_069gg [Must Watch]
• More died from a lack of meaning than a lack of food, medicines
• Lack of meaning leads one to Addiction, Anger, and depression. It created existential void. Quickly filled with despair (like a poisonous gas)
• Logotherapy – Logo – Greek word – meaning.
• 3 primary sources of meaning:-
1. Pursuing a life task
a. If you died today, what important task would be left undone?
i. Lecturer to be given in the future
ii. Project to be completed
iii. Team you meant to lead
iv. Book you meant to write
b. Those who knew that there was a task waiting for them to fulfil were apt to survive.
c. Life is preparing me to do something special

2. Loving selflessly
a. Help others actualize their potential. Love is elevating / actualizes people around you.
b. It can be creating opportunity for a child
c. Mentoring junior member of your team
d. Introducing your friend to someone to find the career that suits.
e. Meeting friend for coffee to brainstorm ideas for a business venture.
f. Being with a sick parent so that they find strength to live another day.
g. Every morning ask, who will you elevate today?
h. Frank says, “The more one forgets himself by giving himself to another person to love, the more human he is and the more he actualize himself.

3. Suffering bravely
a. Suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds meaning
b. How might this be valuable?
c. Suffering strengths character, by strengthening belief and values
d. When you find yourself suffering see it as an opportunity to strengthen your beliefs, your values and your ideals and inspire others by doing so.
e. By accepting the challenge to suffer bravely, life has a meaning up to the last moment

• Happiness cannot be pursued – You’re either happy Right now or you’re never going to be happy.
• Stimulus vs Response
• You can’t control stimulus. However, you can control response.
• We all have Freedom to Choose for our life.

Viktor Frankl's mother, father, brother and pregnant wife were all killed in the camps. He lost everything, he said, that could be taken from a prisoner, except 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.''
Dr. Frankl said it was ''essential to keep practicing the art of living, even in a concentration camp.''

Most of us would never even come close to such a horrible fate, he used it as a reference point, a symbol of personal responsibility that could guide the decisions we make in our everyday lives. No matter what the circumstances, this book says, we can be free.

My life’s outlook drastically changed after reading this book. My problems look smaller in front of him. I started looking for meaning in whatever I do. . It transforms me, transcends me and inspired me.

Similar to my mid-life crisis, that people have voids in their lives is exactly what Frankl's book can help with. Find meaning in what I do and always have something left to accomplish are just two of the ideas that speak across the years. I'm 47 and every time I re-read the book, I find new relevant meaning.

As 2020 has just begun, we are all going to live only one life. As Vairamuthu says,
வாழ்வின் அர்த்தம் புரிந்துவிடு
வாழ்க்கையை வாரிக் குடித்துவிடு

We all have one life to live. Let us all live a life with meaning and purpose.

Refer Cheat Sheet:-
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_yqJptCvT6XXaYp5V4PSPwre5Wz2Pgte/view?usp=sharing

About me:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiuvvMarwOE