Where there is a why, there is a will and a way

Today I'm sharing some information about the importance of identifying the meaning of one's life as way to boost energy level / motivation and strengthen resilience.

"He who has a why to live can bear almost any how."
 Friedrich Nietzsche

Recently I got in touch with the book "Man's Search for Meaning" written by Viktor Frankl - an Austrian psychiatrist -, during the period he was a prisoner in concentration camps on WWII.

In his book, Viktor writes about the brutal experience he had in concentration camps and how the inhospitable environment affected prisoners in different ways:

• Those who gave up on life and lost faith were the first ones to die;
• Others, a small number, were able to survive despite the harsh psychological and physical conditions they were faced every day.
• Viktor managed to survive keeping hope alive by thinking about good times he had spent with his wife, the prospect of seeing her again and the dream of lecturing about psychological lessons from Auschiwitz experience.

Fact is that, when we find meaning in life we are able to resist during difficult times and to find ways to overcome obstacles to fulfill our dreams.

Below I selected some of the passages from the book and quotes from Mr. Frankl:

“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.” 

"Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning. Frankl saw three possible sources for meaning: in work (doing something significant), in love (caring for another person), and in courage during difficult times."

“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!” 

"Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it”

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” 

“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.” 

Finally, based on Mr. Frankl lesson I would adapt the old English saying: "Where there is a will, there is a way" to:

"Where there is a why, there is a will and a way"