“We promote him to what he really can be - so we have to be idealists in a way, cause then we wind up as the true, the real ‘realists’. If we take man as he is we make him worse, but if we take man as he should be, we make him capable of becoming what he can be … If you don’t recognize a young man’s way to meaning, man’s searching for meaning, you make him worse, you make him dull, you make him frustrated, you still add and contribute to his frustration. Why, if you presuppose in this ‘man’ or this ‘criminal’ or ‘juvenile delinquent’ or ‘drug abuser’ so forth there must be a spark of search for meaning. Let’s recognize this, let’s presuppose it - and then you will illicit it from him and you will make him become what he in principle, is capable of becoming.” - Viktor Frankl
I can go on and on about how key Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning” is to understanding how to truly empower yourself and others, and I can go on and on about Frankl and his ability to endure and survive concentration camps and his undeniable fire and passion for life and living. I could do all these things, but it really won’t matter unless you have a context to his teachings and are keyed into the opportunities that exist in your life today. Which - if you’re reading this - there are many. More than I can count.
Reading that book in Jr. High was a bizarre exercise, because his passages would literally set you free in ways fiction couldn’t, they’d make you dream of fulfilling your own potential and helping others around you. While in reality I was in an alternate world at my Jr. High, one that had more in common with TV shows than the reality that I thought I was capable of creating and shaping.
Nearly 20 years late however, these ideas and principles are taking shape in my life, and in the lives of those around me and revisiting his teachings and his story has been a redefining, crucial experience for me.
Start here.
