Book Review: Subject - Self understanding and motivation

Title: Man's Search For Meaning - An Introduction to Logotherapy 3^rd Edition
Author: Viktor E. Frankl
Publisher Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0-671-2422-1

Compelling, inspiring, emotional, uplifting are all words I would use to describe what I thought and felt as I read Viktor Frankl's recollection of his experiences in the Nazi Death Camps during World War II. Even more compelling then that, was how he was able to find a reason to live. How could he - every possession lost, every value destroyed, suffering from hunger, cold and brutality, hourly expecting extermination - how could he find life worth preserving? I am a great believer in fate. Things happen for a reason. It was to some extent fate that helped Viktor endure life in a concentration camp, so that he could share his story with us in hopes that we could discover for ourselves, the true meaning of life.

Viktor Frankl's book: Man's Search For Meaning - An Introduction to Logotherapy - 3rd. Edition is a shinning example to us all of the power of positive thought. I believe there are no negatives in life. Everything in life is a positive because it is based on how we perceive things to be. One of my favourite quotes, and one that I use quite often in my workshops and key note speeches is by Mary Engelbreit: "If you don't like something change it; If you can't change it, then change the way you think about it." Viktor found himself in a situation that he could not change. He had lost everything. His child, wife, parents and all his worldly possessions, but he realized one thing that they could not take away from him. The one thing that they could not take away from him was "Choice". Only he could choose how to react to that situation.

We are to a great extent a by-product of our environment. We tend to take on the look of our surroundings. If you have been exposed to one particular style of leadership then most likely that is the style you'll adopt. (Common sense is not all that common. We aren't born with it, we learn it thought the people we meet, the books we read and the things we see.) Most adults learn by observing and attending the school of hard knocks.

"Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress. Everything can be taken from 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." Viktor discovered that attitude wasn't something; attitude was everything! Only you can decide how you want to react to a given situation. Attitude is 100% in your control. Viktor decided that only he got to choose how he wanted to react to his life in the concentration camps.

Viktor's book reaffirmed to me that life is a series of doors that we need to go through. Each time we go through a door, it's a learning experience and you become stronger for it. (That's why a negative is really a positive). I found strength in Viktor's book because I know life couldn't get much worse then what he went through. If he was able to survive that, then what I have to endure is small in comparison. (If it doesn't kill you it truly does make you stronger.) In Viktor's words: "One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has his or her own specific vocation or mission in life to carry out a concrete assignment, which demands fulfillment. Therein you cannot be replaced, nor can your life be repeated. Thus everyone's task is as unique as their own specific opportunity to implement it." We have all been put on this earth for a purpose. Choose to live a purposeful life. Life is a 9 volt test, so let's get energized!