Chapter 28
Finding Meaning and Purpose in Your Life
"Life is not ... a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning. The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her life." (1)
—Harold S. Kushner
Having purpose and meaning in your life is a critical catalyst of long-term motivation, ambition, happiness, and fulfillment.
As Dr. Viktor Frankl so masterfully illustrated in his timeless classic,
Man's Search for Meaning, finding meaning is more than just philosophically satisfying—it is essential to our survival, happiness, and prosperity.
Despite the abject and ungodly circumstances inside Nazi concentration camps, Frankl observed firsthand that purpose-driven prisoners were more likely to survive than those without the hope that springs from a deep sense of personal meaning burning within.
Quoting 19th century German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, Frankl echoed the great truth that: "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how." (2) Is it any wonder, then, that one of the best-selling inspirational books of the 21st century to-date is Pastor Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life, which directly addresses this subject of subjects?
Inevitably, we all confront varying degrees of disappointment, failure, rejection, depression, discouragement, personal weakness and mental and/or emotional and/or social illness over the course of our lives. Due to his long life, rich education, and unique experiences, few persons who have ever lived have understood this truth more authentically, lucidly, and luminously than Viktor Frankl. This fact makes him uniquely qualified to comment on a potential panacea to the many existential ailments we face here in this world.
According to Frankl, there is no better antidote to human adversity and suffering than finding an authentic purpose that provides you with genuine meaning. He was so convinced of this point that he founded a whole new school of psychotherapy on it. He called his new and original brand of counseling LOGOTHERAPY, and designed it to help patients confront and then manage a range of different neuroses by accessing purpose and meaning in their lives.
Frankl understood that without purpose and meaning, every other conceivable therapy or treatment can only provide short-term, palliative relief. The only genuine way to access long-term happiness, fulfillment, inner peace, and mental, emotional, and social health is to find authentic meaning and then continually progress toward Self-Transcendence as defined by Maslow—and further illumined by the SAL Theory.
There are, of course, countless different voices that YOU can follow in an attempt to find authentic meaning in your life.
The question is: which one will actually answer YOUR unique call and calling in life?
Freedom Focused would never presume to tell you specifically what that thing is for YOU. However, this entire Life Leadership textbook has been designed to provide you with clues and hints that will help you on your own singular journey to find purpose and meaning along your way to eventually attaining Self-Transcendence.
One thing we can tell you for certain is that material things alone can never fit the bill in the long-run. Nor can social status or anything else subject to change beyond your control. Ultimately, the only way to find authentic meaning, purpose, and Self-Transcendence is to dedicate yourself to something that (or someone who) does not change—in other words, True Principles rooted in Universal Laws.
Frankl articulates this commitment to unchanging principles and practices as follows:
"What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." (3)
This statement aptly summarizes the fundamental paradigm of this entire Life Leadership textbook and spawns another SAL Mantra as follows: It's not Life's job to fulfill your wishes and make you happy; it is YOUR job to fulfill life's wishes and become happy.
SAL Mantra
It's not life's job to fulfill your wishes and make you happy.
It's YOUR job to fulfill life's wishes and become happy.
 |
Admiral David G. Farragut
1801-1870 |
It's not Life's job to bring your "Ship" into the harbor; it is YOUR job to swim out to your ship amidst the crucible-laden obstacles of life's tempestuous seas.
Life will sometimes prove very difficult. In some instances, you will face obstacles that seem insurmountable. At such times, you will be tempted to give up, or at least sit back and bask in those pathetic pools of self-pity, with which we are all acquainted to a greater or lesser extent.
Self-action leaders continually resist this temptation, always remembering the wise words attributed to Admiral David Farragut: a great Union naval commander in the American Civil War. Said he: No one cares what storms you faced, only did you bring in the ship?
"No one cares what storms you faced, only did you bring in the ship"
—David G. Farragut
Fortunately, because Serendipity exists and is continually operative in your life, some people along the way will care about the storms you face, and will be sincerely interested and invested in helping you through those storms. But most people will not, and SAL will help you soldier on and fight effectively and enduringly through those storms when you feel all alone—as many times you will!
Existential Greatness
There is a difference between achieving personal greatness in a single life arena and achieving holistic existential greatness as a human being. Achieving personal greatness in any given life arena is usually admirable and will likely provide you with a measure of meaning and purpose in your life. It is always positive and noteworthy to aim toward and strive after personal excellence. However, monolithic excellence in a single, niche area is not the apex of human accomplishment.
To achieve existential greatness, you must progressively rise to higher levels of Existential Growth and help others to do the same. As you abandon old, less effective paradigms to embrace an attitude and mindset of duty, goodness, self-reliance, and virtue, you will begin to gradually experience authentic growth and progress. The more you grow as an individual, the more you will be able to help others to also grow.
It has been said that: You cannot lift another soul until you are standing on higher ground than he is.
"You cannot lift another soul until you are standing on higher ground than he is.
You cannot light a fire in another soul unless it is burning in your own soul."
—Harold Bingham Lee
It is a good thing to help yourself to rise; and it is a great thing to help someone else to rise. Indeed, service to others is the key to greatness In the words of renowned business philosopher—Jim Rohn—If you want to be great, then find a way to serve; for service leads to greatness. (4)
"If you want to be great, then find a way to serve; for service leads to greatness"
—Jim Rohn
You may achieve greatness in a certain activity, art, performance, sport, career endeavor, et cetera, while being quite selfish. But existential greatness requires that you give of yourself in the service of others. To be truly GREAT, you must contribute to the long-term Existential Growth of others as well as yourself.
I have spent a great deal of time in my life pondering, reflecting, and studying the lives and careers of some of our planet's existential giants—people like: Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha), Confucius, Jesus Christ, Lao Tzu, Mohammad, George Washington, Joan of Arc, Martin Luther, Joseph Smith, Jr., Gandhi, Florence Nightingale, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, and others like them.
These men and women focused on serving others rather than on being served themselves. That is because great people don't ask what others can do for them; they do what they can for others.
SAL Mantra
Great people don't ask what others can do for them.
They do what they can for others.
SAL principles and practices have, in conjunction with Serendipity, helped me to become something far better and greater than I was when I started out in life. Along the way, I have found my own meaning and purpose in life.
I have discovered who I am and what my purpose in life is.
This Life Leadership textbook is an outgrowth of
that discovery. It is the tangible fruit produced by the tree of
my life—a tree I have carefully, consciously, diligently, persistently, and patiently cultivated and nurtured for the past four decades. These principles and practices have been so monumentally transformational in my own life that I am eager to share them with others—including YOU—in hopes that you might discover
who you are and find your own purpose and pathway to greatness.
Despite what you may currently believe about yourself, how others may currently view you—or, more tellingly, what you believe others currently think about you—you have the capacity and potential to not only make this Columbus-esque discovery about yourself, but to also make Columbus-esque contributions to the lives of other people you care about, even if those lives are relatively few in number.
As you launch forth into the existential sea in your own metaphysical Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria, never forget that there is nothing inherently or existentially special about me—or you, for that matter—but everything is special about Serendipity and the principles and practices shared in this textbook, which can be liberally applied to the benefit of any and all human beings who have the opportunity to access them, the willingness to humbly learn about and study them, and then the courage, determination, and endurance to apply them.
If you have enough money, you can purchase any material thing in this world. But there are some things that all the money in the world still cannot buy. These things include: character, integrity, knowledge, skills, authentic relationships, Existential Growth, and greatness. Such things must be earned one moment and one effort at a time. Good luck, money, and even the right personal connections are insufficient to carry the day with the "weightier matters."
Discovering who you really are and pursuing Existential Growth is a slow, challenging, and often painful process. It is also a journey you must ultimately take alone. While other people and Serendipity can—and must—provide continual help along the way, no other person or power can make the trip for you. In the end, YOU and only you can choose to travel it to its destined end.
In the motivating words of Viktor Frankl:
"The meaning of life ... differ[s] from [person] to [person], and from moment to moment ... man's destiny ... is different and unique for each individual. No [person] and no destiny can be compared with any other [person] or any other destiny. No situation repeats itself, and each situation calls for a different response ... Every situation is distinguished by its uniqueness, and there is always only one right answer to the problem posed by the situation at hand." (5)
I might be
the "SAL guy," but I don't begin to possess the KEYS to unlocking all of the answers for
your life. Ultimately,
only YOU and Serendipity possess those keys. Through the power of SAL, the assistance and counsel of others, and the aid of Serendipity, YOU can eventually utilize those keys to solve your life's most troubling mysteries and conquer your journey's most difficult challenges.
For those who are willing to see their journey through to its various ends—those who are willing to accept a penny now in order to earn a hundred dollar bill (or million dollar gold bar) later—the rewards are handsome and worth it. For those who aren't—those who perpetually demand a dime, quarter, or dollar now only to settle for a penny later on—long-term stagnation and mediocrity is inevitable.
Suffice it to say, SAL is not for the faint of heart, the soft and serpentine of spine, or the weak of will. It is for the lion-hearted whose vertebrae are straight, strong, and steady. Indeed, SAL is for those courageous souls who are willing to exercise the intestinal fortitude and virtuous chutzpah of a world class warrior who is as brave and resilient as he or she is honorable and trustworthy.
There are many things that can be given away or purchased. For example: land, money, houses, cars, media attention, positional authority, temporary friendship and power, sexual appeal and intimacy (or even a sex change), islands, buildings, businesses, airplanes, et cetera; all of these things can be bought if you have enough money.
But character, integrity, knowledge, skills, personal authenticity and confidence, inner security, quality relationships, resiliency, existential greatness, and Existential Growth must all be forged one thought, word, and deed at a time.
There is no other way!
Because the journey is treacherous and the pain is often great, many—oh, so very many—choose an easier course: those pernicious Paths of Lesser Resistance, which are so convenient in the moment, but so costly in the end! They take the dollar now and settle for the dime, nickel, or penny later on.
On the other hand, those who endeavor to meet all of life's pressing behests and demands in due course and order may only get a penny, nickel, or dime now, but inherit hundreds, thousands, or even millions (or billions) of metaphorical (and sometimes literal) dollars later on.
While it may seem ludicrous that anyone would choose the former route over the latter when the latter's pathway is so exponentially more profitable in the long-run, it does go to show just how hard the road really is, and how relatively few are willing to tread it to its stunningly spectacular summits.
What will YOU choose to do, and where will you choose to go and grow on your own journey through this maddening, yet marvelous life?
Whatever you decide, always REMEMBER that the choice is yours!
Know this, that every soul is free
To choose his life and what he'll be;
For this eternal truth is giv'n:
That God will force no man to heav'n.
—Anonymous
In Your Journal
To date, what have been your key sources of meaning and purpose in your education, career, and/or life?
Where might you find greater meaning and purpose in your education, career, and/or life?
How might you help others within your sphere of influence find more authentic meaning and purpose in their educations, careers, and/or lives?
—Dr. JJ
Wednesday, December 25, 2024
Homestead, Florida, USA
Author's Note: This is the 422nd Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 231st consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.
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Chapter 28 Notes
1. Frankl, V. E. (2006). Man's Search for Meaning. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Page xii.
2. Ibid. Page 76.
3. Ibid. Page 76-77.
4. Rohn, J. (2000). Building your network marketing business (Compact Disc
Recording): VideoPlus. Rohn's full quote reads: "If you want to be great, then find a way to serve the many; for service to many leads to greatness."
5. Frankl, V. E. (2006). Man's Search for Meaning. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Page 77.
