INSIGHTS: Meaning in Suffering
Nigel Donovan
Executive Stress Management > Executive Leadership Coach > Emotional Intelligence Coach > Executive Coaching
As we look back on ANZAC day, I thought I'd share some insight from Viktor Frankl, a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp in WWII.
His most famous work, "Man's Search for Meaning", is a powerful and insightful exploration of how people can find meaning in their lives, even where all else has been stripped away.
He claims there are three places we find meaning.
The first two are relatively easy to understand.
Creating
Creating, building, and working towards a larger outcome.
Whether a piece of art, a business, or a worthwhile outcome.
The creative process and the working towards building something is a place where we can find meaning. Even if it is as simple as a garden. We can find meaning in creating.
Love
To truly love another person or being is to see them as they are.
To see them simply and connect with them without condition.
Suffering
But suffering benefits from a little explanation.
People can find great meaning in suffering when they have no alternative.
According to Frankl, we can find meaning even in extreme discomfort, for instance, an experience like Auschwitz or a significant health diagnosis.
Only through extreme tests can we find out how strong we are.
To quote Frankl, when "we cannot change our circumstances, we are forced to change ourselves".
Sometimes our lives can seem superficial, and we seek meaning in the empty (eg Facebook and Insta), manufacturing squabbles, or catastrophising the minor.
Frankl rejects this kind of masochism.
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However, taking on this lesson from Viktor, we could ask how we can change our attitude to the struggles we face.
How can we see them as tests, as challenges, as opportunities to see our own strengths?
One of the powerful aspects of ANZAC day is the humility and perspective that day brings to our own struggles.
DECOMPLEXIFICATION
“Our human niche is niche switching” (Prof. B Weinstein and Prof. H. Heying)
Our great competitive advantage is our ability to generalise as a species, and specialise as individuals.
We cooperate, divide labour, and specialise skills, solving a greater number of problems in a wider variety of situations than any other species.
Over the millennia, it has led to huge technological, scientific and social advances - as well as the consequences of those discoveries.
But that rate of specialisation and innovation has accelerated, and it brings with it a much greater level of complexity.
Just buying toothpaste contains a level of complexity far beyond the problem being solved.
The amount of data produced each year has tripled in the last four years and continues to grow exponentially.
If your attention feels overwhelmed with complexity, it is up to you to sensibly simplify. To manage your attention and focus and minimise the overwhelm.
Take a moment and step back from the front line of your email inbox, task list, and ‘stuff’, and dial into the most important among the many.
Finding focus is your most important task in a world that is hyper-novel.
And if you are still stuck, >> book a brainstorm with me <<.
I’d be happy to walk you through my “Focus Finder 2000TM - Deluxe” worksheet [that’s right, the ‘deluxe’ version - it has a blue border!!!] and together, we can create some clarity and momentum for you.
Nigel Donovan