Don't chase happiness, chase this instead.
Posted by Bijal Shah on
This was the premise of Victor Frankl’s epic bestselling book and perhaps the most recommended book since the dawn of publishing, “Man’s search for meaning” .
Frankl, a prominent psychiatrist and an Auschwitz Nazi death camp survivor, in his sobering yet enlightening memoir, conclusively makes that case that it is through suffering that we find meaning and the drive to keep us going.
Our goal in life is not to attain pleasure (happiness) or power but to ‘discover meaning’. It is the pursuit of this meaning that provides the purpose of life. During his death camp experience, Frankl observed that those who were able to hold onto the hope that they would be eventually rescued were the ones most likely to survive. Frankl himself managed to live to past ninety years old despite the morbid suffering he faced in the Auschwitz camps.
Specifically, the book advocates finding meaning in three different ways:
- Through making ourselves useful to others.
- Through unconditionally loving others.
- Through suffering.
Whilst the memoir has been out for decades, it seems that far too many of us still continue to chase happiness in the form of pleasure and constant satisfaction — yet too few of us focus on what it is that gives us purpose in life or meaning.
It is this ‘meaning’ that is the precursor to happiness. Revered hedge fund billionaire ‘Ray Dalio’, author of the bestselling book ‘Principles’, quite rightly says that if you have meaningful work and meaningful relationships in your life then you cannot be but happy.
“What allows us, as human beings, to psychologically survive life on earth, with all of its pain, drama, and challenges, is a sense of purpose and meaning”
Barbara De Angelis, American relationship consultant, Author and Television Personality
Friedrich Nietzsche, the philosopher, aptly stated that “he who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” A sense of purpose and meaning helps us to bounce back from difficult situations, making us more resilient as well as encouraging creative, out-of-the box solutions to challenges.
It helps reduce anxiety and makes us less conscious about what other people think of us. A clear sense of purpose and meaning contributes to longevity and allows us to better integrate the negative aspects of our lives with the positive.
Finding purpose and meaning is what motivates us to get out of bed every day, what drives us to go that extra mile and what allows us to smile in the face of adversity. Living our meaning and purpose every day means living our values; it ultimately means being true to ourselves.
A big hello and thank you for reading! Passionate about literature, psychology, life and mental health I launched Book Therapy as a form of non-conventional therapy using the power of literature. I create reading lists/book prescriptions based on your individual needs. Feel free to reach out to me at bijal@booktherapy.io or www.booktherapy.io.
If you enjoyed reading this article, subscribe to the blog.
Book Therapy is a participant in the Amazon EU, US and Canada Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Amazon.ca