Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything

by Viktor E. Frankl

There are three main ways people find fulfillment of their life meaning, in Frankl’s view. First, there is action, such as creating a work, whether art or a labor of love—something that outlasts us and continues to have an impact.

Second, he says, meaning can be found in appreciating nature, works of art, or simply loving people;

The third lies in how a person adapts and reacts to unavoidable limits on their life possibilities, such as facing their own death or enduring a dr...

Frankl was acutely aware as a camp survivor that “the best among us” did not return. That knowledge could easily turn into a crippling “survivor’s guilt.”

the question can no longer be “What can I expect from life?” but can now only be “What does life expect of me?” What task in life is waiting for me?

So we could not perceive our survival as anything other than undeserved mercy.

What leads us forward and helps us along the way, what has guided and is guiding us, is a joy in taking responsibility. But to what extent is the average person happy to take on responsibility? Responsibility is something one is both “drawn to” and “withdraws from.”

But it is wonderful to know that the future—my own future and with it the future of the things, the people around me—is somehow, albeit to a very small extent, dependent on my decisions in every moment.