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Our final step in the wisdom series is here with a bang! One of the most influential books ever written is Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.
The Moonshots Podcast goes behind the scenes of the world's greatest superstars, thinkers and entrepreneurs to discover the secrets to their success. We deconstruct their success from mindset to daily habits so that we can apply it to our lives. Join us as we 'learn out loud' from Elon Musk, Brene Brown to emerging talents like David Goggins.
Hello, and welcome to the Moonshots Podcast. It's episode 211. I'm your co-host Mike Parsons, and as always, I'm joined by Mark. Pearson Freeland. Good morning, mark.
Good morning, Mike and good morning, listeners and members. Sadly, we have ended our Wisdom series on the Moonshot Show. But Mike, I'm not going to lie to you; we do have a pretty inspirational and revealing episode as part of episode 211 today.
I think you might be saying that we are bringing it home strong. So we're wrapping up in a good way.
That's right. Listeners and members we. I am finishing off and completing our current series on Wisdom with Victor e Frankl's. Man's Search for Meaning an Incredibly, and I think it's a little bit of an understatement, Mike, even to use the word incredible, incredibly inspirational as well as a powerful autobiographical account of Franco's experience, as well as the application of his trademark therapy Luo therapy.
During the imprisonment that he experienced in Vienna, Austria, during World War ii, and without going into all of the histories, Mike, I think the invitation that perhaps we're going to have for today's show and how we're connecting it into the world of wisdom and moonshots learning out loud is the application I think of.
It is going through something very tough and surviving through it. Yeah. It was; his life story is epic. This is definitely, the top shelf on the moonshots, a library. So if you enjoyed Grit by Angela Duckworth, Victor e Frankl's book this Man's Search for Meaning is an old-time classy.
So if you want to find the capacity to keep going when a challenge comes your way, this is your book, and today we will break it down. We're going to tear it apart. We'll decode what Victor Frankl teaches us, and we will try our damn best to apply it to our lives. So whether you are at work or home and looking to lift your game to push through, The challenge, the discomfort.
Then this is the book for you, the amazing testimony he has for surviving a concentration camp. The observations he has from his survival. He lost everyone. I'm saying he lost his wife, his family, and his parents in the concentration camp. And he still found meaning; he then became a profound contributor to science, medicine and the art of well-being.
So if you wanna find. A little bit of extra over this vacation and holiday break. This book will set you up. It will lift you, give you a reason for being, and show you how to do it. Mark, I am so excited about this one.
I couldn't agree more, Mike, and I think to build upon your epic introduction, we can only really hand over to Victor e Frankel himself, who will continue introducing today's show, episode 211.
And discuss one of the biggest insights and ideas he experienced and wrote about within his book, man, search For meaning. And that's all about how you can find meaning in despair.
Let me present you and confront you with a somewhat strange definition of despair as I'm used to proclaiming that despair can.
In terms of a mathematical equation, D. Capital B equals S minus M. What does it mean? Despair is suffering without meaning. As long as an individual cannot find, cannot see any meaning in their. They will certainly be, too, in its suffering. I wanted to say no meaning in the suffering. They will see her will certainly be prone to despair and, under certain conditions, suicide, but at the moment, they can see a meaning in their suffering.
They can mould it into an achievement and their predicament into an accomplishment on the human. They can turn their tragedies into personal triumphs, but they must know what I should do with them. But if people, like so many segments of present-day society and population, cannot find any meaning in their lives and see anything meaningful, they more often than not have to do something to live.
I say at least enough to live by. We cannot see anything to live for. What is the answer to the question? Why me? Why did this happen to me? The answer to such a question is nothing that a psychiatrist or any other type of scientist can come up with. I would not share the opinion of s Jean, who said We have to accept and shoulder courageously heroically the absolute meaninglessness of our lives.
But what I think is rather that what we have to accept is incapacity. Or, of our humanness, the incapacity to recognize the ultimate meaning in intellectual or rational terms. This is the only thing we have to accept, but still, we may believe. In ultimate meaning, to lead someone, say a patient, to e the way for him to such a belief to faith is, of course, not a business or job to be carried out by a psychiatrist, but rather by a theologian.
What this is. Victor Frankl was laying it on for us here. Matt, there is so much inside. It is. I don't know where to go with it. It's so full of ideas whether you look at amazing athletic performances that defy human capacity. So, for example, if you look at Victor Frankl's own story or if you look at some of the inspiring people that we have studied on this show, I think we see so many people encountering hardship and challenge despair.
They're getting so uncomfortable and finding meaning in it to me. There are so many places to go of all that spectrum. Mark, where do you process this story, this idea from Victor Frankel?
I think you're right. There are a lot of connections and threads that we can build to several different individuals as well as series that we've done.
But for me, Mike, based on Victor Franco, Equation that he shared right at the very beginning. D equals M minus s despair equals suffering without meeting. Meaning leads me back towards our happiness series and the Science of Happiness; even Neil Pus reaches the Happiness Equation.
The idea is that you can apply a mathematical or scientific almost application towards interpreting what you experience in your life. Almost not gamified, but at least put it in perspective and put it in the awareness and the memory that everything does move on. So you're not stuck in one mindset or one situation forever.
You can enter another level, let's call it, depending on how you interact and interpret that situation. I think. An invitation that Franco's really, or the call out that Franco's giving us in that first introduction clip, is the fact. Don't accept that life is meaningless, right?
Instead, think about it as an opportunity to try and go out and learn something from it. C, either A, the meaning in a certain experience, or B, work on creating a meaning for yourself that allows you. To get through those
challenges. So when we talk about finding meaning in life, what are some of the practical examples you've seen that have inspired you, where you're like, ah, they have Meant, they have a purpose.
Like, where do we see this? I saw that particularly when we were doing the Dar Lama show on the Art of Happiness, that Handbook for Living, where the Dar lama broke down the idea of your brain and the concept of happiness as a muscle. And the more you work out a muscle, whether it's going for a run or lifting heavy weights, it can get stronger.
And what I liked about that analogy is that if you go out and practice, let's say, gratitude, and you notice, oh, I love it when the sky is this blue, the next time you see the sky is that blue, you think, oh wow. I do like the fact that the sky is blue. And that concept, to me, is a great demonstration of how you can take ownership.
It's not disconnected and the same, which is true with despair, where Franco, I think, is taking us in his autobiographical book. It isn't something that you experience and can't control. You can influence your emotions, whether happy or desperate, to a certain degree based on how you interpret them.
Things around you. So when I am learning from the Dalai Lama with regards to happiness, when I'm learning from Victory Frankl with regards to despair and finding meaning, I think they're both great examples of how you can step back and take control of how your brain reacts to those events within your life that perhaps feel like you're total out of.
Maybe you're in some spiral, or you don't know which way is up, but you can control to a certain degree how you will react and take action against them. Yeah. It's the power and the choice that comes with saying, I'm going to focus on the things I control. I will have a growth mindset and embrace challenges knowing it's part of the equation.
And I think setting our objectives too. Goals and objectives that have real meaning for us, real impact, and create good vibes with others, like doing things that matter that help support, inspire or entertain other people. This has to be part of the equation. So we're going to tear it all down. So we'll understand what it takes and Frankel's whole system.
Presents to us, but the first step we'll take, I think Mark would only be fitting it, which is to be a bit of a tip of the hat to our ever-growing cohort of Patreon
members. Look, these Paton members, Mike, are the individuals we want to extend. Huge thanks. Support, love and appreciation, too, aren't they?
So please welcome Bob John, Terry Kenmar, Byron Marja, and Connor and Yasmin, our PAT members, for over 12 months. Again, as usual, hot on their heels are our other members and subscribers, including Lisa Sead, Mr. Bonura and Paul Berg Cowman, David and Joe Crystal, Ivo Christian and Hurricane Brain, Sam Kelly, Barbara and Andre, Matthew, Eric, Abby, Chris, Deborah, Lassie, Craig and Daniel, Andrew, Ravi, Yvette and Lgv. Raul, PJ niwa, and Ola Ingram. Sarah, Dirk, Emily, Harry Catholic, Vanatta, Vira, Marco, and a brand new member. Sunis. Thank you so much. For everybody who's continuing to support us and brand new high Fives and appreciation to Sundi for joining us on the Moonshot
journey.
Yeah. Welcome. And we are eternally grateful for your choice to support us, and the great news is that you also have a choice when it comes to thinking—feeling and perceiving the world around us. So let's continue our adventure into the work of victory. Frankel Man's search for meeting. Kill a book. Get it on your Christmas hamper right now because we're going to hear from Wisdom for Life, and they will bring to life this idea that you have a choice.
You always have a choice between stimulus and response. There's a gap, and in that gap is the ability to choose how you respond to any situation. External forces you can't control are always acting upon you, such as the traffic, weather and so on. So what you can control are those internal forces.
Your response never forgets that you have the freedom to choose your reaction. It doesn't matter what life throws your way. What matters is how you respond to the situation. It's your attitude towards your existence that makes all the difference. And in the words of Vitor Frankl, everything can be taken from a 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 way, you and you alone decide what your life will be in the next moment. Man can change the world and can change himself for the better. You can change instantly, even in a concentration camp where you have no freedom; you can behave like a swine or a saint.
Which one depends on decisions, not on conditions?
Let's look at an example from the book. A man's wife died, and he was depressed. So the doctor asked him, what if your wife died? She would suffer. No. He says, oh, yes, she would. The doctor says, okay, then you are the one to take on the suffering instead of her.
Isn't that what you would prefer? The man says, yes, of course. So that's an interesting way to look at suffering. Did the situation change? No. The only thing that changed was the older man's attitude towards the situation. That's a great example of someone finding meaning in suffering by changing how they respond to the circumstance.
It's not about your situation but your attitude towards your circumstances. When we can no longer change the situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Mike, this is a huge insight, and it's one that I think we've encountered within the Wisdom Series. Still, even on the Moonshot Show, outside of our current series, and in fact, I'm callbacks specifically to the stoics and the work that we did on Ryan Holiday, the ability to control one's attitude when perhaps something goes wrong in our day-to-day.
Let's say, in my case, I might get an email or a telephone call, or I might be in a meeting, and it doesn't quite go right, or maybe I'm out and about. I get a bad coffee, somebody cuts me off in the middle of the road, whatever it might be, or the bus drive straight past and doesn't stop for me. So I can choose to become.
Pretty grumpy. Maybe blame other people. Maybe. It goes one step further, and that action, maybe a bus driving past without stopping me, can then mean I am grumpy to my colleagues, wife, or family later. Somebody else's behaviour influences those things, changing my attitude and probably how I would normally interact with a certain example.
They're ultimately changing my person. To a certain degree, Franco's calling out and wisdom for life is helping articulate in that clip that you can't take away somebody's attitude if that individual chooses to maintain their attitude no matter what the situation. So I think that's a really big call out straight away.
I cannot even tell you how much I've had to wrestle with this one because you have a choice, and it is like an intersection. So you can say, I'm going to blame the world, be angry at the world, and others for my situations. Or I can say, This challenge was meant to come my way.
I will be stronger as a result, which is total Zaha. He did one of my favourite shows we've ever done. She took all the challenges in life and said, they are building this kind of code of armour on me. I'm getting stronger. This is very much like Goggins, and I think that the simple little moments I have where I have a choice, I had this the other day.
I had a busy day, and I wasn't running. It was only a walk day. So I went to my favourite cafe and grabbed a coffee. I was walking, drinking coffee, spilt and coffee, and I got angry. And man, it's I didn't even spill the whole lot. It was just a little bit; I didn't even get it on me. And it didn't go on any of my clothes.
It got on maybe two fingers. And you know what? I was so angry. I know we all do this, but that was a choice. At least I have the awareness now. I caught myself in the moment. Mike, get over it. It's just coffee. But the point is, that's like just one little thing in life where you can, c, we can giggle about it, can't we?
But whether it's spilt coffee or spilt milk, it doesn't change when we talk about when we challenge adversity. When discomfort comes our way, we have a choice to say, Hey, I'm embracing this because this is part of where I'm going. So I need to get this done—not hitting the snooze alarm.
It's a choice. Choosing to dare to step into the arena as Brene Brown would have us do is a choice. I cannot even have to go back to this daily and weekly to ensure that I'm being the best version of myself and not taking the easy path, the path of where I'm like, eh, it doesn't matter. Oh, I don't have to do that.
I've done so much this year. Who needs to work hard today? But if I have a mission that's calling, I should get up and not hit the snooze button. I should do the work, whether easy, hard, or everything in between. It is a fundamental choice that we all have in front of us, and I think we often fail, especially in our younger years, to appreciate that there is even this choice available to us.
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think, similarly to some of the insights we found on the show, there are a lot of elements within life that you never get taught as a child. And even in your young career. It's only through appreciation, digging into these books and life lessons, and learning out loud.
Certainly, for me, the ways that I can learn about these different mindsets and behaviours, and I think you're totally right, Mike. There have been plenty of times, whether it's coffee or an accident that's happened or whether it's just inspiring or motivating me to go out and work hard today.
It's a daily struggle for all of us and I like to expose myself to those opportunities. As Kara DW would call out is through. We are trying to do something new each day. We've spoken about mantras, we've spoken about things that inspire us each day, and we make sure that we stay on track with what we're trying to do.
One of my goals, one of my reasons for meaning, I suppose you could say, is to try and be exposed to something new daily. Maybe that's an extra long cold shower. Something very simple. Maybe it's going out and speaking to a. Or speaking to someone I haven't interacted with before.
Or maybe it's just looking up something new on the internet. Maybe it's YouTube, whatever it might be. Trying to keep my brain ticking over is a way that I find a bit of meaning in my life because not only do I enjoy it, but it means that when I do come up against, let's say, cold water, the opportunity of getting back into the ocean, ooh, it's a bit cold.
I'm somehow stronger because I have experienced it a little bit more. So I've done a little bit of practice.
Exactly, Exactly. And I think once you know that you have a choice on how you wish to perceive events and things that come towards you, you are taking one step towards satisfaction, fulfilment, and reframing life.
And maybe, as we're about to hear, you'll be on track for just a little happiness.
Victor Franklin says, again and again, I, therefore, admonish my students in Europe and America. Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you miss it. Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued.
Happiness must happen to a cause greater than oneself or as the byproduct of one surrendering to a person other than oneself, and the same holds for success. Therefore, you have to let it happen by not caring about it.
Please listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of yours. Then you will live to see that in the long run. In the long run, I say success will follow you precisely because you have forgotten to think about it.
It's amazing. So this idea that success cannot be pursued must ensue from our commitment to something bigger than ourselves.
We talk about this again and. We're not going to go into details on that right now, but I will suggest what it is that you're committed to. Think about that. What's the thing you're committed to more than anything? And we can go after success, and we'll get a certain amount of success. We won't have a truly deep sense of joy and fulfilment and a deep connection to our highest source unless we're committed to something bigger than ourselves and our little success.
And the irony is, in my own experience, as we commit to this thing that's bigger than us, giving our gifts to the world and our greatest service to the world.
Success chases.
Oh, Mike, there's only one word that's coming through in Brian Johnson's breakdown of Viktor Frankl there, and that's the idea of
legacy, isn't it?
Yeah. What are you committing to that's bigger than yourself? I, this is if, for our listeners who are probably tuning into this, just before the vacation holiday, Christmas break, it's a big question, and I think it's a perfect thing to reflect upon as you transition into a new one. So what are you committing to?
What outcomes, what impact? As you said Matt, what legacy do you wish to have? How do you want to be remembered? What's the thing that you want people to recall? It's a great way to gauge whether I am on track. Am I fighting for the right thing or not? And when you hold that deep conviction for this thing that you are committing to, it could.
Something athletic, an athletic goal, maybe a big swim or a big run. Maybe it's just that I'm going to get up every morning at six o'clock and go for a walk. It doesn't matter. Whatever you are committing to, whether it's the impact of your work, your craft, your art, the story that you need to tell, the impact or the service that you are to others in this world, whatever it is, coming back to that, writing about it, journaling about it, sharing it, making sure that you are present and committed in that cause or impact that you wish to have becomes.
By stealth, the path to feeling satisfied with your day, fulfilled with your week, and maybe when you reflect on your year, you think I'm really happy with this year. I'm feeling pretty good about it because you did work that matters. And that's how, when you know you are doing work that matters, you don't hit the snooze alarm; you get out of bed and do the work.
You grind it 1% better every day. It is impossible, I believe, mark, to continue grinding it out and getting up early, like jumping in the water when it's fresh and swimming. You cannot continue to do that if you're not fighting for something bigger. And I think that—what a gift in the work of Victor.
I think you're right, and I think I, again, hear the connection back to somebody like Neil Pacha and Neil PA's happiness equation had this idea about wanting nothing and working hard doing anything. So to eventually have everything, and I think there's a shared concept, an insight here, which is a, don't aim at that success, or as Brian calls out, don't aim out happiness because it will be a byproduct of going out without perhaps expectations and just doing the grind.
But to do the grind, to stay motivated, I think you're right. Having meaning and having a reason for continuing is exactly how Vitor Frankl would've searched gone through this idea of the meaning behind the suffering and despair is the only reason why he was able to stay motivated enough to get through the experience and then write about it and create a piece of work for us and.
Here are some of the crazy things, mark. He was given a way to escape the concentration camp but declined the opportunity because it was too important to care as a doctor for the other people still in the camp. How insane is that? Talk about fighting for something bigger, committing to a bigger idea than yourself.
He gave up his freedom to serve others.
Yeah that selflessness holy smoke is a pure moment of legacy, isn't it? Oh, that's something that he can look back at during the rest of his life and know that he dug in deep and worked hard, and that's something that I think we're all striving to do. So, to try and do, isn't it?
To try and be the best version of ourselves. Now
mark, we did a whole master series on finding purpose, and we've done lots of shows, and there is a place out there far away on the wide world of the internet where you can access all of that. Isn't that right?
You could say it's a location sitting up on top of the moon, and that's a place called www.moonshots.io where you can go and listen to all of our latest episodes members.
You can find our show docs and notes. You can find reading lists and host information. Eventually, I even became a member. And if you become a member, you can dig into our master series. You can listen to our breakdowns on the wisdom of the stoics, goals, lean startups, and even happiness, Mike.
And we also dug in deep into the idea of shared visions and finding your goals. But you can only do that by popping along to www on moonshots.io, signing up, and checking. So what else is to come in the future?
Yes, so the head of moonshot.io, you will get everything you need to make that choice, as Victor Frankel would say, to choose your perception.
There's so much inspiration there. We have a whole master series of unhappiness on purpose. Become a member. You can get access to the Moonshot Master Series. We got so much going on over@moonshots.io, and we've got a lot going on this show. Mark. To recap, we are breaking down the work of Victor e Frankel, his book.
Man, search for meaning, and it is one epically hugely popular. It just, it is a timeless classic. It's one of our favourites in the moonshots library. And we have realized through his work that it's all a choice. We can perceive the things around us however we want. We can embrace discomfort and challenge and overcome all the challenges that come our way.
And if we commit to something bigger than ourselves, satisfaction, fulfilment, in a dash of happiness, it's all there for the taking. So this brings us to a very important point, which is purpose. How do we have a purpose? And the great news is Mark, we have a great clip from always Improving on YouTube, and they're breaking down the work of Victory Frankel and answering the notion, the calling for having a purpose.
He has a why to live. Can bear with almost how VI Franco got through the terrible time in the concentration camp because he knew he would take what he was learning from the situation and write a book. He knew that book would help others. So he chose to focus on how he would help other people because of his situation, and he didn't focus on the terrible things around him.
He thought of something bigger than himself. The way other prisoners got through the camp was to be extremely generous, giving away some of the prisoners' future. This would give them a huge sense of purpose. These prisoners gave themselves a real purpose, a reason to keep going. They had a big why, because they were staying positive for other prisoners.
When working towards something, you'll find it much easier to keep going if your main aim is something bigger. Mike's big insight is from always improving, breaking down the victory. Frankl's insight here, and I love this call out, the idea that if what will help others, or if you know what your wire is, that's much bigger than just yourself, making money or driving a nice car.
Whatever you are doing is much bigger than. That then inspires not only yourself, but even perhaps, I think what I hear in that clip is you can inspire other people to do a similar piece of behaviour as well, and that helps the group community, whether it's individuals whom you are working with, maybe it's your family or even your neighbours, you can all go through it together. So I'd, I quite like that little connection there as well.
Is that something that was standing out to you in that clip, this idea of community connections?
It instantly makes me go to the work of Simon Sinek and start with why and this, how good is this? He who has a why to live can bear almost any how and. It just corresponds so nicely with the work of Simon Sinek, whose people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it.
And when he says buy, it's bigger than just purchase in retail. So he's saying people get into, you want to be with, you want to be around your company, your brand if the bigger mission energizes them. Because if there's a bigger mission, that's not just about you. But about them or perhaps about us if we raise it, this is when people.
Get excited. They become fans or friends professionally; personally, if you are clear on this mission as an individual or a brand or a business, there is so much to get from it. Think about it. A company with a really exciting mission and vision and the impact they want to have in the world have a much easier time recruiting people than those that don't.
People, who want to live a happy, healthy life are just great to be around, aren't they? Yeah exactly. And I think you are this build on Simon Sinex y is an interesting connection. Because what we're now understanding and learning is that the essential concept around struggle is.
Transferable perhaps into this idea of entrepreneurship and business. And you are all, any business is probably going to have struggles with competition or finances or dealing with managing people and so on. Unless you have a. Core direction that you are working towards as a business. And we dove into this in our Achieving Your Goals series with OKRs, managing the directions of KPIs, and so on.
I think what I hear from that connection; Mike is without a why. Nothing, whether business or personal, can function to the best of its ability unless you have meaning or a purpose.
What do what, what inspires us? What motivates us to do anything? Yeah. And you know what? As you're talking there, Mike, where my brain goes is, oh, hang on a second. There's a real aha for me. If you don't have a purpose, you are tempting the gods of self-doubt as soon as the struggle comes.
Because let's think about it. If you are pursuing something that's hard but don't believe, You're not really committed to it. The hardship starts and then you're like, oh man, this is really hard. I'm not sure if I can put in the energy. If I don't put in the energy, I will look stupid to others because this isn't work.
And this really I cannot begin to tell you how much, when I was young, I was avoiding—doing the hard work, avoiding the struggle for fear of failing publicly. And so, when I reflect on this, here's the interesting thing. When you really gave it everything you got, because you really cared about it, the outcome is like the technical outcome.
Marginal in the end because you left it all on the field to use a great sporting analogy. You gave it everything you got, so you know, you worked hard; you couldn't have worked any harder. Things will be what they will be, and you accept those, but it's when you haven't signed up. So in your heart for something when you haven't signed up and committed it to your mind, into your habits.
As soon as the rough waves come, you abandon ship and go back to shore, don't you?
Yeah. And actually to build on that, Mike w for me, in my career particularly when I was younger, I struggled with. I didn't understand the point of doing a particular job because I didn't have the meaning.
I didn't have a purpose. So the feeling of not knowing what you're trying to work towards, not knowing why you're doing something, is an incredibly easy path to follow, to feel dissatisfied. Everything might be great. You might be getting good friends, relationships, or even money, but not having a direction in your mind that you are comfortable with.
And this is something I never really worked on. Again, going back to the idea that you don't really learn about this stuff until you perhaps have exposure, to these lessons from individuals such as Victory Franco, without having. The advice is to go out and be satisfied with the direction that you've carved out for yourself.
You don't go and do anything. There's no meaning; there's no inspiration. There's no motivation to go out and try and work on yourself, do a race, or go out and work your hardest. You just floundered down. Yeah.
So this, what are you fighting for? What are you committed to that's just bigger than you?
Said differently. Are you really striving to have an impact on the people around you? Are you looking to bring some positivity, some life improvement or solve a problem others have? This is profoundly important if you want to be your best version of yourself. Not in the future, but I'm just talking.
If you want to wake up with some energy, some juice in the engine, and ready to go every day. You have to have this because we know life is full of compromises, mistakes and learnings, and if you don't have this inner driving force of will, commitment, mission, and vision to something beyond yourself, you will be halfway out to sea.
The seas are gonna get big. You're going to turn around, you're going to come in and say, forget it. I'm not navigating this one. And if we don't make a choice, For vision, mission, impact, and purpose, we will be sitting on the shore watching others sail out and feeling not so great about the world. I'm guessing
backseat, exactly. Without that inspiration or guidance, yeah. You're not going to find a reason to be patient with others to go out and do your best work, if anything, for me. It goes back to the blame game. Yeah. The easy route is to point the finger and blame somebody else.
I think if you, and we all, and the first thing here, and this has been a big theme on the Wisdom Series, everybody faces self-doubt.
Everybody is prone to judgment or questioning themselves. Those that succeed get through. So again, David Goggins talks about how hard it is to get out and go for a run sometimes, and I'm glad to hear that because he does some big runs like hundred miles, hundred 50 miles. So the difference between Michael and I'm gonna stop.
The difference for fuck sake. Hang on one sec,
The difference is that when you have this. You will stick to the energy force you've decided to have of purpose every day. Get a little bit better. Every day, you will get more and more ambitious in your goals and your dreams because you will uncover the potential that lies within us. And that is that we have these choices, and if we fight for something big, we can do something big every day.
Mark. I think this is exciting because this is reaffirming to us at a really important time as you transition into a new year to ask ourselves, what are we finding for writing down our purpose, sharing our purpose, going to the Moonshot's Archive and listening to the old shows about purpose. This is one big refresh on our why.
I think you're right, Mike. It is a timely moment if ever there was one to pick up that journal, pick up your icky guy, and revisit the shows that we've done on finding—finding why exactly. Th this is it. And again, it's something that we've delved into within this wisdom show series, Mike.
Unless you really have that confidence and comfort, then you are not going to go out and give it your best go. And for me, it's certainly something that. So I need to revisit quite regularly, and the great news is you can if you write it down; I've got goals for 2023. So I had goals for 2022 that I'll try and write.
I haven't written my 2023 yet. I need to do it before the beginning of the year, just guiding principles, things that I might want to consider, maybe things I've been putting off for a while, or behaviours that I want to have for those with whom I'm collaborating with or who are around me all the time.
I am revisiting them, whether they're in a journal or on your phone. They can be great signposts as you go down. That journey. That journey we found out on the Wisdom Series with Don Miguel Rs, the four Agreement Wisdom book. I think it's a wonderful little narrative story of going down the root of life.
But, Mike, we're a role on that root of life. We can all choose which paths to take, and. Those guiding principles are what keep you on the right path. Yeah. So
on that note, it is only fitting that we return to Victor Frankl and see what he has to say about getting comfortable, getting comfortable with discomfort, and maybe embracing the hardship.
So here is, for the final time, Victor Franco, giving some thoughtful advice to the youngster. Most of us have never been in a concentration camp experience. We've never had to go through that horror and tragedy. And so one would think that today it would be easier to find meaning in life, and yet I sense that it's more difficult today than it was in years past.
I think that you are right. So why is that? Because we are living in a society. Either in terms of an affluent society or a welfare state as we in Austria are living in any way, these types of societies virtually, or at least they are out virtually to satisfy and gratify every human.
Except for one need, the most basic need an operating man, the need for meaning consumer societies, even creating needs. Still, the need for meaning, or as I'm used to referring to it, the way to meaning, remains unfulfilled. It's what I'm used to as calling recently. The unheard cry for meaning you scarcely will find any reference to what is the most fundamental concern of man.
Neither pleasure nor happiness, nor power, prestige, but originally and his wish, his desire to find and fulfil a meaning in his life or, for that matter, in each situation confronting him. And if there is a meaning to fulfil, if he's aware, if he becomes cognizant of such a meaning, then he's ready to suffer and offer sacrifices. He's ready to undergo tension, stress, and so forth without harm being done to him, But if there is no meaning available in his visual field, then he takes his life. Can you imagine a situation for a human being which is more stressful than Auschwitz?
And what was the top ranking on the list regarding the frequency of the questions? Suicide among youngsters 14 to 15 years of age in a welfare state such as. Suicide, there was virtually no stress or tension because they are pampered. , nobody allows himself to challenge them. What young people need are ideals and challenges, personal tasks, and, to begin with, in the first place.
Examples, personal examples. But not the cowards who coward. People who don't venture to confront them with anything might become angry because they are challenged. Neither parents nor school teachers are courageous enough to challenge them. Don't use tension. Don't create tension.
Don't put stress. See, people are today. They're not over-demanded. They are under demanded.
Mike a meaty, confronting, but appropriate closer and outro clip for our episode on Victory Frankl's Man, search for meaning. I think the key thing for me, Mike, as we condense what we've learned from this book is the connection with the growth mindset.
Oh yeah. And as Victor Franco's calling out that clip, the meaning of. In to condense. I think what he's saying is that life's meaning is to train yourself to find meaning in every moment of life. And when you have—got to that state. And what I mean by that is to find meaning in sitting down and recording a podcast or finding meaning in taking the dog for a walk, or finding meaning in waiting in line for a coffee or the bus, or the meaning in a stressful email coming in from somebody at work.
If you can get to that level, then suddenly everything is. That you encounter is something to be passed. Nothing is permanent because you can look at stressful moments and happy moments as opportunities that just come up. There's no blame game; there's no poor me. So it's just an event that you are going along with.
It's like the waves on of an ocean. Listen, you're just riding.
Isn't it crazy, though, for him to talk about it? All these people are living in comfort, having a higher suicide rate than in Auschwitz or some concentration camp. And it is like the ultimate scientific test that you need to fight for something, and you will be amazed at your own fortitude.
And capacity. This is what David Goins talks about so much. We don't even realize what we can do until we put our minds to something we fight for something. And I think if we want to have an alert system, it should be this. So if we're getting too comfy or easy, there are no stretch goals.
They talk about good OKRs being those that have a real stretch, as you should never achieve all of your objectives and key results because then you've set it too easy. So there's always gotta be a bit of stretch. Likewise, there's always gotta be a little discomfort because that's when you grow.
If you're going to the gym and never see after it, you would question, am I working out enough? Yeah, exactly. So surely the same goes with life, and that's what we've just learned. Beautiful.
What a great call to action as we end this wisdom series from Victory Franco saying to all of us. Go out and embrace those difficult moments because that is when you are growing, that's when you are stretching those muscles.
That's when you are adapting so that you are better at the fight or flight or just putting up with challenges and obstacles. What a great call to action, Mike. Beautiful piece of work. Mark, I want to ask you, out of all the things we could take from Victor Frankel's work, what's going to get your attention?
What's going to get your follow-up?
I think the core piece for me is agreeing on a meaning. The concept of having a meaning, a why, and a reason for going out and being the core focus so that I can. Always stay on the right path, but also interpret obstacles as moments just to become maybe a little bit better and a little bit stronger at that ultimate goal of why. A bit stronger at that ultimate goal of why.
What about you, Mike? What's standing out from today's
show? Uh, I think as we're doing the show, it just is screaming to me that I need to refresh, rewrite my purpose. I need to remind myself of it. I need to bring it to life and do some work on that to have the ultimate turbo charge, which is fighting for something bigger than myself.
Some good homework for all of us. I want to thank you, mark, for your contribution as we studied the work today of Victor e Frankel. But more importantly, I want to thank you, our listeners and members for joining Mark and me on this journey into Man's Search for Meaning Show 211, studying the work of Victor.
E Frankl. And boy, what a show it was. And it began with the idea as there is meaning in everything, even in despair. And we have a choice. We have the freedom to choose how we react to any situation. And if we do that Frankl's idea, Of consciousness and success comes through commitment. So fighting for something bigger than ourselves is said differently.
We must have a purpose because it's the ultimate energy source. Because as life is known to do, it will bring us a challenge, and we shall overcome it because we're going to learn out loud together. We will be the best version of ourselves, and that's what we can do together here on the Moonshots podcast.
Okay, that's a wrap.