Prisoners of Our Thoughts

Life Isn’t Random

Perhaps you hate your job but stick with it for security, all the while wondering whether life might hold more, and what that more might be. Maybe you perceive that you are the victim of bad luck, and that the only breaks you get are bad breaks. Maybe you wish that, for once, you could take control of your life. If so, you aren’t the only person who feels that way.

Viktor Frankl, a holocaust survivor, was an inmate at several Nazi concentration camps. After World War II, he founded a humanistic strain of psychotherapy called Logotherapy. The theories of Logotherapy can help you find meaning in your work. Some people find meaning in even the most routine and seemingly meaningless work. Consider your mail carrier, for example. Carrying mail doesn’t require an advanced academic degree. Yet, some mail carriers recognize that their work is indispensable to others, that it may in fact be (literally) part of a life-saving mission. Who knows what could be in a bag of mail? It is not the job that gives meaning to the person’s life, but the person who gives meaning to the job.

You have the freedom to choose how you will respond to circumstances. Everyone...