Tag: Man’s Search for Meaning

Irritating or Irritable

Small, annoying stuff happens to us each and every day.

Is what happened irritating or are you irritable?

Whether it bothers you is the choice you make in interpreting what has happened.

However hard it may be the choice to be upset about what is going on is still yours.

Choose to not let it bother you and it won’t.

Now that is easier said than done.

Especially on one of those days where everything seems to be going wrong.

It may take a Herculean effort to not lose it.

“Think…how soon you and your vexations will be laid in the grave.” – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

There is always a space between stimulus and response.

Sometimes that space may be brief but it’s there.

Breathe. Be present. Find calm.

Not everything needs an immediate response. Something’s don’t need a response at all.

If you react on emotion you will make a bad situation worse.

“Our rage and lamentations do us more harm than whatever caused our anger and grief in the first place.” – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Let your emotions subside then you can give a thoughtful, measured response.

The Space

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.” – Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

In that space before we respond we need to take an inventory of our emotions. Acknowledge what they are and take a moment to consider how they will affect our response.

We don’t need to respond immediately. Sometimes, many times, it’s better not to respond immediately.

It’s often better to process how what the other person has said makes you feel. How they made you feel, will be the pivotal thing that colors your response.

Anger, resentment, jealousy will make you do and say things you may not do or say normally. Allowing them to determine your response can destroy the path forward in the conversation.

This idea of using the space to respond appropriately is something I need to work on.

I am too eager to respond especially if someone has made me angry, jealous, or resentful.

I want them to know I’m right, even when I know I’m not.

I need to work on getting it right rather than being right.

Sometimes I feel anger, jealousy, or resentment because I know deep down they are right, and I don’t want to admit it.

“Am I hear to learn something or to prove something?“ – Holstee, Reflections newsletter

Get it right rather than be right.

Meaning

What is meaning?

The Oxford Language definition is important or worthwhile quality; purpose.

Where do you find meaning in your life? Where do you find purpose?

“What matters therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment.” – Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, p. 108.

Do we ever truly find meaning? Or does meaning change over time?

What has meaning today may not have meaning tomorrow.

“In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only answer by being responsible.” – Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, p. 109.

What are you responsible for? Who are you responsible to?

Life has meaning when you are responsible to something greater than yourself. Everything I do is for my wife and children. How I carry myself. The job I do at work.

I do my job as I hope that the administrators and teachers in my children’s school are doing there’s.

I always remember that every student is someone’s child. Someone loves and cares for that child. It is my responsibility to give them everything I can to improve their lives.

“Choice of attention – to pay attention to this and ignore that – is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases man is responsible for his choice and must accept the consequences.” – W. H. Auden

Meaning can change from day to day, moment to moment. What has your attention in this moment?

Our attention is dragged in a million different directions. Make sure what you allow to capture your attention is worth the meaning you give to it or suffer the consequences.