The entrepreneur Peter Barton was at the top of the world.
Until he wasn’t.
Barton lived a life that everyone dreamed of, damn well took care of themselves and was a great husband and father of his family.
And then on a fateful day his world was broken:
A cancer cancer diagnosis.
The work became less important, other experiences stopped keeping meaning; He tried to record the pieces while mourning a future that he couldn’t live. He would not see how his children grow up or grow old with his wife.
Barton shared these thoughts and experiences in an absolutely heartbreaking book called the name called Do not fadingPresent And a paragraph always captured me.
One day Peter’s body was destroyed and cancer succumbed, his head hurt and his mind was lower than ever. Defeated, he said to his supporting woman:
“I just don’t see the point.”
She replied: “So find one.”
The point was to be found.
Barton received a lifelong prison sentence and decided to “find the life point” by writing a book that his children could read. A book that other people could read and analyze the meaning in their own lives.
I thought about finding “the point that became a point” when I visited another of my favorite books, inspired by a recently carried out episode to my friend Bretty McKays’s Art of masculinity Podcast.
The search for people for importance
Victor Frankl was a Holocaust survivor, psychotherapist and creator of a kind of therapy called “Logotherapy”.
After surviving the horrors of Auschwitz and other concentration camps, he wrote the first draft for his book. The search for people for importancePresent In nine days.
He even planned to publish it anonymously, but in the last second he was convinced to connect his name to give his survival story a little difficult.
Since then it has sold 16+ million copies and was translated into 50 languages.
Frankl’s thinking school, logotherapy, is based on the idea that “the meaning of life is to find the meaning of life for every single person. He often refers to Nietzsche’s famous saying:
“Anyone who has a why to live can endure almost everywhere as everywhere.”
In this book, Frankl explains his thoughts and reflections about life when he was died or murdered thousands of people.
What is most striking in this short book is Frankl’s ability to find meaning and hope for humanity in the middle of one of the worst human atrocities that have ever been committed.
The second half of the book immerses in “logotherapy” and encourages us to find our own “meaning”.
“The meaning of life differs from day to day and from hour to hour.
> What counts is therefore not the meaning of life in general, but the specific meaning of a person’s life at a certain moment. “
Neither cancer in the final stage is diagnosed, nor do they suffer from the atrocities of a concentration camp.
But there was probably a point in her life where you ask: “Why am I doing the hell what I do?”
We could think that the question means that something is wrong with us. That we don’t live at the moment. That we need help.
Frankl feels different. He finds it critical and healthy to ask this question:
“The biggest task for one person is to find sense in his life.”
What if this unpleasant conversation with itself were part of the process?
What if you asked this question?
Your “big why”
We talk a lot about “What is your big why?” Here in the nerd fitness rebellion.
If we logically think about it, we try to force ourselves to do things We are not wired (or necessary) to do this.
Naturally We don’t want to burn additional calories, get up early to train and avoid stuffing our face with comfort food.
It requires additional effort, we have to feel hungry, we have to change our behavior. And our brain does not want to do anything!
This may not be “meaning of life” type … but it is a really strong memory that we help ourselves to stay consistent if life gives us anything but consistency:
- Why will we get up and go for a walk when it is cold outside?
- Why do we say about salads and lean protein when there are cookies and donuts?
- Why do we sweat (roughly) and absorb weights (uncomfortable)?
- Why do we force ourselves to breathe difficulty and run a 5k or say yes to a yoga class in which we feel deeply confident?
We talk a lot about it Our coaching customers and members of the NF community:
A constant memory of WHY We often do this what keeps us in the right track in these hardest moments after wearing motivation:
Maybe we want to break the generation cycle of an unhealthy relationship to eat that we have learned from our parents.
Perhaps we want our children to see that we can be a strong mother, that it is okay to sweat and push ourselves.
Maybe we want to feel better when we look in the mirror or that we know that we feel better and better after A training when we felt beforeA training?
Your challenge this week is to ask yourself why you are here:
- Why are you ready to go through the unpleasant thoughts and feelings that are associated with changes?
- Why are you ready to try to learn a new ability or how to eat?
- Why are you ready to get up early and spend less time on your couch?
Go on with your reasons. Keep ask “why” and see what comes out.
Write it down.
Place it on a post-it note and glue you on your fridge, your bathroom mirror and your car fittings board.
-Steave
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