Real-life resilience - Viktor Frankl

What Auschwitz taught him about attitude

In winter of 1944, Viktor Frankl, a Jewish psychologist from Vienna, was driven to Auschwitz by the Nazis. It was the fourth camp he had been sent to during the war, and the chances of surviving Auschwitz were horrifically low. Throughout WW2, the camp saw 1.3m people pass through its gates. Of those, a staggering 1.1m perished.

However, Frankl DID survive.

And not only did he survive, he worked with other prisoners to help them find the necessary strength to fight for their own survival.

You see, Frankl had been practicing his therapy for several years, and arrived at Auschwitz after already having helped thousands of people with treatment. He understood that a sense of purpose provided a better chance of survival, so he focused on providing his fellow prisoners with tools they could use to give them purpose. Tools such as hope, the imagination to visualize future events (like meeting relatives again after the war), appreciation for the smallest pleasures (like sunsets), kindness to others, and above all, to know that no matter what terrible things were being done to the prisoners, that they could only ever focus on what they could control: one's own attitude. Here is one of his famous quotes:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing. The last of human’s freedoms, to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”

After Auschwitz was liberated in 1945, Frankl devoted his life to studying and writing about the value of purpose in our human lives.

How we can use Viktor Frankl's lessons in the modern professional world.

Thankfully, our lives today can’t compare to what Frankl experienced. However, we can still use his approach to survival to help us navigate our day-to-day challenges.

Here are a couple of ideas to consider this coming week:

1 – Acceptance. In life and work, the number of things outside of our control vastly outweighs what is in our control. We can’t control what colleagues do, what managers think, or how customers feel. When we accept that the list of things outside of our control is endless, we can get busy focusing on what IS in our control – mostly our attitude and how we respond. One of the simplest ways to focus on what we can control is to use a series of specific questions. Here are just three....everyone can use at least one of these:

• “What parts of this issue are actually in my control?” (this allows us to compartmentalize the pieces that we can actually do something about).

• "Will this matter in 5 minutes, 5 days or 5 months?" (this puts things into perspective, longer-term)

• "What's important right now?" (this gets us focused on what we can actually do).

2 – Choice. Frankl has another great quote: “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” Even if a situation sucks and we know we can’t change it, can we change ourselves? Remember that this isn’t about acquiescence or just giving in. This is about finding a positive and proactive way forward. If someone throws another last-minute thing on our to-do list, what can we really do? We can look at it as another opportunity to practice prioritization, or perhaps even how to politely say “no”. Or we may choose to see it as another chance to prove our value to management. Whatever we do, this simple shift in mindset is where the real internal power is.

And if we don’t practice the above, it usually results in complaining or quitting. So that’s the choice we all must make.

So here's the big question.....what will we choose this week?

I teach workplaces and individuals the strategies we all need to improve our resilience. This allows us to do our best work without sacrificing our mental health. And each workshop isn't just a whole bunch of theory - I specialize in real-world preventative examples and practical tools, so that we put them to use immediately.

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