“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
What is life? What is your ‘Why’?
The simplest and easiest question, but very difficult to answer.
The history of time and humankind is a witness that there aren’t any particular answers.
But there is one thing that is most common to all answers, which we name “situation”, meaning life lies within the situation.
Everybody defines life according to their own situations. So does Viktor Frankl define life in one of his books, “Man’s Search for Meaning”.
In this book, he shares his life experiences and situations, how he suffered, and within these situations, he finds the meaning of life.
Viktor Frankl (1905-1997) was a professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School, and he received the degrees of Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Vienna.
Before his renowned literary life, he suffered from troubles.
In 1940, during World War II, he was arrested and put in a concentration camp where the prisoners were put. So he spent time at Auschwitz, Dachau, and other concentration camps.
During this period, his pregnant wife and family members were killed, which made him hopeless about life. In the concentration camp, there were multiple prisoners with Dr. Frankl.
World War II was the hardest time for Dr. Frankl because many prisoners were in hard situations right in front of him.
Many lost hope and stopped looking for their purpose in life, which led them to end their lives.
But Frankl was the one who was not ready to give up at any cost.
Why not give up?
Because he had a reason to live. The reason was finding the real meaning of life.
Frankl always remembered a famous saying that helped him maintain his strength.
“He who has a ‘why’ to live can bear with almost any ‘how’.”
It means that the one who has a reason for living can bear everything that life throws at him. This was what helped Frankl to live.
He was a psychiatrist and neurologist who read people, observed them, and tried to understand what was happening, how it was happening, and why it was happening.
After his journey of experiencing all that, he came to know the definition of life that the meaning is given by us according to our situations, conditions, and actions that we think to do.
Frankl gives meaning to life within three things: first, to suffer; second, to work; third, to love.
According to Frankl, there is no meaning in life. It must be given by yourself.
The meaning is to suffer, to work, and to love.
Leave the “how” and welcome the “why” and accept the “why” and suffer, work, and love.
By: Shah Nawaz Noor (The writer is a student at the University of Turbat)