I came across a piece by one of the more famous financial bloggers the other day, talking about how he managed to save up $3 million dollars to have the opportunity to leave his stressful job and retire early.

At one point in my life, I would have read this story with a tinge of envy. I too wanted to leave a job that left me stressed and likely aged me beyond my years. In my particular case, I was so stressed out at one point, I often would head to the bar after work to drink away the stress of the day.

It’s not just finance related jobs that have the millennial generation stressed, a study in 2016 found that 71% of millennials are disengaged at their jobs. Why is this? Why do so many of this generation feel so disengaged, stressed and even depressed about their work and their lives that some are willing to go to extremes to leave or quit the workforce forever?

Lessons From Logotherapy

As I have written before I came across the writings of Viktor Frankl some time ago. I am in no way embarrassed to say that I came across his writings through listening to a Tony Robbins motivational talk on YouTube as I washed the dishes one day. I listened as Tony described when he was down and out in his life, he would “feed his mind” positivity by reading the books of inspirational writers.

Of those writers that he mentioned, Dr. Frankl I became intrigued with, because Tony mentioned that he was a psychologist who had survived the Auschwitz concentration camp. I had become a bit of a Holocaust buff lately because I have something very particular to me: learning stories of death, suffering and carnage that happened in real life and knowing real people had to endure it, helps me to put my life in perspective and realize that my troubles are trivial to those that millions of people in history have faced.

I took the time to listen to Frankl’s best selling book Man’s Search for Meaning on audio. You can find it for free on YouTube here. In the book he describes some of his observations of behavior of different prisoners in the camp. Many of the stories have tragic ends: a man who is convinced that he knows the day he will be released, when the day comes and passes, he falls sick and dies shortly thereafter. The cruelty of some of the capos the fellow Jewish overseers who many times are worse than the SS Nazi guards that keep the prisoners captive there. Reacting to these, Frankl discusses the choices we make in not just our lives but in our attitudes and the way we react to our circumstances.

Frankl then moves on to discuss the his therapeutic techniques which he calls Logotherapy, logos being the Ancient Greek word for meaning or purpose. He discusses the particular predicament of finding meaning in modern Western society. When we were all hunter gatherers, life’s meaning was survival, it was simple, there was no thought or reasoning needed. As societies evolved to complex kingdoms and autocracies, a small community of people provided the framework for meaning: religion, following orders, maintaining the state etc. When we arrive at the modern era though, with basic needs taken care of for most people and a distancing from religious ideals due to the influence of science on popular thinking, we are left with a void. We essentially don’t have an overarching theme or point to our existence anymore and many of us are aware of this.

Frankl calls this void “the existential vacuum”, he then rattles off a number of statistics to prove his point as to how many people, especially young ones, are unhappy at that time (the book was written in 1945). When I think about this and my own experience, I think this existential vacuum is at the heart of a lot of the problems we see with frustrated and disillusioned people today, especially when it comes to their work.

The Last Freedom

Even Frankl himself, who did have meaning in his own life prior to the camp (he was working in a hospital in Vienna treating suicidal patients, and was writing a manuscript to be published) had his own manuscripts taken away. He then thought he may never see them again and that he may die without finishing them. It would be easy in this case to give up and conclude that his life no longer had any meaning, since he could no longer write, was separated from his family and would likely die before this was all over. However he talked about having one last freedom left: the ability to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.

Rather than conclude his life was meaningless, he found his own meaning in his suffering. That if he were to die, it would be for a greater cause than himself. Each person would find what that cause is for themselves, whether it was that their wife may live or that they would see their family again in heaven. The point was to find your own why regardless of the circumstances. This why needed to be greater than one’s self.

He calls this movement towards positivity despite the most horrid circumstances “the defiant power of the human spirit.” He is also fond of quoting Nietzsche: “he who has a why, can live with any how.” He then gives examples of quadriplegics, prisoners of war and convicted criminals that have chosen to find meaning in their own lives. This is a subjective meaning, it is individual to each person, it could be living for a family member, to leave a legacy or to improve the lives of others, but the point is that each person has the freedom to choose their meaning within themselves.

So How Does This Relate to Work?

If you made it this far, you may be disappointed so far as in the post has just been a re-hash of Frankl’s book and his Logotherapy, however I want to go back to that initial article about the financial blogger who saved up $3 million to retire.

After taking in Dr. Frankl’s book, reflecting on my own experience and my own life, I have to think, the problem was not necessarily the author’s job, it was the lack of meaning he was deriving from his job. Rather than just retiring, he could have just as easily chosen to either 1) find the meaning he was yearning for in his occupation or 2) choose an occupation that he felt had more meaning for him. In a way he did this, the author became a financial writer, but he didn’t need $3 million dollars to do that. The money was just an artificial hurdle the author created in his head to feel secure enough to follow his passion, his why.

Frankl also talks about happiness and success. Happiness is a fleeting emotion, and no one is happy all the time. People can be sad or be unhappy for a time but still maintain their personal dignity. It’s this last part that is the key to contentment for many people. This relates to work today in the sense that we can’t be happy or content with our work all the time, we have to acknowledge that there will be times we may be frustrated or unhappy with work. However the circumstances that produced this don’t have to define how people feel about their job, and if they can’t change how they feel about a particular job, they have the freedom to change their job. Many today may not end up doing this last part out of fear, fear of disappointment from family or friends or fear of the potential insecurity it may bring. These are artificial barriers we put up though and they prevent us from pursuing what each of us really finds meaningful.

He also mentions that success in itself will not bring happiness. Rather, true success will likely be the byproduct of pursuing your passion and what you find meaning in. I found this very similar to advice from a more modern motivational speaker Gary Vaynerchuck, who encourages people to chase their passions. Once they do this, they may eventually see success but it won’t be the success that will provide the contentment in their lives, it will be the meaning they derive from their work.

Conclusion

When you look up ways to move up at your current job, many have the hallmarks of Frankl’s teachings:

• Take control
• Remember your “why”
• Stay positive
• Savor the small wins
• Break down tasks into smaller simple ones, don’t get overwhelmed by the overall task

Social media and coddling, but well intentioned parents have bread a generation of people that expect instant happiness and gratification from their deeds. Many expect contentment and happiness immediately and base it on external validation which is outside of their control. Contentment and happiness in the workplace for all of us can improve with challenging yourself to change your attitude despite the environment around you. Workers who choose to be passionate and find their own why become fantastic employees and lead successful companies. If you are one of the 71% who feel disengaged with your job, I encourage you to stop searching outside for what you can choose yourself to have inside: a positive attitude and a meaning greater than yourself. He who has a why, can deal with any how.

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