This week I spent a lot of time thinking about the power of choice. Every day when you wake up you can choose to see the glass as half full or you can see the glass as half empty. It is often easier to choose the thought pattern that you are used to; the real challenge is choosing the opposite.
I did some research this week on Viktor Frankl who was a Holocaust survivor. His power of choice was immeasurable. I could not imagine being placed in his situation and still being able to choose a life of meaning. Frankl was able to control his attitude while imprisoned in a concentration camp. Instead of drowning in the sorrows of pain, disappointment, and frustration, he chose to view it as an opportunity to find meaning.
“the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. And there were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom….”
-Viktor Frankl
Throughout history there are countless stories of people who have overcome various hardships. These people did not have superhuman powers that allowed them to get out of difficult situations. Instead they had hope, faith, and an unwavering determination in their power of choice. We are all capable of choosing to see the good instead of dwelling on what is going wrong. We can find a lesson in the trials of life and use it to propel us forward instead of holding us back in life.
Frankl also stated, “What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.”
What are you bringing fourth everyday into your life? Are you in the mindset that life needs to go your way in order for you to be happy? Or are you viewing each interaction as an opportunity to show up for the life you live. Choose to see the lesson, choose to see the good, choose to see life’s mishaps as an opportunity to grow and preserver. You can work with life or work against it, but either way, the choice is yours.