The Purpose Effect (Part 1) – Episode 4
Greetings and good day to you all and welcome to the mind for life podcast. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Jeff Bogaczyk and I will be your host for the next several minutes as we talk about the purpose effect. And we will get to that in just a few minutes, but …
If you tuned in last week, we talked about – The power of choice and how we have within ourselves the power to choose how we think about things – we can choose our attitudes, we can choose to be positive and to respond positively about whatever happens to us. Viktor Frankle was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist and I guess you could say sort of an existential philosopher. Frankle was also a holocaust survivor. He was Jewish and during WW2, he along with his family, his parents and his wife were all deported to the Nazi concentration camp – Auschwitz and there separated and transferred to other camps. Frankle’s father died in a Nazi ghetto prior to Auschwitz, his mother and brother both died in Auschwitz. He was separated from his wife and she died in Bergen-Belsen. But he survived. And after his liberation, his experiences in the camps shaped his philosophical outlook.
He said that even within the constricting confines of the concentration camp, he found only two races of humans to exist – decent ones and unprincipled ones. Regardless of class, ethnicity, race, or group these two characteristics defined them all. But regarding the power to choose, of all people, Viktor Frankle said this:
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
In the midst of the horror he was experiencing, he could still choose his own attitude. This is powerful and if you’re driving in a car, stuck in traffic right now, if you lost your job or that promotion went to someone else, if you’re stuck in a bad situation, think about this – even in the very worst (and unless you have it pretty bad right now, it’s not quite as bad as being in a death camp where your whole family is taken away) – even in the worst of circumstances, you have the freedom to choose how you will respond. You have the freedom to choose how you will see things, you have the power to choose your attitude, so choose to be positive.
Well, that’s more a wrap of last week, but it leads us into what we want to address this week. The purpose effect. What effect does having a purpose? If you’ve listen to any of the self-help gurus, at any time, you might have heard some of them talking about purpose and maybe even telling you to write out your life’s purpose statement, and if you’re like many people you might have tossed that aside as some huckster’s quick fix cliché in order to get me to buy their book, tape or join in their class. Maybe even listen to their podcast?? On second thought, maybe that’s something I should try here, right – let me help you find your purpose and it will change your life – well, all and good if and I mean if a purpose means anything. And that’s what I want to talk about.
There’s a branch of philosophy called Absurdism that denies the idea that there is any meaning or purpose in life. In this school, the Absurd, refers to the tension and conflict between our tendency as humans to find meaning and purpose in life and our inability to do so. It is absurd, not because it is logically impossible, but because it is humanely impossible and any human attempt or effort to find meaning and purpose in life fails because of two factors – the vast amount of information out there that we would have to sift through to find meaning and the fact that there is so much we don’t know, that total certainty about any meaning or purpose is impossible.
Absurdist philosopher Albert Camus stated that we should embrace the absurd, that we should embrace this conflict between our attempts to find purpose and meaning and our human inability to do so – the conflict between our desire for significance and meaning on one hand, and the cold, vast, distant, silent universe on the other. In light of this situation, Camus – ever the optimist – gives three options – suicide, recognition, or a “leap of faith.” Suicide, for Camus is a confession that life isn’t worth living, that the absurd is too much and this is the way out. The absurd can also involve a “leap of faith,” the idea of which comes out of the work of Soren Kierkegaard, this is a response in which and individual chooses to believe that there is more than what is rational – that there is a point where one can choose to believe in something and take a jump without a rational philosophical base. Camus would consider this philosophical suicide and prefer the last option – recognition. This is simply embracing the absurd condition and finding meaning within the absurd – to create our own meaning through our own choices and decisions. Of course this is subjective and Camus would note that there are, in the universe no objective or absolute truths so for him, the choice to recognize the absurd, to me is a similar choice to the leap of faith. He chooses to believe that his own choices and decisions can provide meaning for him – that to think or decide for himself – in the midst of the absurd is the “ultimate human freedom.”
Well, to me, that is a “leap of faith” as well, just in a different direction. It is a leap toward human choice and a subjective belief in one’s own personal power vs. the choice in something beyond rationality. Of course, Camus rejects any higher power, or belief in God.
I guess absurdists have their reasons, but I think I would rather choose the leap of faith – to believe that there is a purpose, that there is a meaning in life. That there is something out there that gives this existence meaning. Also, whenever I read philosophers and thought leaders on subjects, I feel it’s important to remind myself that there’s always two sides – there are always other perspectives. There’s always another argument with smart people on both sides and we, the audience, get to choose. And that’s what it is – a choice. It’s a leap of faith, to some extent either way, right? This is, for me, important to remember. The universe doesn’t make the choice for me – philosophers and thinkers and scientists can provide reasons and evidence and make their arguments, but they don’t choose for me – I must make the choice myself.
I must take the leap of faith, and just because I don’t know everything, and guess what – nobody else does either – even Camus recognized that – the unknown is so vast we can’t know it, and because of that, we must choose. Is there a meaning? Is there a purpose? I’m going to choose to believe there is. And I think that’s the best choice.
I wanted to get into the purpose effect today, but we kind of got sidetracked on absurdism, so we will talk about the purpose effect part 2 next week, and how having a purpose can have some great positive effects on your life. Now I’m starting to sound like the self-help guru, right – Tune in next week to see how purpose can power your life.
Anyway, Thanks for listening. This has been the mind for life podcast. You can always follow us on the blog “mindforlife.org” where I will be posting the transcripts for these podcasts. You can also find a link there for Viktor Frankle’s book, Man’s search for Meaning, which I would recommend to read. Feel free to comment, ask questions, or make suggestions for topics.
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Thanks again and let me leave you with this quote from Viktor Frankle in Man’s Search for Meaning – “Those who have a ‘why’ to life, can bear with almost any ‘how.’” What’s your “why”?
Have a great week!
Frankl – Man’s search for Meaning:
Camus – The Stranger
