In his book “Man’s Search for Meaning” Viktor E. Frankl suggests switching away from the meaning life could have for us. His invitation was to consider what life asks of us instead.

It’s a question that feels especially appropriate when one considers how little control one has to shape one’s life according to one’s desires. This is for example, the situation when the number of opportunities available seems small and very limited. This was true for the life in the concentration camps Frankl was describing. But it can also feel true when one chooses to see oneself as one element in a larger system. May it be if one works in a large organization or if one sees oneself as an individual in a larger context of a nation or the world. The feeling that one might assimilate with such a position is one of being a cog in the system.

Viktor Frankl’s idea was that independently of one’s position and situation, one could find a way to act that would allow one to do the right thing. He saw it as how individuals retain their liberty independently from their circumstances.

What it also meant was to put one’s suffering temporarily aside to deal with whatever life asked of that person in that moment. Instead of considering suffering as something bad, it was an expected circumstance of life and one one could become worthy of. It didn’t mean to forget or deny the suffering. It meant to do the right thing despite of it. It also didn’t mean that anything grandiose was expected of an individual. It was an invitation to consider what was possible in moments of suffering instead of seeing oneself as subject to it.