Finding My Purpose in Life

Victor Frankl: Being Human and Finding Purpose

Finding My Purpose

One of the most important struggles of my adolescence and young adulthood was trying to figure out what my purpose in life was. Looking back, I think many young people wrestle with that same question. Why am I here? What am I supposed to do with my life? What contribution can I make to the world?

For me, the search was often confusing and painful. There were times when I felt lost and uncertain about my future. I struggled with anxiety, self-doubt, and periods of depression. Like many young people, I was trying to understand who I was and where I belonged.

Years later, I discovered the work of Viktor Frankl, the psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor who wrote about the importance of meaning and purpose in life. Frankl believed that human beings need a sense of purpose in order to thrive. He observed that people can endure extraordinary hardship when they have a reason to keep going. He taught that life asks each of us to find meaning and to respond to that challenge with responsibility.

His ideas resonate deeply with me because they remind me of my own journey.

For many years, I searched for my purpose without fully realizing what it was. Then, gradually, the answer became clear. I knew that I wanted and needed to enter the field of mental health. I wanted to understand people. I wanted to listen to them. I wanted to help those who were suffering emotionally and psychologically.

Once I discovered that purpose, many pieces of my life began to fit together. The child who often felt unheard became a man who devoted his life to listening. The young man who struggled with emotional pain became a therapist who helped others cope with their own struggles. The experiences that once caused me suffering became sources of understanding and compassion.

My work as a psychologist, psychoanalyst, psychotherapist, teacher, and group leader was never simply a job. It was a calling. It gave my life meaning. It gave me a reason to get up in the morning. It allowed me to accompany people through grief, anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, and countless other challenges.

Today, as I reflect on my life, I realize that purpose is not something we create out of thin air. Often, it is something we discover. Sometimes it is hidden beneath years of uncertainty, waiting patiently for us to recognize it.

I also believe that purpose can evolve. For many decades, my purpose was expressed through direct work with patients. Today, part of my purpose is expressed through writing. Through my memoir, A Listening Life, and through the essays I share, I hope to pass along some of the lessons I have learned and perhaps offer comfort, understanding, and encouragement to others.

Viktor Frankl wrote that being human means being conscious and being responsible. I would add that being human also means searching for meaning. My own search took many years, but when I finally found my purpose in helping others, it changed the direction of my life.

Looking back now, I feel grateful for that discovery. It gave my life meaning, and it allowed me to spend many years doing what I believe I was meant to do: listening to others and helping them heal.

When Viktor Frankl says that being human means being conscious, he means being aware. Human beings have the remarkable ability to step back and observe themselves. We can notice our thoughts, feelings, actions, and choices. We can ask ourselves questions such as, Why am I angry? Why am I afraid? Am I treating others with kindness? Am I living according to my values? This self-awareness is one of the qualities that makes us uniquely human. We are not simply reacting to life. We are capable of reflecting on life.

When Frankl also says that being human means being responsible, he is talking about our ability to choose how we respond to what happens to us; we cannot control everything that occurs in our lives. We cannot prevent illness, aging, loss, grief, disappointment, or tragedy. Frankl knew this better than almost anyone because he survived the horrors of Nazi concentration camps. Yet he believed that even when freedom is taken away, there remains one freedom that cannot be destroyed. We can choose our attitude and our response.

Responsibility, in Frankl’s view, is not about blame. It is about answering life’s questions with our actions. Each day of life asks something of us. It asks how we will treat other people. It asks whether we will act with courage or fear, kindness or cruelty, hope or despair. We become responsible when we recognize that our choices matter.

As I reflect on my own life, this quotation seems especially meaningful. I spent much of my professional life listening to people. Listening requires consciousness. It requires paying attention to another human being with care and understanding. It also requires responsibility because once we truly hear another person’s suffering, we must decide how we will respond.

Frankl’s quotation reminds us that life is not merely something that happens to us. Life is something we participate in. We are conscious enough to understand our experience and responsible enough to shape our response to it.

Perhaps the deepest meaning of the quotation is this. To be human is not simply to exist. It is to live with awareness and to accept responsibility for the choices we make, the love we give, the kindness we show, and the meaning we create along the way.

That is the wisdom Frankl leaves us with, and it becomes even more precious as we grow older and reflect on the lives we have lived.