I’m a sucker for a great quote. One of my all-time favorite quotes is from Viktor Frankl who was a Holocaust survivor. In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, he writes, “Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.” For him, this quote is in the context of being in a concentration camp where there was no regard for human life. Everything was stripped away from the prisoners and all they had was the ability to control their response.
I struggle to find a better idea that could help facilitate living a better life. It goes without saying that the moments when I go to this quote shouldn’t even be compared to the severity of Frankl’s situation. Whether it’s noticing a typo in an email after I hit send or waiting in a long line, for any given situation I have complete control over how I respond. Since reading this book, I’ve believed this quote to be even truer. It’s been able to add an additional calmness to my life knowing that I am in control of how I react to any given situation.
I do believe there is a separation between emotion and reaction. I don’t think we have complete control over our emotions. I think there are very few people, if any at all, that could flip the switch in their head and say “I’m no longer going to be upset about losing a loved one.” There are some things in life that we can’t control how they make us feel. Even though we may have a heavy heart, we can still do our best to honor the life of the loved one who has passed. It won’t be easy, but there can be a separation of emotions and actions.
So next time you might feel like the world is falling around you because you made a small mistake at work in the grand scheme of life, remind yourself that you have full control of how you react. There will still be a pit in your stomach about the mistake, but it shouldn’t completely derail you.
Peace and Love.