What if? What if you didn’t want to change your job, find a new relationship, move to a new city? What if you simply chose to love what you have? How would the life you are currently living look different, even if the facts of it remain the same?
One of the most inspiring and humbling books I ever read is Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl. Locked behind the barbed wire of Nazi death camps, Frankl explores how changing your attitude is what gives you freedom ~ in any circumstance.
…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…(page 86, Man’s Search for Meaning, Simon & Schuster, 1985.) What if choosing to change your point of view about your circumstances could change how you experienced the situation? Is it possible that when you show up for a job hating it, you get a job you hate? Consider that your attitude formulates the lens through which you view your life, every aspect of it. Notice areas where you feel positive, excited and interested. How do those areas look to you? What if you applied the same filter to areas you are less in love with… just because you choose to?
Several years ago, I found myself struggling to find a blog topic that would inspire me…so, of course, what I was experiencing was struggle, a blank page and ideas that fell flat. I took a break and shared what I was up against with a friend on Facebook. He chatted back to me, “Write about loving your job even if it is a desk job. Cuz attitude is what opens new opportunities.” A lesson he said he had learned. My struggle turned to inspiration because I changed my point of view after reading his response. My circumstances hadn’t changed ~ I still needed to write a blog. But now I could see the opportunity.
A Facebook chat led me back to someone I think of as one of the most profound and inspiring thinkers, Viktor Frankl. It was a great reminder that changing our thoughts and attitudes truly can free us from any prison we are currently creating. What thought will you change today?
