Challenging * Mattering = Meaningful

Frankl’s formula to experience a life of meaning was pragmatic and threefold: Take action creating a work or performing a deed. Experience something or encounter someone that you find captivating and that pulls you out of yourself. Have an optimistic attitude toward the inevitable challenges and suffering you will experience in life.

Another name for personal challenge is mastery.

We need to put ourselves out there, give it our all, and reap the lesson, win or lose. The fact of the matter is that there will be nothing learned from any challenge in which we don’t try our hardest. Growth comes at the point of resistance. We learn by pushing ourselves and finding what really lies at the outer reaches of our abilities.

Overcoming obstacles is a discipline of three critical steps. It begins with how we look at our specific problems, our attitude or approach; then the energy and creativity with which we actively break them down and turn them into opportunities; finally, the cultivation and maintenance of an inner will that allows us to handle defeat and difficulty.

The More Challenging, the Better