1. "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F#ck" (complete)(42/206 re-read) 2. Cherub Series "Divine Madness" (complete) 3. "Calm Your Brain" by Anders Hansen" (complete) 4. "Can't Hurt Me" (complete) 5. "A Maze of Death" by Phillip K. Dick (complete) 6. "Success Secret For the Youth" (complete) 7. "Grit the Power of Passion and Perseverance" by Angela Duckworth (52 percent) 8. "The Upward Spiral" by Alex Korb (complete) 9. "Lockwood & Co" Book 1. (complete) 10. "The Beginner's Book of Meditation" (19 percent) 11."Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway" (complete) 12. "Becoming the Iceman" by Wim Hof (10 percent) 13. "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan (complete) 14. "The Sea of Monsters" by Rick Riordan (complete) 15. "Make Your Bed" by Wiliam H. Mcraven (complete) 16. "Lockwood & Co" Book 2. (23 percent) 17. "The Titan's Curse" (complete) 18. "Zen and the Heart of Psychotherapy" (7 percent) 19. "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan (13 percent)
That's the issue I've been struggling to find an answer to. However, instead focusing on the aspect of suffering, which for me is not the main goal, we should focus on how to fix the problems that block our progress and improve our lives.
1. "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F#ck" (complete)(42/206 re-read) 2. Cherub Series "Divine Madness" (complete) 3. "Calm Your Brain" by Anders Hansen" (complete) 4. "Can't Hurt Me" (complete) 5. "A Maze of Death" by Phillip K. Dick (complete) 6. "Success Secret For the Youth" (complete) 7. "Grit the Power of Passion and Perseverance" by Angela Duckworth (54 percent) 8. "The Upward Spiral" by Alex Korb (complete) 9. "Lockwood & Co" Book 1. (complete) 10. "The Beginner's Book of Meditation" (19 percent) 11."Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway" (complete) 12. "Becoming the Iceman" by Wim Hof (10 percent) 13. "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan (complete) 14. "The Sea of Monsters" by Rick Riordan (complete) 15. "Make Your Bed" by Wiliam H. Mcraven (complete) 16. "Lockwood & Co" Book 2. (23 percent) 17. "The Titan's Curse" (complete) 18. "Zen and the Heart of Psychotherapy" (7 percent) 19. "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan (20 percent)
That's pretty much what is meant by finding meaning in suffering. Referring to Manson's Subtle Art, life is full of problems, and each problem causes some discomfort to some degree. We could say that these problems thus cause some degree of suffering. For Frankl, the meaning in life is then found in every opportunity where we get to deal with such a problem and figuring out how to solve that. Taken from Wikipedia:
1. Everything is Fucked - Mark Manson (complete) 2. Ik Kom Terug - Adriaan van Dis (complete) 3. The Upward Spiral - Alex Korb (complete) 4. The War of Art - Steven Pressfield (complete) 5. The Odyssey - Homer (11/496) 2% 6. The Confidence Gap - Russ Harris (19%) 7. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (16%) 8. Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl (67%)
Thanks this is deep. I guess we can discover the meaning of life by pursuing a tough goal that is not selfish.
1. "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F#ck" (complete)(42/206 re-read) 2. Cherub Series "Divine Madness" (complete) 3. "Calm Your Brain" by Anders Hansen" (complete) 4. "Can't Hurt Me" (complete) 5. "A Maze of Death" by Phillip K. Dick (complete) 6. "Success Secret For the Youth" (complete) 7. "Grit the Power of Passion and Perseverance" by Angela Duckworth (54 percent) 8. "The Upward Spiral" by Alex Korb (complete) 9. "Lockwood & Co" Book 1. (complete) 10. "The Beginner's Book of Meditation" (19 percent) 11."Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway" (complete) 12. "Becoming the Iceman" by Wim Hof (10 percent) 13. "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan (complete) 14. "The Sea of Monsters" by Rick Riordan (complete) 15. "Make Your Bed" by Wiliam H. Mcraven (complete) 16. "Lockwood & Co" Book 2. (30 percent) 17. "The Titan's Curse" (complete) 18. "Zen and the Heart of Psychotherapy" (7 percent) 19. "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan (31 percent)
The Red Pyramid - Rick Riordan (Book 1 Kane Chronicles) (In Progress) So, I've read a bit more today. I'm on Chapter 20 out of 42 Chapters, and my Kindle is saying I'm on 18%. I've realised that as I have the full 3 book series in one book, I'm actually 18% through all 3 books in total. If it was just the Red Pyramid, it'd be more like 40%.
I usually read books from my kindle and maybe sometimes I'm reading 5 books at same time, I don't always read books from beginning to the end, But I'm in. Readed books : 0 I'm currently reading "The way of wolf" ~Jordan Belfort
But you know @Revanthegrey that we don't do this for ranks. The ranks are secondary. I didn't want to bother you
1. Everything is Fucked - Mark Manson (complete) 2. Ik Kom Terug - Adriaan van Dis (complete) 3. The Upward Spiral - Alex Korb (complete) 4. The War of Art - Steven Pressfield (complete) 5. Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl (complete) 6. The Odyssey - Homer (11/496) 2% 7. The Confidence Gap - Russ Harris (19%) 8. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (16%) Finished Man's Search for Meaning, and even though the second half, postscript and afterword got a bit repetitive in their content, this book singlehandedly pulled me out of my existential crisis and reframed my view on meaning in life. Highly recommend it! Now back to some lighter content with Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! Yes that's exactly what he's referring to. He believes that the key in finding meaning lies in transcending oneself. He talks later about this idea of hyperfocus, which has to do with the principle that the more you focus on something, the less you'll attain. Textbook example is when you're trying to force yourself to fall asleep, you're less likely to fall asleep. For Frankl, self-actualisation, pleasure, etc. all come secondary to the main will to meaning.
It's so hard to comprehend. But Mark Manson refers to the same think. So how should pursue our goals without focusing on them? I guess we should have the goal at the back of our heads and do our usual stuff, right? @ImprovingDutch, please explain, don't make me read this book
Frankl writes the following: Frankl is here describing a technique that can help overcome phobia; whatever we fear will become reality the more we resist that fear. Thus, if we lean into the fear - embrace it - we'll actually learn to overcome it. He gives an example of a man that has a fear of sweating in public. Every time he becomes scared he'll sweat in public, he actually does, but then when he told himself "now I'm going to sweat a real big time," he actually didn't. For Frankl, this is a more general principle: the more we focus on our desires, the less likely we are to reach them. For him, the intention transcends the ego, and by focusing outward, we can achieve our personal goals as a byproduct. This doesn't mean you should not have goals you want to work towards. I think this comes down to the classic "focus on the journey rather than the goal". Meaning then lies in the things that cross out path in life and in our attitude that we can choose freely in dealing with those things, rather than some higher meaning that has to be found or discovered in some romantic sense. Thus, meaning is for him both a very practical and conscious thing, and a spiritual thing. He does emphasise multiple times that there's not really "a meaning of life" but rather countless "meanings of life" that we encounter in all different contexts. Every problem we encounter is for him an opportunity to produce meaning. The one big meaning in our life can only be decided at the end of our life, when we can look back at all the thousands of things we've done. Only then can we decide what really was the overall meaning of our life. In that sense, what I think he means is that we should have our goals and values and act according to them, but we shouldn't let the ego consume us and use those to achieve hedonistic pleasures. We should pursue them and live by them, but we shouldn't make them the center of our life. There's a difference between encounter problems and making choices how to deal with them in service of a higher goal and trying to chase a goal for your own pleasure. For Frankl, life already has a plan laid out for us (do note that he has a religious background, so he inevitably has a more spiritual view on life), and he believes that if we make the right choices corresponding to our values and use our attitude to cope with the tragedies, that we will fulfill our goals, because that's ultimately what creates meaning. I mean, the man literally lost his entire family in the camps, including his parents and pregnant wife, and he lived up to the age of 92, writing numerous books, meeting people all over the world and having a rich and fulfilling life despite having lived hell on earth where every day could have been his last, all just by following his own principles he laid out in this book. I think this is one of those books that everyone should read at least once at some point in their lives.
